Lecture on Child Brain Development and Language Acquisition

Introduction

• Focus on the unseen processes in a baby's brain.
• Modern neuroscience tools show the complexity ('rocket science') of brain processes in babies.
• Reference to the romantic idea of the child's mind being open and receptive.

Language Preservation and Critical Period

• Example of a mother in India speaking a newly discovered language, Koro, to her baby.
• Critical period for language learning: Language can't be preserved by speaking to adults, but to babies.
• Graph Explanation: Skill in acquiring a second language declines sharply after age seven, and even more after puberty.

Research Focus

• Study on the first critical period in sound development to model language and other developmental stages (social, emotional, cognitive).

Experiment Setup

• Method: Babies trained to turn heads at sound changes. Rewarded with lights and sounds.
• Findings:
  • Babies are 'citizens of the world' and can distinguish all language sounds.
  • Adults are 'culture-bound listeners' restricted to their native language sounds.

Transition from Global to Language-Specific Listening

• Babies in the U.S. vs. Japan: Different performance on English sounds important in English but not in Japanese.
• Critical period: Before first birthdays, babies are tuning into specific language sounds.

Statistical Learning in Babies

• Babies take statistical data from speech to learn language.
• Example of English and Japanese: Different statistical sound distributions.
• Babies become culture-bound as their brains change with language exposure.

Implications for Bilingualism

• Bilingual children manage two sets of language statistics and switch depending on the speaker.

Experiments on Introducing New Language

• Study Setup: Exposed American babies to Mandarin during critical period.
• Result: Babies learned Mandarin sounds equivalent to babies in Taiwan.

Role of Social Interaction

• Babies learn through human interaction, not through audio or video alone.
• Social learning is crucial in taking language statistics.

Advanced Brain Imaging

• Use of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study baby brains in real-time.
• MEG results show brain activity in response to languages.

Conclusion

• We are entering a new era of understanding child brain development.
• Potential for brain-based learning interventions.
• Keeping open-mindedness and learning across the lifespan.