How Your Baby Learns Language in the Womb

There is evidence that babies begin learning in the womb? Before she is even born, your baby has already been exposed to many opportunities for language learning.

Language learning begins in the womb.

Babies not only hear their mother’s voice and understand their mother’s inflection but are also already learning her language in the womb, finds Patricia Kuhl, Ph.D., This is the foundation for language development. In fact, just hours after a baby is born, she can distinguish between her mother's native tongue and the foreign language of another mother.

Because a mother’s voice is magnified and amplified by her body, it can be heard in utero by her baby, along with other sounds. Detecting speech patterns and rhythms in the womb, a baby is already making sense of the sounds she hears. Further, many researchers believe that a parent can facilitate their child’s language development, not only in the womb but also after birth.

In fact, research now indicates that a parent can even teach their baby before birth. For example, a fetus is so sensitive, that any stimulation from Mother can affect her baby directly.

Studies utilizing EEG sensors to detect neural traces of memory in utero show that sound repetition is incorporated into a baby’s memory. When a baby is introduced repeatedly to a sound, her memory enables recognition of that sound. Brainwave patterns identify the memory in the recognized sound.

A study led by cognitive neuroscientist Eino Partanen shows that a baby’s brain not only learns repeated sounds in the womb but also recognizes words and their variations. The study indicates that the neural signals for identifying sound, including vowels, are visible as memory traces in a baby at birth.

A baby learns nonstop in utero.

Ten weeks before birth, a baby can use many of her senses to learn about her inner world. Ultrasound recordings show that a baby can react to sound by kicking, moving, and even dancing around in the womb; baby may even move up and down on hearing her mother's laughter.

Moreover, her heart-rate may slowr as she is comforted by the sound of her mother’s voice. She may touch her face, suck her thumb, stretch her limbs, grasp her feet, and have enough coordination to grasp her own umbilical cord with her fingers.

Much of a baby’s prenatal sleep consists of REM sleep. She may sleep for most of the day and night while dreaming—most likely about her own inner world. If she is a twin, she might, after 20 weeks, play in utero play with her sibling.

A baby remembers sounds heard in the womb.

Christie Moon, Ph.D., and Hugo Lagercrantz, Ph.D., co-authored a study with Paricia Kuhl, in which pacifier use measured the frequency of sucking by newborns in response to hearing their mother’s particular language. Every sucking movement reflected a produced vowel. When unfamiliar vowels were introduced, sucking paused. Two sets of vowel sounds were used in conjunction with 17 foreign language sounds and 17 native language sounds.

The research reveals that a baby can remember elementary sounds from their mother as early as 10 weeks prior to birth. The neurosensory mechanism for hearing is functioning at 30 weeks of gestational age.

Now that we know that a baby is learning a language before her birth, should parents talk to their baby regularly in utero? Studies indicate that a baby’s brain is very sophisticated in utero; she is listening closely and learning. A baby is not just growing in the womb but learning. Be mindful of what you teach her.