Noise affects baby's language development

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Jun 16, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Purdue University study says even moderate background noise can affect how infants learn language at an early and crucial time of their development.

"This research reaffirms how important it is for a child to see the face of a person while hearing him or her speak," says George Hollich, the study's author.

"This is the first study to show how children are easily distracted when the background noise is at the same loudness as the person talking to the child. We found that even soft noise can be a problem."

For the study, Hollich teamed with experts at the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University. Their paper is published in the June issue of the journal Child Development.

"Unlike the printed word, speech doesn't use commas, spaces or periods to separate words and concepts. If there is more than one source of speech, it's especially hard for the infant to know when one word ends and another begins. That is why infants need to match what they hear with the movements of the speaker's face," Hollich said.