The linguistic genius of babies

Here is more proof on why it’s a really good thing (and easier for them!) to start introducing children to other languages at a younger age, rather than waiting til they are too old:

This graph is a snapshot taken from a TED talk about The Linguistic Genius of Babies. It was presented by Patricia Kuhl, “the co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences at the University of Washington. She’s internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Kuhl’s work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain.”

It was also interesting to note the difference between a baby learning a language by interaction with a human being vs learning by a TV screen or radio – see graph to the right:

Here is the video of her 10-minute TED talk where she “shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another — by listening to the humans around them and “taking statistics” on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.”