Recent studies show that the human brain begins to absorb information even earlier than previously thought. Even in the womb, the fetus demonstrates that it is capable of receiving stimuli not only from the environment in which it lives, but also from what lies beyond the human skin. However, after birth, talking to the baby proves to be fundamental for its development.
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Baby talks can be a good idea
Some studies of the same type already showed that talking and dialoguing a lot with children, from the first months of life, resulted in gains. In general, language processing and vocabulary growth are factors directly impacted by conversations with parents.
Researchers claim they have found a relationship between the volume of conversations with babies and the amount of myelin in the brain. This substance surrounds the nerves and makes signals clearer and more efficient.
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The work was developed at the University of East Anglia and published in Journal of Neuroscience. In all, there were 163 children aged between six months and 30 months. The researchers recorded 6,208 hours of language data in the study. They identified that children with more educated mothers were exposed to greater amounts of adult speech and produced more vocalizations.
The main author of the research, John Spencer, said that it is essential to establish conversations with the baby. “I think the take home message is: talk to your kids. And that matters […]. What's amazing here is that it's literally shaping the structure of the brain," he said of the dialogue periods.
The more conversations, the more development
The research team found that the more conversations with the baby, the greater the development. As the brain develops, the amount of myelin increases. For children aged 30 months, greater amounts of adult speech were associated with greater amounts of myelin in language-related pathways in the brain were observed.
“When you are six months old, more information is good. But at that point your brain is growing massively and you get this massive growth of new neurons," he said. "So the information comes in and can help prolong that period of brain growth."
Although the data are encouraging, the researchers inform that they still need to be deepened and that lacks an in-depth understanding of the ramifications of this development for the adult life of the person.
