German researchers have recorded the crying of newborn babies. The goal? Determine if these same cries change from one language to another. This research could well be used to identify babies with hearing problems.
Dr. Kathleen Wermke is a language specialist at the University of Würzburg (Germany). In 2009, she and her team conducted a first study proving that babies reproduce the melody of the tongue spoken by their parents. In an article published on November 14, 2019, the New York Times reports on a new study conducted by the same team.
This time it's about a file of about half a million recordings of babies crying! According to Kathleen Wermke, these recordings come from all over the world , and sometimes from countries such as Cameroon or China. The objective of this research is to understand the development of cries in babies during the first months. It is also about determining how these tears gradually give way to the first words.
You should know that language acquisition starts during pregnancy . Indeed, the fetus already hears the rhythm and melody of its mother's voice (prosody). The unborn child uses these indicators to become familiar with the sounds coming from his surroundings. According to the researchers, the pauses between each sentence as well as the intonations are reproduced by newborns long before you could speak.
In some babies this development takes time and this is where identifying the crying language can be helpful. Thus, a typical development model could be developed for each language. Moreover, this could promote the early detection of problems in the child, particularly concerning hearing.
Finally, the researchers also advise parents to support this development by spending time with baby, listening to him, singing songs to him, without forgetting a good dose of tenderness. When crying, they believe that, whatever the language of the baby,imitate the cry of the wolf would be a good way to calm him down. Check it out!
A few months ago, we were talking about an artificial intelligence capable of deciphering the crying of babies. It was not a question of determining the language of the tears but of better understanding their reason . The researchers had identified common modulations specific to a particular reason. Five categories of crying have been determined:diaper change, need to eat, discomfort, sleepiness and need for attention.
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