2024-04-14 17:45:17
Studies indicate that early social interactions, characterized by engagement with “parents”, positively influence infant language development by enhancing brain activity in attention-related areas. This fundamental research highlights the crucial role of adult-infant interactions in the development of early language skills.
The sight of a parent involved with their baby is universally touching. Speaking in a melodious, high-pitched tone – often referred to as “parents” – the parent responds warmly to the sound of the baby’s frolics and movements, often sharing smiles and making eye contact.
These connections not only create a touching sight. New research from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Neuroscience (I-LABS) shows that they are also important for infant language development.
In a study published on April 8 b Current Biology, Researchers used a safe and non-invasive brain imaging technique called magnetoencephalography, or MEG, to monitor infants’ brain activity during social and non-social interactions with the same adult. They found that when the adult talked and played socially with a 5-month-old baby, the baby’s brain activity increased especially in areas responsible for attention – and this level of activity predicted improved language development at later ages. This ‘social’ scenario was compared to a ‘non-social’ scenario in which the adult moved away from the infant to talk to another person. This interaction showed lower activity levels in the same brain regions.
Groundbreaking research findings
“This is the first study to directly compare infants’ brain responses to adult-to-infant social interaction versus nonsocial interaction, and then follows the children until they reach age 2.5 to see how early brain activation relates to the child’s future language abilities,” said lead author Alexis. Bossler, research scientist at I-LABS.
MEG brain imaging technology allowed the baby to move and interact naturally with the adult, allowing the researchers to track the firing of neurons from multiple areas of the baby’s brain while the adult talked to, played with, and smiled at him. They then monitored the infant’s brain activity a second time when the adult turned around and noticed someone else.
These actions occur naturally every day between adults and babies, and research has shown that they have measurable different effects on a baby’s brain. Researchers found that increased neural activity in response to social interaction at 5 months predicted improved language development at five later ages: 18, 21, 24, 27 and 30 months. The researchers tracked babies’ language development through a well-documented survey that asks parents about words and sentences their babies say at home.
The significance of early interaction and future research
“The connection between early brain responses and later language resonates with early childhood scientists’ fascination and opens up many new questions that we and others will explore,” said co-author Andrew Maltzoff, I-LABS associate director and UW psychology professor.
The researchers chose 5-month-old babies for the study because this age is just before the “sensitive period” for learning spoken language, which begins at about 6 months. Once this period begins, it is especially important for babies to observe adults because attention improves learning.
Using parenting with babies represents an intuitive desire to connect, said Patricia Kohl, senior author and co-director of I-LABS.
“There is an implicit understanding that language is about connection,” Kohl said. “It’s about a communication path between you and the other. It starts from infancy with the desire to create this communication connection.”
The results of the study are especially important for parents and early educators to understand, Kohl said.
“We knew from previous work that social interaction is essential at 9 months of age for foreign language learning, but the current study shows that social interaction plays a role much earlier,” Kohl said. “The research shows that the parents’ natural use of parenting, along with smiles, touch, and their warm back-and-forth responses to the baby’s actions, has a real and measurable effect on the baby’s mind. We hypothesize that this parental behavior, which we call the ‘social composition,’ captures and holds the attention of babies and motivates them to learn at a critical time in development.”
The research was funded by the Bezos Family Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
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