Babies Learn Language Even If You Don't Talk to Them

Parents are told that they need to talk to their babies to help them learn to communicate. Studies show that this helps children tremendously with language acquisition. But is it truly necessary? Those studies were done in modern times in developed countries. In more traditional societies, people don't talk directly to babies, and they learn language just fine by overhearing adult conversations. In other words, when people talk to each other, babies are listening and drinking it in.

However, in these traditional cultures, babies are carried around and are witness to all their mothers' social interactions. In places like the US, babies are often home all day with their mothers or some other lone caregiver, and don't socialize as much. They just don't have the opportunity to overhear conversations, so the directive to talk to your child may be compensation for that. Read what we have learned about the process of developing language by hearing it at Big Think.

(Image credit: Shikoha Tautiko)