Stages of Child Language Acquisition

Summary

Este video explora las etapas del desarrollo del lenguaje infantil, desde el balbuceo hasta la etapa telegráfica. Se explica cómo los bebés experimentan con sonidos, identifican y reproducen los de su lengua materna, y cómo su vocabulario crece y se vuelve más complejo a medida que aprenden a combinar palabras. Además, se destaca la importancia del periodo crítico de aprendizaje de idiomas, y cómo los bebés toman estadísticas lingüísticas de su entorno, lo que los convierte en oyentes limitados a su lengua materna. Finalmente, se menciona la investigación sobre cómo los bebés procesan diferentes lenguajes y la necesidad de interacción humana para el aprendizaje.

Takeaways

• 👶 El primer sub-sistema que los bebés dominan es el babilar, que ocurre desde los cinco a siete meses de edad.
• 🌐 Los bebés no se limitan a los sonidos de su lengua materna al babilar; pueden producir todos los sonidos del Alfabeto Fonético Internacional.
• 🗣️ Hacia el final del babilar, los bebés cambian la entonación para coincidir con la lengua materna, anticipando su aprendizaje de la lengua.
• 👂 Los bebés que pueden oír y aquellos expuestos a lenguaje de señas babilan con sus manos, lo que muestra que el babilar es un comportamiento innato.
• 🔤 El segundo estágio es el uso de palabras de una sílaba, comenzando alrededor de los doce meses de edad, donde los bebés asocian sonidos con significados.
• 📈 Los bebés aprenden primero sustantivos concretos que pueden tocar y ver, y su comprensión de las palabras es mejor que su capacidad de usarlas.
• 🌀 En el tercer estágio, los bebés comienzan a combinar palabras para formar frases de dos palabras, generalmente comenzando por el año y medio hasta los dos años.
• 🔠 El cuarto estágio es el periodo telegráfico, que ocurre entre los dos y tres años de edad, donde los niños comienzan a usar palabras funcionales pero aún dejan afuera muchos marcadores gramaticales.
• 🧠 Existe un período crítico para el aprendizaje de lenguaje, donde los bebés y niños son genios en el aprendizaje de sonidos hasta los siete años, después de lo cual disminuye sistemáticamente.
• 👩‍🏫 Los bebés toman estadísticas del lenguaje que escuchan y esto cambia su cerebro, transformándolos de oyentes no lingüísticamente limitados a limitados por su lengua materna.

Q & A

¿Cuáles son las etapas de la adquisición del lenguaje en los niños?

Las etapas son balbuceo, una palabra, dos palabras y la etapa telegráfica.

¿Qué sucede en la etapa de balbuceo?

Entre los 5 y 7 meses, los bebés comienzan a hacer sonidos y experimentar con su aparato vocal. No están limitados por los sonidos de su lengua materna.

¿Cuál es el significado del balbuceo en los bebés?

El balbuceo permite a los bebés experimentar con diferentes sonidos y desarrollar su aparato vocal, sin estar aún enfocados en un idioma específico.

¿Qué diferencia a los niños oyentes de los niños sordos en la etapa de balbuceo?

Todos los bebés balbucean, incluidos los bebés sordos o expuestos a lenguas de señas, lo que indica que el balbuceo está innato.

¿Cuándo empieza la etapa de una palabra y qué caracteriza esta fase?

Comienza alrededor de los 12 meses y se caracteriza por que los bebés aprenden que los sonidos tienen significado y suelen usar palabras monosilábicas como 'ma' o 'no'.

¿Qué es la sobregeneralización en el lenguaje infantil?

Es cuando los niños usan una palabra para referirse a varios objetos que comparten alguna característica. Por ejemplo, usan 'luna' para describir cosas redondas.

¿Cómo son las combinaciones de palabras en la etapa de dos palabras?

Los niños empiezan a combinar palabras de forma creativa, como 'papa silla' o 'mamá come', aunque sin seguir reglas gramaticales completas.

¿Qué indican las oraciones en la etapa telegráfica?

Entre los 2 y 2.5 años, los niños empiezan a usar oraciones concisas, parecidas a un telegrama, donde omiten palabras funcionales como artículos y preposiciones.

¿Cómo afecta la exposición a un segundo idioma en la etapa crítica de desarrollo del lenguaje?

Durante el período crítico, los bebés pueden aprender los sonidos de un segundo idioma si están expuestos a ellos, aunque la presencia humana es fundamental para su aprendizaje.

¿Por qué los bebés necesitan interacción humana para aprender un nuevo idioma?

Los estudios han mostrado que los bebés no aprenden nuevos sonidos a través de pantallas o audio, sino mediante la interacción con seres humanos, lo que activa su cerebro social.

Outlines

00:00

👶 Fases del desarrollo del lenguaje infantil

Este segmento explora las etapas clave del desarrollo del lenguaje en niños, incluyendo el coqueteo, las expresiones de una sola palabra, las expresiones de dos palabras y la fase telegráfica. Se menciona que los bebés comienzan a coquetear alrededor de los cinco a siete meses y experimentan con diferentes sonidos, no solo los del idioma materno. Hacia el final de esta etapa, los bebés comienzan a imitar las intonaciones de su lengua materna. Además, se destaca que los bebés expuestos a lenguajes de señas también coquetean con sus manos, lo que demuestra la capacidad innata de los niños para aprender y expresar el lenguaje.

05:00

🗣 Etapa de expresiones de una sola palabra

La etapa de expresiones de una sola palabra ocurre alrededor de los doce a dieciocho meses de edad. Los bebés descubren la relación entre los sonidos y el significado, aprendiendo palabras como 'no' y imitando sonidos del entorno. Estas palabras suelen ser monosílabas y seguir una construcción de consonante-vocal, lo que facilita su pronunciación. Los niños tienden a aprender nombres de objetos concretos primero, ya que son más fáciles de asociar con conceptos tangibles. A pesar de su limitada vocabulario, los niños utilizan la generalización excesiva para ampliar el uso de sus palabras, como usar 'gato' para referirse a todos los animales felinos.

10:00

👥 Etapa de expresiones de dos palabras

A los dieciocho a veinticuatro meses, los niños comienzan a combinar palabras para crear nuevas expresiones, como 'mamá leche' o 'ballena grande'. Aunque las combinaciones son simples, demuestran una comprensión creciente de la gramática y el uso de estructuras básicas de oraciones. A pesar de que las expresiones no suelen incluir palabras funcionales o marcadores gramaticales, los niños siguen un orden lógico al describir acciones o localizaciones. Esta fase es crucial ya que muestra que los niños están internalizando y aplicando reglas gramaticales complejas a pesar de su corta edad.

15:05

📢 Etapa telegráfica

La fase telegráfica, que ocurre alrededor de los dos años hasta los treinta meses, se caracteriza por el uso de lenguaje conciso y la omisión de palabras funcionales. Los niños empiezan a incluir algunas palabras funcionales, como preposiciones y verbos en forma de gerundio, pero aún no las utilizan de manera compleja. Este estilo de hablar, que se asemeja a los telegramas, refleja un avance en la habilidad de los niños para expresar pensamientos más complejos, aunque su lenguaje sigue siendo simple y directo.

20:06

🧠 Aprendizaje del lenguaje y el cerebro infantil

Este segmento se centra en cómo el cerebro de un bebé procesa y aprende lenguaje, destacando la importancia de la estadística lingüística y la influencia del entorno social en el desarrollo del lenguaje. Se menciona que los bebés son capaces de diferenciar sonidos de todas las lenguas hasta su primer año de vida, pero luego se vuelven más especializados en el idioma que escuchan con mayor frecuencia. La exposición a un segundo idioma durante este periodo crítico puede influir en la habilidad del niño para aprender ese idioma. Además, se destaca la importancia del contacto humano en el aprendizaje del lenguaje, ya que la interacción social es esencial para que los bebés absorban y procesen la información lingüística.

25:07

📘 Tareas adicionales

En este último segmento, se hace una llamada a la acción para que los estudiantes consulten la página 67 y 68 de su libro de texto y realicen las tareas tres, cinco, seis y siete. Se sugiere que estas actividades complementen la teoría y el conocimiento adquirido a lo largo del video, promoviendo un aprendizaje activo y la aplicación de los conceptos aprendidos.

Keywords

💡Adquisición del lenguaje infantil

La adquisición del lenguaje infantil es el proceso por el cual los niños aprenden a hablar y comprender un idioma. En el guion, se discute cómo los niños pasan por diferentes etapas, como el balbuceo, las expresiones de una palabra, las expresiones de dos palabras y la etapa telegráfica, hasta alcanzar la competencia lingüística. Este concepto es central para entender cómo los niños interactúan con el lenguaje y cómo se desarrolla su habilidad para comunicarse.

💡Balbuceo

El balbuceo es la primera etapa en la adquisición del lenguaje, que comienza alrededor de los cinco a siete meses de edad. Los bebés experimentan con diferentes sonidos y no se limitan a los del idioma de su madre. Este proceso es crucial para que los bebés descubran cómo funcionan sus órganos de habla y para que identifiquen los sonidos distintivos de su lengua materna. En el guion, se menciona que incluso los bebés sordos balbucean, lo que indica que es un comportamiento innato.

💡Expresiones de una palabra

Las expresiones de una palabra ocurren alrededor de los doce a dieciocho meses de edad. En esta etapa, los bebés empiezan a asociar sonidos con significados y a aprender palabras como 'no' o 'mamá'. Típicamente, las palabras que aprenden primero son sustantivos concretos y monosílabos, que siguen una estructura de consonante-vocal, que son más fáciles de pronunciar. El guion proporciona ejemplos de cómo los niños pueden usar una palabra sola para comunicar una idea simple.

💡Expresiones de dos palabras

Las expresiones de dos palabras son el siguiente paso en el desarrollo del lenguaje, que comienza alrededor de los dieciocho a veinticuatro meses. Los niños comienzan a combinar palabras para expresar nuevas ideas, aunque sus enunciados aún carecen de complejidad gramatical. A pesar de esto, muestran una comprensión básica de la estructura gramatical, como el orden sujeto-verbo. El guion incluye ejemplos de cómo los niños pueden usar dos palabras juntas para crear mensajes simples.

💡Etapa telegráfica

La etapa telegráfica ocurre entre los dos y tres años de edad y se caracteriza por la eliminación de palabras funcionales y la simplificación de las oraciones. Los niños en esta etapa comienzan a usar palabras interrogativas y sufijos, pero su lenguaje sigue siendo conciso y directo. El término se deriva de la similitud con los telegramas, que eran conocidos por su brevedad y falta de palabras innecesarias. El guion proporciona un ejemplo de un telegrama para ilustrar este punto.

💡Lenguaje corporal

El lenguaje corporal es una forma de comunicación que no depende de las palabras habladas o escritas, sino de gestos, expresiones faciales y movimientos del cuerpo. En el guion, se menciona que los bebés expuestos a un lenguaje de señas desde el nacimiento también balbucean con sus manos, lo que demuestra que el lenguaje no verbal es una parte integral del desarrollo comunicativo.

💡Período crítico

El período crítico es una ventana temporal durante la cual los niños son especialmente receptivos al aprendizaje de habilidades, como el lenguaje. El guion destaca cómo los bebés son capaces de distinguir sonidos de todos los idiomas hasta cierto punto en su desarrollo, pero luego se vuelven más especializados en el idioma que escuchan con mayor frecuencia. Este concepto es fundamental para entender por qué es más fácil para los niños aprender idiomas que para los adultos.

💡Estimulación auditiva

La estimulación auditiva es el proceso por el cual los niños absorben y analizan sonidos y lenguaje a través de la audición. En el guion, se describe cómo los bebés toman 'estadísticas' del lenguaje que escuchan, lo que les permite ajustar su capacidad lingüística a su entorno. Esta capacidad para procesar y aprender a través de la audición es esencial para el desarrollo del lenguaje.

💡Monosílabos

Monosílabos son palabras que constan de una sola sílaba. En el contexto del desarrollo del lenguaje infantil, los monosílabos son las primeras palabras que los niños aprenden y usan, ya que son más fáciles de pronunciar y comprender. El guion menciona que las palabras aprendidas inicialmente por los niños en la etapa de una palabra suelen ser monosílabas y seguir una estructura de consonante-vocal.

💡Sobregeneralización

La sobregeneralización es un error común en el aprendizaje del lenguaje donde los niños usan una sola palabra para referirse a varios objetos o conceptos similares. Esto ocurre porque su vocabulario es limitado, pero necesitan expresar ideas más complejas. En el guion, se da el ejemplo de un niño que usa la palabra 'moon' para referirse a cualquier objeto redondo, ilustrando cómo los niños maximizan el uso de sus palabras limitadas.

Highlights

Los niños pasan por cuatro etapas en la adquisición del lenguaje: balbuceo, univocismo, frases de dos palabras y el uso de lenguaje telegráfico.

El balbuceo comienza alrededor de los cinco a siete meses y es cuando los bebés experimentan con diferentes sonidos.

Los bebés no se limitan a los sonidos de su lengua materna; pueden producir todos los sonidos del Alfabeto Fonético Internacional.

Hacia el final del balbuceo, los bebés ajustan su entonación para coincidir con la lengua materna.

El balbuceo es un comportamiento innado y no se aprende de los demás; incluso los bebés expuestos a lenguaje de señas balbucean con sus manos.

La etapa de univocismo ocurre alrededor de los doce a dieciocho meses y es cuando los bebés descubren que los sonidos tienen significado.

En la etapa de univocismo, los bebés suelen aprender sustantivos concretos primero, como 'cup' o 'spoon', ya que son más fáciles de asociar con objetos tangibles.

Los bebés en la etapa de univocismo tienen una comprensión de las palabras mucho mejor que su capacidad para usarlas.

Los bebés tienden a generalizar excesivamente las palabras, usando una sola palabra para referirse a muchas cosas diferentes.

La tercera etapa, las frases de dos palabras, comienza alrededor de los dieciocho a veinticuatro meses y muestra que los niños comienzan a combinar palabras para expresar nuevas ideas.

Durante la etapa de frases de dos palabras, los niños no usan palabras funcionales ni marcadores gramaticales, lo que hace que sus frases sean ambiguas.

A pesar de la simplicidad, las frases de dos palabras reflejan que los niños ya han internalizado ciertas estructuras gramaticales básicas.

La etapa telegráfica, que ocurre alrededor de los dos a tres años, se llama así porque el lenguaje de los niños suena conciso, similar a un telegrama.

En la etapa telegráfica, los niños comienzan a usar palabras interrogativas y sufijos, aunque aún no tienen una maestría completa de la gramática.

Un ejemplo de un telegrama muestra cómo los mensajes se escribían de manera concisa, dejando fuera muchas palabras funcionales.

Los niños en la etapa telegráfica pueden expresar mucho más con su vocabulario, aunque su uso de la gramática no sea completamente correcto.

Un TED Talk menciona que los bebés son genios en la adquisición de lenguaje hasta los siete años, después disminuye sistemáticamente.

Los estudios demuestran que los bebés pueden ser ciudadanos del mundo, capaces de discriminar todos los sonidos de todos los idiomas hasta su primer cumpleaños.

Los bebés toman estadísticas de los sonidos que escuchan y se adaptan a la lengua que van a aprender, cambiando su capacidad para percibir sonidos de otras lenguas.

La exposición a un nuevo idioma durante el período crítico puede influir en la habilidad del bebé para discriminar los sonidos de ese idioma.

La interacción humana es crucial para que los bebés aprendan y tomen estadísticas de un nuevo lenguaje; el aprendizaje no ocurre de la misma manera a través de medios como la televisión.

El uso de MEG (Magnetoencefalografía) permite observar el cerebro de los bebés en tiempo real mientras aprenden, ofreciendo una visión única de su desarrollo.

El estudio del cerebro infantil puede revelar verdades profundas sobre lo que significa ser humano y ayudar a mantener la mente abierta al aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida.

Transcripts

okay hi today we're going to go through

the stages of child language acquisition

so this is the start of the second area

of study of unit 1 okay thinking about

how children learn language I'd like you

to just pause here and have a quick

brainstorm have a think about of all of

the subsystems or six subsystems which

one do you think is the first one that

in infant masters once you've written

something down come back to the video

and check if you're right okay so these

are the stages of child language

acquisition so we talked about four

stages we have babbling one word

utterances two word utterances and then

the telegraphic stage and I'm going to

take you through each one of these today

okay the first one is babbling so this

happened from around five to seven

months of age until the child starts

learning to actually speak words

themselves so infants begin by gurgling

and cooing and making those classic kind

of baby sounds that we associate with

little babies babbling is babies

experimenting with different sounds

they're not restricted to the sounds of

their mother tongue which is really

interesting so we know from looking at

the international phonetic alphabet in

the rph art that there are sounds that

exist in human language that we are not

able to produce anymore because we speak

English and those sounds don't exist in

English what's really interesting is

that babies who grow up in

english-speaking families for example

they will be able to make all of the

sounds in the IPA chart from from the

time when they begin babbling they also

all babies no matter no matter which

country they grow up in no matter what

language or languages they're surrounded

by they're all babbling the exact same

way which is really interesting too they

do this to figure out their vocal

apparatus meaning the the different

parts of of their mouth and their speech

organs which create sound and they do

this to discover the sounds that are

distinctive for their mother tongue that

they will end up learning

eventually so towards the end of the

babbling stage babies will change the

intonation to match the mother tongue so

we know that there are different

intonation patterns in English compared

to Mandarin compared to French compared

to Spanish and so on and those

intonation patterns will start to be

mimicked by the babies before the babies

are able to say any words in their

language the first things that babies

pick up on babbling is in aged men an H

means built in so basically this means

that children who can hear deaf children

and children who are born to deaf

parents they all babble it's not

something that we learn from people

around us we just do it automatically

babies exposed to sign language from

birth will also babble with their hands

too which is quite interesting okay so

I'd like you to pause here and go to the

yellow book page 47 to 48 and read and

summarize into your notes the section

titled babies cry in mother's tongue

once you've done that come back to the

video okay we're just gonna watch this

which is an example of a baby babbling

just so you have an idea of what it

sounds like

okay Oh

ah

Oh

okay so we can hear that the baby is

making noises obviously with their

mouths but none of those sounds are

translating to any kind of meaning for

us

they're just noises okay the second

stage is the one word - rent stage and

they starts happening from around 12

months of age so we round about a year

old up to 18 months of age okay so this

is a point in time where babies discover

that sounds relate to meaning so they

hear the people around them speaking and

they realize that the different sounds

that people make make things happen or

they mean particular things they learn

words such as no oh and imitate sounds

made by things around them like cars and

animals and that kind of thing

typically the words that they produce

will be mono Sybilla meaning that they

have one syllable such as ma order and

will follow a consonant vowel

construction that's mainly because

they're easy to pronounce and they don't

have a very strong grasp over their

vocal apparatus at this stage typically

babies will learn concrete nouns first

such as cup spoon vicky chair anything

they can touch see around them it's much

easier obviously for them to process

things that they can see and touch

around them than concepts like happiness

or whatever it might be

okay baby's first load words that

contain the sounds most frequently used

in their mother tongue at this stage

their understanding of words said to

them is much better than their ability

to use the words themselves that is to

say that they can actually understand a

lot more than they're able to say at

this stage all right and here's an

example of a child in the one word

utterance stage down little boy are you

all done little one are you done yeah

should we get you out

yeah okay okay so we can say in this

example that obviously the child is only

saying one word yeah

but they are using it in the correct way

they clearly understand what the word

means and they kind of expand on what

they're trying to say but they can

convey a message through the use of

their voice at this stage babies have

around 50 words in their vocabulary

which isn't a lot so to overcome this

limitation in their vocabulary they're

over generalized which means that they

they use the same word to refer to a lot

of different things and this allows them

to make maximal use of their limited set

of words for example a child might use

the word moon to refer to all round

things such as the letter or a cake okay

because they've only got the word moon

they say that it's the same shape so

that over-generalized

similarly they might use the word fly to

refer to specks of dirt or small insects

because it kind of follows a similar

pattern so specks of dirt might look

similar to a little black fly small

insects obviously we can see the

connection between those and flyers as

well so you need to make sure that

you've got overgeneralization in your

notes to please okay the next stage is

to word utterances and this starts

happening from around 18 months of age

up to 24 months of age at this stage

children begin to use their set of words

to make new combinations to say new

things so typical combinations might

include things like data chair mum are

gone eat Becky bye bye boat okay they're

not particularly sophisticated but they

are creative in the sense that the child

probably hasn't learned those two words

together they're starting to put

rudimentary the basics of sentences

together sentences together on their own

I'm sorry having a think about the words

that we just looked out what do you

notice about them I'll go back to them

for a moment

okay so what I'm noticing about these

words is that they are content words

they do not yet have enough grammar to

the to be able to use function words or

to really understand what their role is

they also don't use grammatical markers

such as tense changes so inflectional

morphemes are kind of out they they

don't understand how those work yet at

this stage because of this their

utterances that they make their two word

utterances are quite open to

interpretation for example if we look at

the first one on that list at a chair it

might mean I am on Daddy's chair or data

is in the chair or put me in daddy's

chair could be a whole lot of different

things so you really do when you're

speaking to a child up the two word

utterances you tune in to use a bit of

trial and error and a bit of guesswork

even though they are starting to put

together a more complex sentences the

combinations are not random so when a

child is describing the location of

something the location always follows

the subject so for example mum a bed

means mummys in bed when a child is

describing an action the action fall is

the subject so for example mama eat

which is exactly the same interestingly

enough as what we do with our fully

formed grammar so we know that we always

go subject verb when a child is using

imperatives meaning remember imperative

sentences commands you to do something

so when they're using imperatives the

action comes first

just like they do for us so kickball

children are not parroting phrases that

they've heard they're rearranging the

words that they have in their set in

their vocabulary to create new phrases

to convey information to the people

around them and this is pretty

incredible because it actually shows us

that children at the age of two have

already grasped a lot of the really

important grammatical structures like

subject verb order a subject verb object

order that we have in English okay so

this is going to give you an example of

some one word and some two-word

utterances can you say daddy

can you say Alton can you say thank you

can you say I mean can you see now SiC

raided say daddy say grandma say car

sent okay all right listen this fish yep

that one what is it you know yeah that

one that one that one yeah ring yes yeah

hand me what's this right here

what is that helicopter you're right and

what is this right here yeah the window

what is that on top of the farm

a queue below very good what's this

right here

yeah a silo good job what's wrong you

hurt your knee hey sorry

big checks area okay so we can say

particularly this child at the end is

definitely in the two word utterances

stage so he's putting together words

that he knows like hurt and knee to

convey a new meaning the last one is the

telegraphic stage so this happens from

around two years to up to thirty months

of age this stage is called the

telegraphic stage because it sounds like

children of reading a telegram and we'll

look at why that is later they're very

very concise and they leave out many

function words so they're starting to

put in function words now but they're

not using them in the same way that an

adult would for example they might say

back tonight

rather than I will be getting back

tonight or I will be coming back tonight

the language is starting to be more

grammatically correct but there's still

a lack of function words and morphemes

particularly inflectional morphemes they

begin using WH words at the beginning

beginning of questions like who what

when where why using the suffixes ing

and es and simple prepositions like in

and on okay so this is an example of a

telegram so I'm just gonna skip down to

the bottom and you'll hear how a lot of

the function words have been left out so

success for flights Thursday morning all

against 21-mile wind started from level

with engine power alone average speed

through the air 31 miles longest 57

seconds inform press home Christmas okay

so you do kind of need to understand how

telegrams work to be able to understand

this but you can see that there are

pretty much only content words in that

and that's where we get the name from so

this is an example of a child in

telegraphic stage and you can see how

much more he is able to say down the

child that we just saw in the to word

our end stage

[Music]

boom baby budget it's been night chicken

house go potty and take a bath do all

the winters and be on a bed and drink

water pick up mommy alright so we can

see that he is he's got quite an

extensive vocabulary and he is on his

own

putting words together to express what

he's trying to say and it does make

sense even though it's not grammatically

correct okay I'd like you to watch this

video that I'm gonna play for you now

and just jot down maybe three

interesting things from this TED talk

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[Music]

I want you to take a look at this baby

what you're drawn to are her eyes and

the skin you love to touch but today I'm

gonna talk to you about something you

can't see what's going on up in that

little brain of hers the modern tools of

neuroscience are demonstrating to us

that what's going on up there is nothing

short of rocket science and what we're

learning is going to shed some light on

what the romantic writers and poets

described as the celestial openness of

the child's mind what we see here is a

mother in India and she's speaking coral

which is a newly discovered language and

she's talking to her baby what this

mother and the eight hundred people who

speak coral in the world understand that

it to preserve this language they need

to speak it to the babies and therein

lies a critical puzzle why is it that

you can't preserve a language by

speaking to you and I to the adults well

it's got to do with your brain what we

see here is that language has a critical

period for learning the way to read this

slide is to look at your age on the

horizontal axis and you'll see on the

vertical your skill at acquiring a

second language the babies and children

are geniuses until they turn seven and

then there's a systematic decline after

puberty

we fall off the map no scientists

dispute this curve but laboratories all

over the world are trying to figure out

why it works this way work in my lab is

focused on the first critical period in

development and that is the period in

which babies try to master which sounds

are used in their language we think by

studying how the sounds are learned

we'll have a model for the rest of

language and perhaps for critical

periods that may exist in childhood for

social emotional and cognitive

development so we've been studying the

babies using a technique that we're

using all over the world and the sounds

of all languages the baby sits on a

slap and we train them to turn their

heads when a sound changes like from A

to E if they do so that the appropriate

time the black box lights up and a panda

bear pounds a drum a six month or adores

the task what have we learned

well babies all over the world are what

I like what I like to describe as

citizens of the world they can

discriminate all the sounds of all

languages no matter what country we're

testing and what language we're using

and that's remarkable because you and I

can't do that

we're culture-bound listeners we can

discriminate the sounds of our own

language but not those of foreign

languages so the question arises when do

those citizens of the world turn into

the language bound listeners that we are

and the answer before their first

birthdays what you see here is

performance on that head turn tasks for

babies tested in Tokyo and in the United

States here in Seattle as they listen to

raw and LA sounds important to English

but not to Japanese so at six to eight

months the babies are totally equivalent

two months later something incredible

occurs the babies in the United States

are getting a lot better the babies in

Japan are getting a lot worse but both

of those groups of babies are preparing

for exactly the language that they're

going to learn so the question is what's

happening during this critical two-month

period this is the critical period for

sound development but what's going on up

there so they're two things going on the

first is that the babies are listening

intently to us and they're taking

statistics as they listen to us talk

they're taking statistics so listen to

two mothers speaking motherese the

universal language we use when we talk

to kids first in English and then in

Japanese ah I love your big blue eyes so

pretty and nice you know I don't maybe

so sticky they're not good all right

gummy during the production of speech

when babies listen what they're doing is

taking statistics on the language that

they hear and those distributions grow

and what we've learned is that babies

are sensitive to the statistics and the

statistics of Japanese and English

very very different English has a lot of

ours and ELLs the distribution shows and

the distribution of Japanese is totally

different where we see a group of

intermediate sounds which is known as

the Japanese are so babies absorb the

statistics of the language and it

changes their brains it changes them

from the citizens of the world to the

culture bound listeners that we are but

we as adults are no longer absorbing

those statistics we're governed by the

representations in memory that were

formed early in development so what

we're seeing here is changing our models

of what the critical period is about

we're arguing from a mathematical

standpoint that the learning of language

material may slow down when our

distributions stabilized it's raising

lots of questions about bilingual people

bilinguals must keep two sets of

statistics in mind at once and flip

between them one after the other

depending on who they're speaking to so

we asked ourselves can the babies take

statistics on a brand new language and

we tested this by exposing American baby

so it never heard a second language to

Mandarin for the first time during the

critical period we knew that when

monolinguals were tested in Taipei in

Seattle on the Mandarin sounds they

showed the same pattern six eight months

they're totally equivalent two months

later something incredible happens but

the Taiwanese babies are getting better

not the American babies what we did was

expose American babies during this

period to Mandarin it was like having

mandarin relatives come and visit for a

month and move into your house and talk

to the babies for 12 sessions here's

what it looks like in the laboratory Hey

okay so what have we done to their

little brains wait we had to run a

control group to make sure that just

coming into the laboratory it didn't

improve your Mandarin skills so a group

of babies came in and listened to

English and we can see from the graph

that exposure to English didn't improve

their Mandarin but look what happened to

the babies exposed to Mandarin for 12

sessions they were as good as the babies

in Taiwan who'd been listening for 10

and a half months what it demonstrated

is that babies take statistics on a new

language whatever you put in front of

them they'll take statistics on but we

wondered what role the human being

played in this learning exercise so we

ran another group of babies in which the

kids were get the same dosage the same

12 sessions but over a television set

and another group of babies who had just

audio exposure and looked at a teddy

bear on the screen what did we do to

their brains what you see here is the

audio result no learning whatsoever and

the video result no learning whatsoever

it takes a human being for babies to

take their statistics the social brain

is controlling when the babies are

taking their statistics we want to get

inside the brain and see this thing

happening as babies are in front of

televisions as opposed to in front of

human beings thankfully we have a new

machine Magneto and Cefalu grafite to do

this it looks like a hair dryer from

Mars but it's completely safe completely

non-invasive and silent we're looking at

millimetre accuracy with regard to

spatial and millisecond accuracy using

three hundred and six squids these are

superconducting quantum interference

devices to pick up the magnetic fields

that change as we do our thinking we're

the first in the world to record babies

in an Emmy Jima scene while they are

learning

so this is little Emma she's a six month

er and she's listening to various

languages in the earphones that are in

her ears you can see she can move around

we're tracking her head with little

pellets in a cap so she's free to move

completely unconstrained it's a

technical tour de force what are we

seeing we're seeing the baby brain as

the a as the baby here is a word in her

language the auditory areas light up and

then subsequently areas surrounding it

that we think are related to coherence

getting the brain coordinated with its

different areas and causality one brain

area causing another to activate we are

embarking on a grand and golden age of

knowledge about the child's brain

development we're going to be able to

see a child's brain as they experience

an emotion as they learn to speak and

read as they solve a math problem as

they have an idea and we're going to be

able to invent brain based interventions

for children who have difficulty

learning just as the poets and writers

described we're going to be able to see

I think that wondrous openness utter and

complete openness of the mind of a child

in investigating the child's brain we're

going to uncover deep truths about what

it means to be human and in the process

we may be able to help keep our own

minds open to learning for our entire

lives thank you and go to page 67 and 68

and do tasks three five six and seven

please thanks