This is a very cool finding which is obvious to everyone who has studied babies. Sometimes it seems as if they are staring at your lips. They are playing with your lips while you are talking. Now, we know what they are doing.
From WaPo:
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 6 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 Monday. “It’s an incredibly complex process.” (more…)
