Babies understand what you mean when you talk to them!
Reference:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120213154057.htm
Summary: 6-9 month olds have been found to learn the
meanings of words, foods, and body parts in recent studies. Often referred to
as “pre-linguistic”, young children were brought in by their caregivers to the
study where 2 different tests occurred. One of the tests were where a child
would sit on their caregiver’s lap and look at a screen. Then the adult
repeated phrases, indicating towards the food item or body part on the screen.
An eye-tracking device followed the child’s awareness. The second test was similar
to the first, but displayed objects in natural contexts. The question of these
trials was to see if hearing the word for the object on the screen would
incline the child to look at the object more, showing their understanding of
the item and it’s name.
Impact: This study was the first to demonstrate that
children from 6-9 months can fully grasp words and their appropriate object.
Out of the 33 6-9 month year olds that were tested, they all seemed to look in
the direction of the object being named, knowing the association between them.
Critique: I think that this is very important because more
generic words, referring to categories, were used, proving the intelligence of
children at a young age.
This is a very intereseting study. If you think about it, it is quite amazing that a child, 6-9 months old, has the ability to understand and recognize the correspondance between an object and it's name. In recent time, there has been an increase in studies such as this. I believe that with modern thinking and technological advancements, children even younger than 6-9 months old, will have the ability to learn even more.
ReplyDeleteThis subject ties into modern teaching techniques-- if one is to truly think of the way in which young children are taught today,it is obvious that times are changing. The basic use of hieroglyphic script is commonly found in every-day life. When the word "hieroglyphs" is heard, one may think of the association between pictures and words. This is a hidden teaching technique-- do you remember ever having been taught what a letter looks like? No, you were able to relate a letter to a figure and voila-- you knew the basic alphabet. Im sure this study will lead to others, which will bring changes in the near future.