Listening and learning: your baby is taking it all in

Your baby has been listening to the sounds and voices around them since before they were born – their ears were fully developed at around 30 weeks' gestation and before this time they heard some sounds from vibrations of their skull.^[1] Your baby will recognise the voices that they have heard frequently before birth and researchers have found that newborn babies show a preference for their mother’s voice.

Infant-directed speech 

Your baby won't say their first word for some time, but they have been learning about language since before they were born. Babies prefer voices over other sounds and show a preference for ‘infant-directed speech'.^[2] This is the type of speech that people use when talking to a baby – it is usually slowed down, with a raised pitch, simple language and emphasis on key words in a sentence. It is thought this simplified pattern of speech helps babies to listen to sounds and to distinguish words in a sentence so that they know where one word starts and ends when listening to speech.  

Listening and learning

Your baby will be born able to identify speech sounds in any language but they will quickly become more sensitive to the sounds that they hear in the language or languages spoken around them. Your baby will listen to you and others around them to learn about language, and this will help them to begin to identify sounds and words and to link these with meaning. 

Keep on talking

When you speak, you might notice that your baby responds by becoming quiet for a moment, or by moving more. Listening to you speak helps them to tune into words and language, and is also comforting as they know you are near to them.

Talking to your baby supports their language and social and emotional development, as it helps them to build their relationship with you and the other people around them. Language is learnt in social situations and your baby needs to be spoken to in order to learn to speak themselves,^[4] so keep chatting to your baby as you do things.  

Hearing your baby's responses

In the next few months, your baby will begin to associate words with objects as you speak to them about the things around them. They will start to respond to you speaking with movement and sounds, and will go on to take a turn when you speak to them, so remember to pause and let your baby respond with their sounds.  

References:

[1] Byrne, E (2021) How to build a human. What science knows about childhood. London: Souvenir Press. 

[2] Crowley, K. (2017) Child Development. A Practical Introduction (2nd edn). London: Sage.  

[3] Werker, J,  Yeung, H. H and Yoshida, K. (2012). How Do Infants Become Experts at Native-Speech Perception?. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 21. 221-226.  

[4] Blinkoff, E and Hirsh-Pasek, K (2019) Supporting language in the home. International Journal of Birth and Parent Education. 6 (4) 13-15.