Health

Careful What You Say Your Unborn Baby Is Listening

by Barbara McPherson | November 6, 2009 at 10:44 am

280 views | 58 Recommendations | 9 comments

Prospective parents may be more careful in what they say upon learning of recent research published by the journal Current Biology. Apparently, the fetus can hear language spoken around itself and develop a preference for that language. Evidence in the research showed a difference in the crying of newborns. Newborns in a French language household cried differently than those in a German language household.

The melodies of the newborn babies' cries followed the same intonations of the languages the babies had heard in the womb. The French babies' cries, for example, tended to end on a rising note.

"Clearly, the long process of language learning begins with the perception and production of melody by human fetuses and infants," Wermke said.

Kathleen Wermke was the chief researcher in the language study at the Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders at Wurzburg University in Germany.

This research may lend more clues about the acquisition of language either by individuals or the enigma of how humans developed speech and language as a species.

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Amy Judd

at 11:47 on November 6th, 2009

Interesting - I can understand this I suppose, and it wouldn't hurt to just be mindful of your actions.

Mritunjay

at 12:30 on November 6th, 2009

Reminds me of a story in the Hindu scriptures ("Mahabharat" to be precise) about son of one of the Pandava Princes' ("Arjun") son - Abhimanyu learning how to break a particular army formation when he was in his mother's womb that his father discussed with his expecting wife (Abhimanyu's mother).

Far-fetched? Fable?? Mythology??? Maybe.

Good report Barbara--Thanks for this!

Rodney Compton (not verified)

at 12:43 on November 6th, 2009

I am surprised that the scientific observations about the fetus showing this level of sentience are not self evident. 'Language' is a primary function in the animal kingdom at much lower levels of sentience than that of humans. Birds for instance communicate with unhatched chicks in a perfunctory way and it seems naive to assume that this would not be otherwise where the young are carried internally.

Rodney Compton (not verified)

at 13:16 on November 6th, 2009

The Hindu myth supports the widely held belief system of reincarnation and Karma, but it poses a special case - the foetus is a king in the making. This gives the myth no less validity as a 'paradigm' for the natural order, which Hinduism is much closer to than more modern belief systems. This motif of "the coming saviour' having unusual powers before and in childhood is common to many religious systems, but they are all special cases. To someone more empirical - I drew back, but might have added to my piece, that I am surprised more by the fact that some foetus's transcend their formative states to propel the adult to the status of genius. I wonder what Beethoven might have gone through as a foetus, being one of a six strong brood. It is also interesting to speculate where the foetal influences might be found in his music!

Rodney Compton (not verified)

at 13:32 on November 6th, 2009

In respect of abortion. As a species, Man is by far the most destructive creature to his environment (and his own kind) than any other known predator. The rate at which humans breed and use resources, including the daily annihilation of millions of other sentient life forms for food, is completely overlooked in any analysis about the sanctity of life. This preservation of human life at all costs, although couched in philsophical or religious terms, actually conforms much more closely to the preservation of the natural order than to rationality.

Rodney Compton (not verified)

at 13:37 on November 6th, 2009

If Frau Hitler had had an abortion it would have saved the world a great deal of trouble.

Hugh Askew

at 20:16 on November 6th, 2009

True, but if your mom had, you wouldn't have been able to say that.

It is also quite possible, had there been no Hitler, a worse monster would have arisen. Taken another step, we could abort all babies.............just in case.