Speaking to babies, toddlers may help boost their brain development, says new research

Mothers and fathers who talk to their newborns or toddlers, unknowingly help boost their brain development, research conducted by the University of East Anglia has found. Yes, you read that right! The simple act of speaking to your little munchkin helps shape their developing brain.

Researchers from the UEA studied thousands of hours of language data of babies and toddlers wearing small recording devices while carrying out MRI scans to study the structure of their developing brains.During the research, they found that two-and-a-half-year-olds, who listened to more speech in everyday life, had more myelin in language-related areas of their brains, which researchers said is "likely to support more sophisticated language processing".

Myelin is a material that forms around nerves and allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently.

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The study involved 163 babies and toddlers and demonstrated how speaking to your little ones can help develop their brains.Their findings were first published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

"We know that children’s brains develop very rapidly in the first two years of life, with brain volume at about 80 per cent that of an adult brain by the age of two," lead researcher Prof John Spencer from UEA's School of Psychologyshared. "Myelin is made up of protein and fatty substances and forms an insulating layer around nerves in the brain."

Explaining what exactly is Myelin and how it helps with brain development, Spencer said,"Imagine you have a hosepipe with lots of holes in it. Myelin is like wrapping the hosepipe with duct tape - it insulates neural fibres, bringing more of the 'signal'from one brain area to the next."

The UEA study is one of the first to show that listening to speech is closely linked with early brain development. Spencer added, "Prior work showed a similar association in four to six-year-olds, but our findings push this association much earlier in development. Indeed, we even found associations between language input and brain structure in six-month-old infants."

"Although there is still much more to learn about these processes, the message to caregivers is clear – talk to your baby, your toddler, your child. Not only are they listening, but your language input is literally shaping their brains," the researcher concluded.

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