A new study reveals a fascinating connection between a baby's heart rate and their early attempts at speech. The research suggests that babies' heart rate fluctuations play a crucial role in their ability to produce recognizable sounds and words.
A psychologist discovered that a baby's first sweet sounds and early attempts at forming words are directly linked to the baby's heart rate . The soft, gentle murmurs of a baby's first expressions, like little whispers of joy and wonder to doting parents, are actually signs that the baby's heart is working rhythmically in concert with developing speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study that found this connection.
The findings have implications for understanding language development and potential early indicators of speech and communication disorders. For infants, producing recognizable speech is more than a cognitive process. It is a motor skill that requires them to learn to coordinate multiple muscles of varying function across their body. This coordination is directly linked to ongoing fluctuations in heart rate. Borjon investigated whether these fluctuations in heart rate coincide with vocal production and word production in 24-month-old babies. He found that heart rate fluctuations align with the timing of vocalizations and are associated with their duration and the likelihood of producing recognizable speech. 'Heart rate naturally fluctuates in all mammals, steadily increasing then decreasing in a rhythmic pattern. It turns out infants were most likely to make a vocalization when their heart rate fluctuation had reached a local peak (maximum) or local trough (minimum),' reports Borjon.'Vocalizations produced at the peak were longer than expected by chance. Vocalizations produced just before the trough, while heart rate is decelerating, were more likely to be recognized as a word by naïve listeners.' Borjon and team measured a total of 2,708 vocalizations emitted by 34 infants between 18 and 27 months of age while the babies played with a caregiver
Baby Development Speech Heart Rate Language Development Communication
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