The University of Washington Today – Molly McElroy
“Babies learn language best by interacting with people rather than passively through a video or audio recording. But it’s been unclear what aspects of social interactions make them so important for learning. New findings by researchers at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington demonstrate for the first time that an early social behavior called gaze shifting is linked to infants’ ability to learn new language sounds. Babies about 10 months old who engaged in more gaze shifting during sessions with a foreign language tutor showed a boost in a brain response that indicates language learning, according to the study, which is published in the current issue of Developmental Neuropsychology.”(more)