Adults are ecstatic when a baby utters words like 'dada' which could mean 'daddy' in baby speak. These repetitive sounds, often ending in vowels, are prevalent among infants when they reach the eighth month. A study found that the babbling is mainly driven by the child's skill to hear themselves.
However, this monotonous babbling is not common among infants who suffer from hearing loss. The study found that infants who received cochlear implants began babbling just as regularly as babies who do not have hearing problems.
"Hearing is a critical aspect of infants' motivation to make early sounds. The fact that they attend to and learn from their own behaviors, especially in speech, highlights how infants' own experiences help their language, social and cognitive development," said Mary Fagan from the University of Missouri School of Health Professions. Fagan is a communication science and disorders assistant professor.
Fagan stressed that the study does not reduce the value of the speech babies learn from others. Instead, the findings show that infants are not merely 'passive recipients' of what they hear from other people. Infants are very much hands-on when it comes to the process of their own speech development.
In the study, Fagan looked into 27 infants with no hearing problems and 16 infants who suffered from intense hearing loss. The 16 infants were involved in the study two ways: before they received the cochlear and months following the implantation. Cochlear implants are tiny electronic devices placed into the bone located behind the ear. This device helps replace several functions of a normal hearing ear.
Months after the cochlear implant surgery, more babies were able to produce repetitive vocalizations. The study also noted an increase in vocalizations that contain repetitive syllables. Lastly, the amount of definite repetitions such as 'ba-ba-ba-ba-ba' in a string of vocalization improved.
The study suggests that a baby's noise is primarily inspired by their capability to hear their own voices. Moreover, parents should be well informed about cochlear implants before deciding to get one for their children who suffer hearing loss. Fagan's study shows that babies respond well to the cochlear implants at an early age.
"The research tells us that infants are motivated by hearing the sounds they produce, so these sounds are functional in some way," concluded Fagan whose study findings were released in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
