Science

Do Babies Read Lips?

WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — Watch the faces of babies around six months of age and you may see them working their lips and watching intently the lips of adults around them. A new study is showing that babies don’t learn to talk just from hearing sounds — they’re lip-readers too.

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. Slowly gibberish begins to turn into syllables — think repetitive “ba ba ba ba” — and eventually “mama” and “dada”.

Here’s a viral YouTube video from last year showing you the beginnings of speech between two twin boys:

“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 published Monday. “It’s an incredibly complex process.”

Watch this ABC News report on the study:

Study Finds Babies Learn Speech by Reading Lips and Listeningvideo platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

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.”

The new research appears in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It offers more evidence that quality face-time with your tot is very important for speech development — more than, say, turning on the latest baby DVD.

It also begs the question of whether babies who turn out to have developmental disorders, including autism, learn to speak the same way, or if they show differences that just might provide an early warning sign.

Unraveling how babies learn to speak isn’t merely a curiosity. Neuroscientists want to know how to encourage that process, especially if it doesn’t seem to be happening on time. Plus, it helps them understand how the brain wires itself early in life for learning all kinds of things.

Those coos of early infancy start changing around age 6 months, growing into the syllables of the baby’s native language until the first word emerges, usually just before age 1.

A lot of research has centered on the audio side. That sing-song speech that parents intuitively use? Scientists know the pitch attracts babies’ attention, and the rhythm exaggerates key sounds. Other studies have shown that babies who are best at distinguishing between vowel sounds like “ah” and “ee” shortly before their first birthday wind up with better vocabularies and pre-reading skills by kindergarten.

But scientists have long known that babies also look to speakers‘ faces for important social cues about what they’re hearing. Just like adults, they’re drawn to the eyes, which convey important nonverbal messages like the emotion connected to words and where to direct attention.

Lewkowicz went a step further, wondering whether babies look to the lips for cues as well, sort of like how adults lip-read to decipher what someone’s saying at a noisy party.

So he and doctoral student Amy Hansen-Tift tested nearly 180 babies, groups of them at ages 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months.

How? They showed videos of a woman speaking in English or Spanish to babies of English speakers. A gadget mounted on a soft headband tracked where each baby was focusing his or her gaze and for how long.

Study Finds Babies Learn Speech by Reading Lips and Listening

(Photo: Florida Atlantic University)

They found a dramatic shift in attention: When the speaker used English, the 4-month-olds gazed mostly into her eyes. The 6-month-olds spent equal amounts of time looking at the eyes and the mouth. The 8- and 10-month-olds studied mostly the mouth.

At 12 months, attention started shifting back toward the speaker’s eyes.

It makes sense that at 6 months, babies begin observing lip movement, Lewkowicz says, because that‘s about the time babies’ brains gain the ability to control their attention rather than automatically look toward noise.

But what happened when these babies accustomed to English heard Spanish? The 12-month-olds studied the mouth longer, just like younger babies. They needed the extra information to decipher the unfamiliar sounds.

That fits with research into bilingualism that shows babies’ brains fine-tune themselves to start distinguishing the sounds of their native language over other languages in the first year of life. That‘s one reason it’s easier for babies to become bilingual than older children or adults.

But the continued lip-reading shows the 1-year-olds clearly still “are primed for learning,” McMurray says.

Babies are so hard to study that this is “a fairly heroic data set,” says Duke University cognitive neuroscientist Greg Appelbaum, who found the research so compelling that he wants to know more.

Are the babies who start to shift their gaze back to the eyes a bit earlier better learners, or impatient to their own detriment? What happens with a foreign language after 12 months?

Lewkowicz is continuing his studies of typically developing babies. He theorizes that there may be different patterns in children at risk of autism, something autism experts caution would be hard to prove.

Comments (31)

  • fabercastell
    Posted on January 19, 2012 at 9:00pm

    So what happens to the baby brain if you started to talking “jive” or “street lingo” to them?

    Report Post »  
  • sizzlinsexybeckster
    Posted on January 19, 2012 at 7:38am

    Yes, babies know what you are saying. I can’t remember what I ate for dinner the other night, but I remember when I was 6 weeks and earlier. I knew exactly what they were saying and remember my Grandfather teaching my Aunt Kathy how to change a diaper for when she had kids. she said “Hey, it’s not gonna be that soon!” and most of the things my Grandfather taught her through the course of that day were wrong. All those myths you people think work, or you think you understand what the baby wants – nope. You are wrong. Like that holding thing where you hold a baby upside down in some weird rocker position to get it to stop crying because you think you are calming it down… nope – scared the hell out of me – yes, I did stop crying temporarily, but only because I was in shock, I was scared to death, wondering if my Grandfather was a friend or a foe. “what the heck is he doing?” I thought. And he was teaching this stuff to the others. After changing my diaper, I was still laying on the floor on a blanket and in between a solid side table and a huge chair to make sure I’d stay in my place…he than gave me a puppet show. I was excited, so excited that I wanted to take in all my surroundings around me, so I looked around also while I was still keeping an eye on these puppets… then my Grandfather said to my Aunt “See that, she’s not interested now, she’s focusing on something else.” So he stopped the puppet show. I got mad and cried. He couldn’t figure out why I cried

    Report Post »  
    • sizzlinsexybeckster
      Posted on January 19, 2012 at 7:46am

      …..also, for your future investigations or whatever you think you are doing – Please Please – Don’t use a telelvision set or a computer screen – it’s so impersonal. Please ACTUALLY USE A ….REAL HUMAN BEING. It would be much appreciated, thanks. It’s too robotic and creepy… there’s no human feelings or emotion going on, the kids is creeped out.

      Report Post »  
    • sizzlinsexybeckster
      Posted on January 19, 2012 at 9:17am

      …..also this is not complex. Get those wires and garb off the baby… the baby is not a car battery.

      When a baby is crying after birth for a couple days in the hospital and then you bring them home – don‘t expect your baby to automatically stop crying to adjust to your lovely sleepy schedule or get angry your baby won’t stop crying so you can have quality chatting time with the gals at the hair salon… or whatever your selfishness is doing these days… Sometimes a baby just needs to cry… just like it needs to eat, or it needs to breathe, or it needs to sleep, or it needs some quality playtime WITH ANOTHER HUMAN BEING, it also needs to just….cry. Yes, sometimes she may cry because of hunger, tiredness, or boredom, but sometimes she just cries because that is just something else that she must do. Stop being so scientific about all this…. get rid of all the wires, computer screens, gadgets, etc. Actually sit with the baby, cradle her, lay her on her blankie and play with her… introduce her to textures such as the different textures and furriness on stuffed animals, rub their softness delicately on her cheek, she will get excited and look around and want more, have her hold a cottonball but take it before she puts it into her mouth…. give her a puppet show using all those stuffed animals. Look at her expression the first time she sees a dog’s furry face. STOP WITH ALL THIS COMPUTER SCREENS CRAP…. IT’S UN-HUMANISTIC AND GROSS.

      Report Post »  
  • Jennifer_D
    Posted on January 19, 2012 at 12:02am

    Re: Watch the faces of babies around six months of age and you may see them working their lips and watching intently the lips of adults around them. A new study is showing that babies don’t learn to talk just from hearing sounds — they’re lip-readers too.

    This study is providing information that is already known. Babies use the 5 senses to understand the world around them. They come to know the sound of their mother’s voice, her smell, and go through a stage where everything goes in their mouth. Catch a baby’s eye, smile at him or her, and he or she will smile back at you. The same can be said for other things including crying; which is why when one baby cries others start crying too. Eye contact is very important to babies because it facilitates secure attachment. Babies seek that eye contact, especially from primary caregiver, but if the parent doesn’t reciprocate then the baby will stop trying to connect with the parent in that way.

    An interesting study consideration would be how secure attachment or lack of it can impact children who are later diagnosed with ADD/ADHD/Autism and a host of other issues. Did these parents sit down with their children to form these bonds or did that contribute to the issues that manifested later?

    Report Post » Jennifer_D  
  • Saint Ron
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 11:56pm

    Our friend JAYLEW is confusing intellect with physical ability. In the Book of Luke, chapter 1, verses 41-44, NIV: When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.// What was that in the womb? A baby. A child.// The intelligence of a healthy child is not to be challenged. They are great in a good environment. They respond to positives and to negatives. Infants are a joy to watch and engage.

    Report Post »  
  • Is it Friday?
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 10:14pm

    This is not NEW. In 1984 I read about a study showing that babies as young as 8 months old can learn to use sign language for indicating their wants and needs. Also that they learn speech partly from watching mouths forming words. That most parents don’t spend time with their babies forming words more pronounced for their children and the result is it takes them longer to learn to talk. I was pregnant when I read this and when my daughter was born I spent time every day up close to her face talking and forming my words clearly with my mouth. Result: At 11 months she could speak in complete sentences consisting of 4 or 5 simple words. By the time she was 2 she was making u her own songs and singing them. There was not another child at the same age in daycare that could do this. All I wanted to say was this was a rehash of an old study. More money spent on something that has already been done.

    Report Post »  
  • Tracy Y. Andersen
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 7:04pm

    #Gonzo
    “Just a mass of cells.”

    Yup, but how intelligent a mass of cells. Even from the beginning, as in how to make the single cell divide into more and more specialized cells, and connect together intelligently, and grow into …

    You? Are you still just a mass of cells?

    Yup. …But with intelligence, we hope.

    Report Post »  
    • Rollo2
      Posted on January 18, 2012 at 11:13pm

      What’s really amazing is how quickly they learn, and how hard they study. My own kids, and Grands have put their hands on my mouth while I was talking to them, if I stopped talking, they lost interest. If I kept talking, their interest grew! My oldest grandson would try to feel my lips with his hamds, and try to imitate my lip movements. He used to ‘peek’ around his fingers sometimes to get a better idea how I formed my lips. Of course, he had his fingers all in my lips, distending and distorting them all out of shape, it’s a wonder that he can speak at all at the age of 17!

      Report Post »  
  • vtmawhinney
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 5:26pm

    Having taught Child Development at the college level, I am not in the least surprised at these findings. There are other data to suggest that infants imitate the facial expressions of care-takers.

    All in all, this is more evidence that infants are precocious in many ways that most people do not realize.

    Parents, you need to be aware of your emotions, expressions, language, and attitudes when you care for your infants. They are affected by your moods, your anger and frustrations and angry interacitons (or fights) that you may have with others in their environs.

    V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Indiana University South Bend

    Join me at: http://www.lifecopingskills.com and http://www.culturalsurvivalskills.om

    Report Post »  
  • W@nd@
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 5:04pm

    How do we really know? What if your child is more intelligent than you are? they used to say babies could not see/focus until they are months old ~ my own children proved them wrong on that account! when my daughter saw the flowers her dad had given me at her birth (trying to get both into her first photo)…she tried to capture them for herself turned around in my arms and reached for them! she was 1 day old…which i was neither expecting to have happen or prepared for…so from then on i assumed nothing…some kids are born ready and you just have to run to keep up…It just depends on the direction they are heading….the plan and the purpose of their life…and every child is so wonderfully different it is almost magical! It is half the fun just to watch as they develope and grow…boy don’t i wish i had some of those years back to enjoy again! I’d snap them up in a minute! But that is life…such do overs do not happen! But then being grandparents is frosting on life’s cake….Parenting is not easy but it is well worth the effort.. a good effort is required for you want the best outcome for your children..acceptance guidance direction motivation and a huge helping of love.They are your true legacy in life! It was a delight to enjoy these little ones exploring the boundaries in their world… XD

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  • DERRYMAN
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 4:18pm

    I love stories like this and I love babies ! They are endlessly fascinating abd of course cute. I actually wrote down all the “ words ” that my daughter started to say when she was little. Of course the vowels come out first and it was ” da da, ma ma and ba ba ” followed by nore complex stuff. They become self aware very early too, which is extraordinary.

    Babies also seem to recognise that other babies are also babies, as opposed to “ big people ”. ” My daughters first full sentence was a question, thats how I knew she was a very smart cookie, she said to my Dad – ( I was playing in a soccer match and we all had the same uniforms and my Dad had brought her to see the match ) ” My Da-Dee. Where is he ? “ In other words ” which one is my Daddy ? ” Blew me away and still does. Congrats to this team and all people studying babies.

    Report Post »  
  • jaylew
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:44pm

    I respect human life for sure. But pleeeeeeze people…human babies are literally helpless creatures who would lay in their own pee and poop forever…and would roll off a coffee table or couch if you left one there…..it is not until years after birth that the human brain begins to accelerate at a rate greater than say a wildebeest or a gerbil or a rat. Wildebeest babies can run 10 minutes after birth…baby gerbils and rats know NOT to roll off a table ledge. I would be careful trying to “prove” that babies can read lips soon after birth….that is a bit of a stretch. I do wish they could talk right after birth though…and ask relevant and pertinent questions. Questions like “Where’s my daddy?”….”How did you pay for my hospital bill?’ “Who is paying for this formula and Pampers?”
    Yeah…I said it…so what? Way too many babies are being created and born without the few simple questions I posed a moment ago NOT having legitimate answers AHEAD of time. Yep…I’ll turn this into a Welfare post in a heartbeat. The little innocent smile of a welfare baby….Oh if they could only read lips and ask questions. Maybe if those questions could be asked by infants….the shear conviction of reality would trigger the shame that Adam Carolla so deftly poses to all the “takers” in this country.

    Report Post » jaylew  
  • Free2speakRN
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:11am

    Why not? Great opera singers ‘usually’ have parents that have strong voices. The infants/children imitate what they hear, using the correct muscles to project their sounds. They probably use all their senses to copy the closest ones to them. As well as emotions, even in the womb. BTW, that would make them…..alive.

    Report Post »  
  • Kiba
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 7:52pm

    Of course they can, doesnt surprise me one bit. Just another of the many mechanisms given to them by God so they can get-by. I was watching the story of this young couple with their baby that got lost and snowed-in , its a well known story but to make a long story short the baby had this fatty-tissue mechanism in his skin that kept him better off than his adult parents were from freezing to death or getting frost bitten.

    Report Post »  
  • ThoreauHD
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 3:49pm

    Not only do they read lips, but if you’re ugly- they know it and aren’t afraid to let you know.

    Report Post » ThoreauHD  
  • TheGothicConservative
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 3:04pm

    When I have a child I think I’ll teach it to beatbox. It would be the most amazing child ever :D

    Report Post »  
    • 4xeverything
      Posted on January 18, 2012 at 6:58am

      Teach your kid Sugarhill Gang’s “Rappers Delight”, and I would pay to see that!

      Report Post » 4xeverything  
  • charlieb58
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 12:46pm

    “No New Taxes”…. anybody get that????

    Report Post »  
  • don young
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 11:27am

    Which baby told you they read lips.

    Report Post »  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 10:33am

    Interesting..

    Report Post » Stoic one  
  • your sensei
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 10:25am

    Yes, in fact they DO read lips. And this is what they hear:

    http://badlipreading.tumblr.com/

    Report Post » your sensei  
  • 4xeverything
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 8:53am

    I’m still convinced that we begin life as pure geniuses and continually get dumber as we grow older. Oh, and by we, I mean everyone but me. Hee hee!

    Report Post » 4xeverything  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on January 17, 2012 at 10:31am

      Do you still wear a diaper?

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • 4xeverything
      Posted on January 18, 2012 at 6:54am

      Only when I cough, sneeze, or breathe. Other than that, no, never.

      Report Post » 4xeverything  
  • Annie Fields
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 8:48am

    Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. As an adult with Aspergers (high functioning autism) and an auditory processing delay, as well as high frequency hearing loss (!), all of which have been diagnosed while I have been in my 40′s, I realize I have been “listening with my eyes” my whole life.

    If I can’t SEE someone talking, I haven’t got a prayer. Turns out, it‘s because I’m watching their mouth. (Typical for an Aspie not to take in the whole facial/body expression. It’s a kind of literal thing. That’s where the sound comes from!)

    But even that neurotypical babies do it makes perfect sense for the very same reason! That’s where the sound comes from! And watching a person’s lips form around sounds/words is an additional aid for their young brains to process & understand what’s going on.

    Smart little bugs, huh?

    Report Post » Annie Fields  
  • MONICNE
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 8:40am

    Not only do they read lips but hand gestures and inflection. It is essential to be the best example you can, you need to avoid stressful and hurtful situations.

    TEA

    Report Post » MONICNE  
  • Jackie Rogers, Jr.
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 8:19am

    I don’t know if babies do, but murderous computers do.

    Report Post » Jackie Rogers, Jr.  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 8:16am

    “Just a mass of cells.”

    Report Post » Gonzo  

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