Babies' Vocal Development: Boys Take the Lead

If you've noticed your son's babbling skills surpassing your daughter's, don't worry—it's all part of normal development, according to a recent study.

Boys tend to be more talkative than girls when they're young, but then girls become more talkative as well.

Let's find out more.

Talkative babies

The research, published in iScience on May 31, challenges the commonly held belief that girls have an advantage in language development. 

Surprisingly, male infants tend to produce more speech-like vocalizations during their first year, while females catch up and surpass males by the end of their second year.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed an extensive dataset of over 5,899 infants and more than 450,000 hours of recorded vocalizations. 

The reasons behind this initial difference in vocalization remain unclear, but researchers speculate that evolutionary factors and the need to communicate well-being may play a role.

We are closer to knowing more about human development

Further investigation is necessary to delve into how caregivers respond to infant vocalizations and whether vocal cues alone can indicate an infant's gender. 

This study provides valuable insights into human development and highlights the fascinating journey of early vocalization in babies.
 

• Related news:
• babies
• development
• research
• speech
• intelligence
• 16 July 2023

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