INFANTS
Maybe they aren't yet ready to tackle Hamlet. But don't sell your infant's language skills short. Babes as young as four and a half months are already learning to recognize their name, a new study reveals. Infants of that age look toward a voice speaking their name longer than they do toward a voice calling another name. They even distinguish between names that have similar stress patterns (say, Chris-TO-pher versus Jes-SI-ca).
That's not to say that infants actually understand the concept of naming, researchers report in Psychological Science (Vol. 6, No. 5). Still, it's dear that even very young infants are learning to recognize particular patterns of sound--and that's the first step toward associating words with meaning. So think of all that silly cooing that parents do over their newborn's crib as baby's first English lessons.
