6- to 9-month-olds appear to understand meaning of certain words

Bergelson E. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109:3253-3258.

Even before their first word, infants can understand the meanings of words for foods and body parts through their daily experience with language, according to study results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To determine at what age comprehension of spoken words begins, researchers enrolled 33 6- to 9-month-olds and their caregivers to participate in language comprehension tests.

“We’ve known for years from prior research that it is important for children to hear as much language as possible — not just passively, but from one-on-one interactions,” researcher Elika Bergelson, BA, MA, told Pediatric Annals. “If parents turn every interaction into a conversation, their children will benefit in terms of the diversity of vocabulary they hear.”

Infants were presented with sets of pictures on a screen to view while their caregivers — wearing a visor to avoid seeing the screen — listened to prerecorded prompts such as “Where is the apple?” or “Look at the apple,” which they repeated to the infant. An eye-tracking device was then used to follow the child’s gaze.

In the tests, the researchers found that the infants fixed their attention more on the named pictures than on the other images, indicating that they understood that the word was associated with the particular object.

“Even though infants are not yet responding in very clear or interesting ways, by 6 months, they are already beginning to link the world around them with the words they’re hearing,” Bergelson said. “If parents treat their babies as real communicative partners, talking to them, pointing out the things they’re experiencing, looking at whatever their baby is looking at, this can only help their child’s linguistic development.”

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

Follow the PediatricSuperSite.com on Twitter.