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The Brain and Language: How Our Brains Communicate Authors and reviewers Authors

- Jens Brauer and

When babies are born, they cannot talk or understand words. A baby's communication is generally basic and non-verbal. Babies are not born with speech or language. This is something they learn from their interactions with others. Within the first year of life, babies say their first words, and they can soon speak full sentences. After only 2–3 years, babies are already quite good at verbal communication and are able to say what they want. This fast progress in language abilities is probably supported by genetic conditions that support fast language learning.
However, it is interesting to think that a baby has already taken the first steps in terms of language development even before birth. This sounds impossible when we know that language needs to be learned and does not happen automatically, unlike breathing or sleeping. But babies are actually born knowing the sound and melody of their mother tongue – and they can already "speak" by following the melodic pattern of the language. Of course, this "speaking" does not involve words, and the sound made by newborn babies is often that of crying.

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00014

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