UBC developmental psychologist Janet Werker talked about her research on how babies learn language in an interview with KOSU public radio.
How strongly a baby sucks is a well-known indicator of how familiar and interesting something is to the baby. By wiring a pressure sensor to a baby’s pacifier and exposing the baby to speech samples, Werker was able to track how the baby responded to speech patterns. She found that babies who were growing up in bilingual environments could track the rhythmical properties of each language and not confuse them.
