Babies know the difference between mummy and a monkey
Babies as young as 5 months can match sounds to who (or what) created them
Evidence that babies can match different vocal sounds to the right species has been found for the first time. Babies as young as 5 months can tell that humans make speech sounds and monkeys make monkey calls, cries and grunts, reports Science Daily.
While children know ducks quack or dogs bark, it wasn’t clear when it was that children knew which animal made what sound.
The study looked at 5-month-old babies from English and French speaking familie. They were showed pictures of human faces and monkey faces teamed with human speech that wasn’t in their own language (two Japanese words) or monkey ‘gekker’ calls and coos. The babies look longer at the pictures when the sound matched the right species.
However, when it came to sounds like laughter, or “human-produced non-speech vocalisations”, the babies couldn’t match it to humans.
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