When parents interact with their babies, using a high-pitched voice known as “parentese,” it creates heartwarming and universal scenes. Researchers from the University of Washington‘s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) found that these interactions are crucial for infant language growth.
In a study published on April 8 in Current Biology, researchers used a safe brain-imaging technique called magnetoencephalography to monitor infant brain activity during social and nonsocial interactions with an adult. They found that a 5-month-old baby’s brain activity increased in areas responsible for attention when the adult talked and played with them. This activity predicted better language development later. When the adult turned away to speak to someone else, the baby’s brain activity was lower in those areas.
This is the first study to compare infant brain responses to social versus nonsocial interactions and follow the children until age 2.5 to see how early brain activity relates to future language skills.
The MEG brain-imaging technology lets babies move and interact naturally with an adult, allowing researchers to track brain activity as the adult talks, plays, and smiles at the baby. They then monitor brain activity again when the adult turns away to interact with someone else.
These everyday actions between adults and babies have measurable effects on the baby’s brain.
Researchers found that increased brain activity in response to social interaction at five months predicted better language development at 18, 21, 24, 27, and 30 months. They tracked language development using a survey asking parents about their infants’ words and sentences.
Researchers studied 5-month-old babies because this age is just before the essential period for speech-language learning, which starts around six months. During this period, observing adults is vital for learning. Using “parentese” with infants shows our natural desire to connect. Language is about making a connection, and this starts in infancy with the desire to communicate.
Patricia Kuhl, senior author and co-director of I-LABS, said, “We knew from previous work that social interaction is essential at nine months of age for foreign-language learning, but the current study shows that social interaction plays a role much earlier. The study shows that parents’ natural use of parentese, with smiles, touch, and warm back-and-forth responses to the baby’s actions, have a real-world, measurable impact on the baby’s brain. We theorize that this parenting behavior, called ‘the social ensemble,’ captures and holds infants’ attention and motivates them to learn at a critical time in development.”
Journal reference:
- Alexis N. Bosseler, Andrew N. Meltzoff et al., Infants’ brain responses to social interaction predict future language growth. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.020.
