The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns

Byers‐Heinlein, Krista; Burns, Tracey; Werker, Janet F.

doi:10.1177/0956797609360758

Cited by 317 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…auditory | brain | mother's voice | heartbeat | preterm newborns O ne of the first acoustic stimuli we are exposed to before birth is the voice of the mother and the sounds of her heartbeat. As fetuses, we have substantial capacity for auditory learning and memory already in utero (1)(2)(3)(4)(5), and we are particularly tuned to acoustic cues from our mother (6)(7)(8)(9). Previous research suggests that the innate preference for mother's voice shapes the developmental trajectory of the brain (10,11).…”

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confidence: 99%

Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation

Webb¹,

Heller

Benson

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

185

121

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Brain development is largely shaped by early sensory experience. However, it is currently unknown whether, how early, and to what extent the newborn's brain is shaped by exposure to maternal sounds when the brain is most sensitive to early life programming. The present study examined this question in 40 infants born extremely prematurely (between 25-and 32-wk gestation) in the first month of life. Newborns were randomized to receive auditory enrichment in the form of audio recordings of maternal sounds (including their mother's voice and heartbeat) or routine exposure to hospital environmental noise. The groups were otherwise medically and demographically comparable. Cranial ultrasonography measurements were obtained at 30 ± 3 d of life. Results show that newborns exposed to maternal sounds had a significantly larger auditory cortex (AC) bilaterally compared with control newborns receiving standard care. The magnitude of the right and left AC thickness was significantly correlated with gestational age but not with the duration of sound exposure. Measurements of head circumference and the widths of the frontal horn (FH) and the corpus callosum (CC) were not significantly different between the two groups. This study provides evidence for experience-dependent plasticity in the primary AC before the brain has reached full-term maturation. Our results demonstrate that despite the immaturity of the auditory pathways, the AC is more adaptive to maternal sounds than environmental noise. Further studies are needed to better understand the neural processes underlying this early brain plasticity and its functional implications for future hearing and language development. auditory | brain | mother's voice | heartbeat | preterm newborns

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation

Webb¹,

Heller

Benson

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

185

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At birth, infants possess an initial preparedness for language and a developmental readiness that supports learning any of the world's languages (1)(2)(3), yet also already show privileged processing to the native language from prenatal listening experience (4)(5)(6). During the following weeks and months of life, infants become progressively attuned to the properties of their native language, including its rhythmical and segmental (e.g., consonant) information (reviewed in refs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and depressed maternal mood alter trajectory of infant speech perception

Weikum

Oberlander

Hensch

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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170

107

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Language acquisition reflects a complex interplay between biology and early experience. Psychotropic medication exposure has been shown to alter neural plasticity and shift sensitive periods in perceptual development. Notably, serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) are antidepressant agents increasingly prescribed to manage antenatal mood disorders, and depressed maternal mood per se during pregnancy impacts infant behavior, also raising concerns about long-term consequences following such developmental exposure. We studied whether infants' language development is altered by prenatal exposure to SRIs and whether such effects differ from exposure to maternal mood disturbances. Infants from non-SRI-treated mothers with little or no depression (control), depressed but non-SRI-treated (depressed-only), and depressed and treated with an SRI (SRI-exposed) were studied at 36 wk gestation (while still in utero) on a consonant and vowel discrimination task and at 6 and 10 mo of age on a nonnative speech and visual language discrimination task. Whereas the control infants responded as expected (success at 6 mo and failure at 10 mo) the SRI-exposed infants failed to discriminate the language differences at either age and the depressed-only infants succeeded at 10 mo instead of 6 mo. Fetuses at 36 wk gestation in the control condition performed as expected, with a response on vowel but not consonant discrimination, whereas the SRI-exposed fetuses showed accelerated perceptual development by discriminating both vowels and consonants. Thus, prenatal depressed maternal mood and SRI exposure were found to shift developmental milestones bidirectionally on infant speech perception tasks.L anguage, our most quintessential human characteristic, involves a complex interplay between biology and experience. At birth, infants possess an initial preparedness for language and a developmental readiness that supports learning any of the world's languages (1-3), yet also already show privileged processing to the native language from prenatal listening experience (4-6). During the following weeks and months of life, infants become progressively attuned to the properties of their native language, including its rhythmical and segmental (e.g., consonant) information (reviewed in refs. 7 and 8). The high degree of regularity in the timing of sequential tuning to properties of the native language suggests a series of critical or sensitive periods, i.e., points in development when the system is maximally influenced by input.The timing of onset of these sensitive periods seems to be maturationally constrained. Infants born 3 mo preterm attune to the phonetic properties (9) of their native language at the same gestational age as full-term infants, not according to the number of months of postnatal listening experience. Such maturational constraints can protect development: ensuring the optimal consecutive stabilization of the perceptual components that contribute in a step-wise fashion to language acquisition (10). However, it is known from research i...

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“…Ramus, Hauser, Miller, Morris, and Mehler (2000) found in their high amplitude test and habituation/dishabituation design that newborns were accustomed to the sentences spoken by two persons in the same language, but not in different languages; in addition, when the language type changed, the newborns' sucking frequency and intensity increased rapidly. Heinlein, Burns, and Werker (2010) proved the result in a high amplitude sucking-preference study. They found that the prenatal bilingual experience even could affect newborns language preference.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Impact of Foreign Language Learning on Children’s Language Competence

Wen-hui¹

2016

UCFL

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The impact of foreign languages (mainly English) learning on children's language development has always been a hot issue in China. There is still no consensus on the idea whether the earlier children learn a foreign language, the better their language competence will be. Some scholars even worry about that early English language learning for Chinese young children will lead to a series of problems: the absence of mother tongue, the crisis of cultural identity, the lack of study motive, the lost of study desire, the increase of frustration, and the poor learning effect, etc. This paper studies the impact of foreign language learning on children's language competence from the five elements of metalinguistic awareness: phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, word awareness, syntactic awareness, and pragmatic awareness, including the promotion function, the interpretation mechanism, and the positive influence on basic language abilities, so as to find out the impact factors for foreign language learning and provide valuable reference for the establishment of foreign language educational policy and system in China.

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The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns

Cited by 317 publications

References 15 publications

Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation

Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation

Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and depressed maternal mood alter trajectory of infant speech perception

Impact of Foreign Language Learning on Children’s Language Competence

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