New neuroscience research upends traditional theories of early language learning in babies

New research challenges traditional theories of infant language acquisition, suggesting that babies primarily learn language through rhythmic rather than phonetic information in their initial months. The study, published in Nature Communications, conducted by the University of Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin, involved monitoring 50 infants at four, seven, and eleven months of age. Contrary to previous beliefs, the research found that infants do not reliably process individual speech sounds until around seven months, and the addition of these sounds into language is a gradual process. Rhythmic speech, such as nursery rhymes, was found to be crucial for language learning, processed as early as two months old and predicting later language outcomes.

The study emphasises the importance of parents talking and singing to their babies using rhythmic speech patterns, as rhythmic information serves as a framework for adding phonetic information. The research opens avenues for exploring early speech processing in language disorders and suggests potential interventions.