More efficient learning at birth leads to better language skills at 2 years

Abstract

Infants are able to extract words from speech early in life. Here we show that the quality of word-form learning at birth predicts language development at the age of two years. Seventy-five neonates were familiarized with two spoken disyllabic pseudowords. We then tested whether the neonate brain predicts the second syllable from the first one by presenting a familiarized pseudoword frequently, and occasionally violating the learned syllable combination by different rare pseudowords. Distinct brain responses were elicited by predicted and unpredicted word endings, which suggests that the neonates had learned the familiarized pseudowords. The difference between responses to predicted and unpredicted pseudowords indexing quality of word-form learning significantly correlated with expressive vocabulary scores at 24 months in the same infant. These findings suggest that 1) neonates can memorize disyllabic words so that a learned first syllable generates predictions for the word ending, 2) early individual differences in the quality of word-form learning correlate with language outcome. This relationship helps early identification of infants at risk for language impairment.