Friday, May 25, 2007

Smart babies


Without hearing a word, a new study asserts, a four-month-old child can tell when speakers switch to another language, simply by observing changes in facial contortions, such as shapes made by the mouth as well as mannerisms, like the head-bobbing rhythm that varies between different tongues.

From this story. Interestingly, they lose this ability within the next few months.

This reminded me of something I saw in a TV program about kids a while ago: while older kids (and adults) can't tell one monkey (or cat or tiger) from another, little kids (typically, less than a year old) apparently can.

1 Comments:

  1. amitscorpio said...

    I Was Born Intelligent But Education Ruined Me!!