"Strolling down the beach, I was filled with a sense of peace and tranquility, and couldn't resist wispering to my growing baby bump in my own language. Despite my uncertainty about whether talking to Lou in my own language, at this stage, would help her in the long run, I felt a deep sense of joy and wonder from speaking to her.
The warm sun beat down on me, and the salty air of the ocean filled my lungs, invigorating me and energizing me for the journey of multilingual parenthood that lay ahead".
Recent studies have shown that unborn babies are capable of hearing and responding to sounds as early as the second trimester of pregnancy. Researchers have found that fetuses are able to distinguish between different sounds, including vowel sounds, while still in the womb.
One study has been conducted by the University of Helsinki in Finland. The researchers suggested that the ability to distinguish between sounds in the utero may play a role in early language development.
Another study, conducted by researchers at the Pacific Lutheran University in the United States, used a pacifier-based experiment to test the fetal response to vowel sounds. The study involved two groups of fetuses, one group of American fetuses and another group of Swedish fetuses. After birth, forty newborns from these two groups were tested for their responses to different vowel sounds unique to either English or Swedish. In each group, the babies sucked hardest when they heard the vowels representing the foreign language. The American babies sucked harder when they heard Swedish vowels and the Swedish babies sucked harder when they heard English vowels. These results indicate that fetuses are able to distinguish between vowel sounds in different languages and may even show a preference for the sounds of their native language.
The research on learning vowels in the womb has important implications for understanding early language development and prenatal education. These findings suggest that the fetal brain is capable of processing complex information and that prenatal exposure to language may have some impact on later language development.
However, it is important to note that sounds in the womb can be muffled and indistinct, and more research is needed to fully understand the extent of fetal language learning. So while the idea is intriguing and has some basis in research, it is still an area of active investigation and debate in the scientific community.
"I wasn't aware yet of these studies while I was telling my little Lou about the waves I was crossing, the boats on the horizon or the seagulls searching for fish just ahead of us. It all started there, a few meters away from our home where an increasing curiousity grew in me about how I can help my little baby girl juggle all the linguistic worlds I am putting her into in a few months. And our journey began."
for more 👉Multilingual education
Resources you can explore:
The linguistic genius of the babies Patricia Kuhl
Prenatal sensory development University of Helsinki Eino Partanen
The multilingual mind: Issues discussed by, for, and about people living with many languages by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Alfred Tomatis
Tomatis, a French physician and otolaryngologist , suggested that the mother's voice, as well as other sounds from the external environment, can stimulate the fetus's auditory system and contribute to the development of neural connections related to hearing and language. He emphasized the importance of providing a rich and positive auditory environment for the developing fetus, as it could potentially enhance their later auditory and language skills.
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