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3-6 MONTHS:
What sounds can babies learn from?
Listening to human speech can help infants discover categories of objects, like dogs or dinosaurs. We want to learn more about how infants discover categories when listening to human language, compared to other types of sounds. To find out, we will show your baby colorful pictures while they listen to human or animal sounds. This will help us understand how (and how early) infants learn the sounds of their own language.
4-6 MONTHS:
Can babies learn categories from sign language?
Listening to language boosts your baby’s learning about objects! But what about sign language? With your help, we’ll find out. Your infant will watch colorful objects while they observe a woman either signing or simply gesturing (pointing). From this, we’ll discover if sign language offers the same learning boost as spoken language. This will help us understand infants’ flexibility as they learn about the world around them.
11-12 MONTHS:
Who is this?
As you’ve already discovered, even before babies can say words on their own, they pay such close attention to us when we talk to them! But how does this help them learn? To find out, we will show your baby colorful stuffed animals, and name each one. We’ll then show them the same animals again, along with new ones. Our question is: Do babies remember which animals they have seen, if each animal got its own name? This will help us understand how language guides infant learning about the particular objects in their world.
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14-16 months:
Using words to learn more words
Your baby has begun to understand at least a few words. But can they learn a new word from the ones they already know? To find out, your baby will see three objects whose names they probably know (like apple, banana, grapes). We then say a new word while pointing to a new (but hidden) object. When the object is revealed, we ask: Do babies expect that the new word is the name of a new fruit, rather than say, a new creature? This will tell us whether babies can use new words to communicate about new objects, even when those objects were hidden from view.