At the end of a baby’s first year of life, a baby starts to form words. In fact, babies start learning about languages even before they start crawling or walking. But if language is a complex thing, how do babies learn it? First it begins with a rhythm. For babies, language is all about flow. It is like music to them. They don’t understand the words that their parents are saying to them, but they are listening all the time and have been doing so since their days in their mother’s womb. In fact, research has shown that a baby can hear muffled sounds from the outside world inside their mother’s womb, and research has also shown that a baby can respond to voices and noises while inside its mother’s womb, and by the third trimester, a baby can already recognize the sound of its mother’s voice.
When babies listen to language, they essentially hear the rhythm of their native language and they are able to notice certain patterns in speech and can hear the difference in tone and pitch and can respond accordingly. This development begins as early as two days into a newborn’s life. Even at two days of age, babies can recognize the classes of language; for example, they can already understand that English and some other Germanic languages sound alike. In terms of language learning, babies are much more advanced than adults think they are. If parents take the time to have “conversations” with their babies, to carefully watch and listen to their baby while interacting with them, then parents will be in for a big surprise when they realize what their baby is learning and how their babies are communicating with them.
