Language Exposure in Utero
Infant Speech Perception
A Fetus Can Hear You!
-Properties of womb facilitate auditory transmission
-Low frequencies and bone conduction
Initial Evidence
-Show a preference to mother's language
Infant Speech Perception
Recent Research- Three Key Experiments
-Measuring brain responses 0-3 days after birth
-Differences in Vowels
-A two-country study
-Swedish vs. English
-Neural Activity
-Is language being learned and remembered?
Of Particular Interest...
-Hearing a great deal of speech before birth may have positive effects
-More speech will prepare fetus to analyze speech in the future
-The opposite effect in noisy chaotic environments
Appropriate Exposure = Enhanced Speech Perception = Building Blocks for Language Acquisition
Brain Storm!
Reference List
Gervain, J., & Mehler, J. (2010). Speech perception and language acquisition in the first year of life. Annual review of psychology, 61, 191-218. Retrieved from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100408
Gonzalez-Gomez, N., & Nazzi, T. (2012). Phonotactic acquisition in healthy preterm infants. Developmental Science, 15(6), 885-894. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01186.x
May, L., Byers-Heinlein, K., Gervain, J., & Werker, J. F. (2011). Language and the newborn brain: does prenatal language experience shape the neonate neural response to speech? Frontiers in psychology, 2. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3177294/
Moon, C., Lagercrantz, H. and Kuhl, P. K. (2013). Language experienced in utero affects vowel perception after birth: a two-country study. Acta Paediatrica, 102: 156-160. Doi: 10.1111/apa. 12098
Partanen, E., Kujala, T., Näätänen, R., Liitola, A., Sambeth, A., & Huotilainen, M. (2013). Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(37), 15145-15150. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org.proxy-tu.researchport.umd.edu/content/110/37/15145.full
Tsao, F., Liu, H., & Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Speech perception in infancy predicts language development in the second year of life: a longitudinal study. Child Development, 75(4), 1067-1084. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-tu.researchport.umd.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=491564b8-6b8e-4727-898d-76c9467a4130%40sessionmgr113&vid=16&hid=118