By Katelyn Fry

When it comes to babies learning how to talk, we tend to focus on just that – the actual talking part. According to a recent study conducted by Indiana University psychologists, Elizabeth Clerkin and Linda Smith, we need to shift that focus to the true driving force behind speech development: visual experience.

Clerkin and Smith tested this theory by observing eight children between the ages of eight and ten months old who wore head-mounted cameras for approximately four-and-a-half hours. The researchers paid most attention to the children’s visual exposure to mealtime, regardless of who was eating or where it was happening.

The study found that the more a child saw a specific object, the more likely the name of that object would become one of their “first nouns,” which Clerkin and Smith define as “words acquired by half of all 16-month-olds.” The top 15 “first nouns” that children typically learn all appear in the videos recorded in the study, such as “table, shirt, chair, bowl, cup, bottle, food, spoon and plate.”

According to Clerkin, this strongly suggests that “visual experience is doing the heavy lifting in very early word learning,” which she believes is not only useful information to any given caregiver, but can even benefit treatment methods of children with speech development problems.

The next time you have a visit with your infant nieces and nephews, keep these new findings in mind and say aloud the things in their sight like: “Let’s go to the table to eat lunch. Here’s your bowl and your cup. Uh oh, you got apple sauce on your shirt. Let’s clean that up with this towel.” Who knows – maybe their first word is closer than you think!

Photo: avemario
Published: January 1, 2017