Parents and babysitters can influence newborn babies a lot, but the newest research published on Science Direct shows that the impact is even bigger than we thought.
The way you talk to a child and how often you do it impacts their abilities, because it helps them develop some parts of their brain faster.
Let's find out more about that.
The research
Researchers utilized MRI and audio recordings to demonstrate the impact of caregiver speech on infant brain development and long-term language progress.
The study, led by Dr. Meghan Swanson from the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, highlights the association between caregiver speech and the development of white matter in the brain, which facilitates communication between different regions.
The results of the study
The research involved 52 infants from the Infant Brain Imaging Study, and findings suggest that infants exposed to more words had slower white matter development but demonstrated better linguistic performance later on.
Proper parenting actually matters
The study emphasizes the importance of the home environment and caregiver speech in language acquisition and underscores the role of parents as change agents in their children's development.
