Infants start understanding words at 6 months: Study

New York, Nov 21 (IANS) New parents must be having difficulty in handling the wails and tantrums of their babies at any hour of the day. But do you know that your baby has a proper understanding of what you want to convey?

Despite the fact that the babies are unable to speak up themselves through words, six to nine-month-old babies posses an avid knowledge of your language, especially of food and body parts, reveals a new finding.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stated that the babies can recognise more similar words like 'car and stroller' and the difference between less similar words like 'car and juices'.

"Even in the very early stages of comprehension, babies seem to know something about how words relate to each other," said Elika Bergelson, Assistant Professor at the Duke University in Durham, the US.

"And already by six months, measurable aspects of their home environment predict how much of this early level of knowledge they have. There are clear follow-ups for potential intervention work with children who might be at risk for language delays or deficits," Bergelson added.

The research team used eye-tracking software to flow the babies' gaze towards two pair of images, the first images related to each other like a foot and a hand, and an unrelated pair of images like a foot and a carton of milk.

The results found that the babies' word knowledge correlated with the proportion of time they heard people talking about objects in their immediate surroundings.

The researchers advised the parents to talk more in front of their babies because they listen and learn from whatever you say, even if it does not appear to be so.

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