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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Talk To Your Baby!!!!!!!!!!!



 
As a speech-language pathologist, I have always valued the importance of talking to your baby as much as possible, even as a newborn.  A recent study has found scientific evidence that supports this idea and the role that it plays in a baby’s speech and language development.

American researchers at the University of Washington have now found evidence that talking to your newborn is vital to speech development.  By monitoring brain activity in infants who were just listening to recorded speech, they found that activity in Broca’s area and the cerebellum (which are parts of the brain responsible for the motor movement required for producing speech), as well as in the superior temporal gyrus (which processes language) were  triggered.  The findings, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  further suggest that, “motherese speech, with its exaggerated acoustic and articulatory features, particularly in one-on-one settings, enhances the activation of motor brain areas and the generation of internal motor models of speech.” The babies’ brain activity suggests that the part of the brain used to talk is working long before your little one actually begins to talk.  So what can moms take away from this study????
 
 

1.       Talk, talk, talk to your babies!  About anything and about everything!  Just listening to your voice is helping their speech and language development.

2.       Use “motherese” when playing with your baby.  Not sure what “motherese” is?  It’s what most people would refer to as “baby talk.”  It is usually delivered with cooing and gooing, high in pitch, elongated vowels, and heavy intonation. 

3.       Don’t forget to “mamama” and “bababa,” too! This study suggests that parent babbling is a key part of the process!

4.       Read to your baby.  This will offer even more exposure to spoken language. 

5.       Sing your heart out!  Having your baby listen to different rhymes and patterns will continue to stimulate parts of the brain crucial to speech and language development.

6.       Know that your baby is listening LONG BEFORE he/she says that memorable first word!

 

 
Love & Language,
Marisa

 

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