Babies learn to talk by lip-reading

WASHINGTON (AP)

Babies don't learn to talk just from hearing sounds. New research suggests they're lip-readers too.

It happens during that magical stage when a baby's babbling gradually changes from gibberish into syllables and eventually into that first "mama" or "dada".

Florida scientists discovered that starting around age six months, babies begin shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths, when people talk to them.

"The baby, in order to imitate you, has to figure out how to shape their lips to make that particular sound they're hearing," explains developmental psychologist David Lewkowicz of Florida Atlantic University, who led the study being published yesterday. "It's an incredibly complex process."

Apparently it doesn't take them too long to absorb the movements that match basic sounds. By their first birthdays, babies start shifting back to look you in the eye again, unless they hear the unfamiliar sounds of a foreign language. Then, they stick with lip-reading a bit longer.

"It's a pretty intriguing finding," says University of Iowa psychology professor Bob McMurray, who also studies speech development. The babies "know what they need to know about, and they're able to deploy their attention to what's important at that point in development."