Newborns' language skills revealed
Chris Bunting,
11 July 2000,
12:00am
Research indicates that babies' apparently random wrigglings and blank stares are, in fact, part of a deliberate attempt to understand the world outside the womb and identify caring human beings within it.
Research indicates that babies' apparently random wrigglings and blank stares are, in fact, part of a deliberate attempt to understand the world outside the womb and identify caring human beings within it.
The Social Baby, by Professor Lynne Murray and Liz Andrews, is the product of a year-long research project which photographically recorded the second-by-second development of babies from the moment they are born.
The book reveals that within a minute of being born, a baby can identify its mother. A minute later, it is straining to study her face and, within a quarter of an hour, it is intently inspecting its father's features and imitating him
