In a recent research conducted by the scientists in a bid to study the condition of the children in the womb, many surprising results have come out. With interpreting the traits of the unborn child as the primary objective, researchers went deep studying the hygiene and other prominent things.
now coming to the language barriers, it is determined that we can know if he or she can typically distinguish the difference between sounds used in various languages even a month before being born. The study showed that foetuses can hear things, including speech, in the womb, although the voice is muffled a bit.
The foetal heart rates changed when they heard the unfamiliar, rhythmically distinct language (Japanese) after having heard a passage of English speech, while their heart rates did not change when they were presented with the second passage of English instead of a passage in Japanese.
Utako Minai, a lead author and an associate professor at the University of Kansas has said: “The results suggest that language development may indeed start in utero. Foetuses are tuning their ears to the language they are going to acquire even before they are born, based on the speech signals available to them in utero.”
“Pre-natal sensitivity to the rhythmic properties of language may provide children with one of the very first building blocks in acquiring language, the intrauterine environment is a noisy place, the foetus is exposed to maternal gut sounds, her heartbeats, and voice, as well as external sounds” concluded Minai.