Why Infants’ First Words Are – Daddy and Mommy?
Yes, do you think that the proximity shared with parents could compel a baby to pick up the words “daddy” and “mommy”? To some extent, say researchers from University of British Columbia, who reveal that newborns brain is constructed in such a way so as to recognize word patterns. So, it is most likely for mama to hear her baby say mama or papa soon because that’s what she’s teaching him since he or she is born.
Researchers used the optical brain imaging techniques to study this mind game of the newborns. A team of researchers from Chile and Italy, led by Judit Gervain, made an attempt to review the brain activities of nearly 22 newborns that were barely 2-3 days old. As part of the study, these infants were exposed to repeated recordings of words.
The researchers found increased activity of the temporal and left frontal areas of the brain when the kids were exposed to the recordings. In addition, it was observed that non-adjacent repetition of words did not have much of an impact on the brain activities.
Judit also opines that quiet interestingly most languages around the globe have repeated syllables such as daddy and baby in English, tata (grand-dad) in Hungarian and papa in Italian.
Gervain opines that for most right-handed adults, the language abilities are centered at the left side of the brain. This study on infants, which is first of its kind to interpret structural language patterns in the newborns brain, supports the fact that human beings are born with abilities to grasp and develop their mother tongue both systematically and efficiently.
Judit further adds that the adult brain responsible for language abilities does not “learn” to process or develop language but “specializes” to do so right from the start. This study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.