AI Article Synopsis
- The study found that infants as young as 4 and 6 months can distinguish between English and French just by watching silent mouth movements.
- By 8 months, only those infants exposed to both languages (bilingual) can still perform this discrimination.
- These results suggest that infants have an early ability to visually recognize languages and that they gradually become more selective in their perceptual skills based on their language exposure.
Article Abstract
This study shows that 4- and 6-month-old infants can discriminate languages (English from French) just from viewing silently presented articulations. By the age of 8 months, only bilingual (French-English) infants succeed at this task. These findings reveal a surprisingly early preparedness for visual language discrimination and highlight infants' selectivity for retaining only necessary perceptual sensitivities.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1137686 | DOI Listing |
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