Tale of Abhimanyu 'could be true' as scientists find babies pick up language skills in the womb
Pregnant women are encouraged to read and talk positively to their babies
Tales of the mythological character Abhimanyu learning the secrets of warfare while in his mother's womb might have some rational basis after all.
The latest scientific evidence has shown that babies do listen and learn language skills right from their time in the womb.
A new study by researchers at Pacific Lutheran University in the US has shown that newborns can pick up the distinctive sounds of their mother tongue even in utero.
The study brushed off the surmise that babies learn about languages only after they are born.
"This is the first study that shows we learn about the particular speech sounds of our mother's language before we are born," Christine Moon, who led the study, said.
Pediatricians agree that newborns are no stranger to phonetics and learn more than just lingual skills when they are in the womb.
"A positive experience is very important for the foetus. Pregnant mothers have been encouraged to read and talk positively to their babies. It has been seen that parents who are positive, talk a lot and read to the foetus have babies who reflect positive emotions too. Babies do pick up cues before they are born," said Dr Vandana Kent, paediatrician, Rockland Hospital.
As part of the research, newborns were studied shortly after birth in two different countries. They were tested on two sets of vowel sounds -17 native sounds and 17 foreign language sounds.
The researchers tested the babies' interest in the vowel sounds based on how long and often they sucked on a pacifier.
The research results appear in the journal Acta Paediatrica.
The little ones had been listening to their mother's voice in the womb, and particularly her vowels, for 10 weeks, according to the researcher.
Newborns have the capacity to learn and remember the elementary sounds of their language from their mother during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy as the sensory and brain mechanisms for hearing are intact after 30 weeks.