Your newborn baby is already a genius – here's 6 reasons why
They're born looking so helpless, but babies are clever. From recognising mum's voice to having favourite tunes, they're wired to thrive
Tanith Carey’s new book, What’s my Baby Thinking? Practical Child Psychology for Modern Parents, explains what makes our little bundles of joy so smart:
They recognise mum’s voice the moment they meet them:
Newborns may emerge into the world looking a little bewildered, as if they’re not quite sure what’s happening. But they are already easily able to recognise their mum when she talks. That’s because their hearing system has been working well enough to pick up sounds from around week 25 in the womb. Even though surrounded by amniotic fluid, mum’s speech still cut through.
Also, because babies are born wired to seek connection and protection from the outset, the first thing they do after birth is try to match the face to the familiar sound. Research shows that within minutes of being born, infants turn their heads towards their mum because they recognise the sound of her talking.
They already know your likes and dislikes:
They may be brand new to the world – but there’s a good chance that your baby already shares some of your likes and dislikes. Studies have found babies who are played music three weeks before birth recognise tunes when they are a month old.
Their heart rate slowed more when they heard familiar melodies than when they were played tunes they had never heard before. Researchers even found that babies of mothers who regularly watch the same shows, like soap operas, recognised and reacted to hearing the theme tune after birth.
Newborns arrive liking some of the same food too. An unborn baby’s taste buds start to grow at 14 weeks Growing in the womb they swallowed more than a litre of amniotic fluid every day, some of which contains the smell and taste of foods. Researchers found babies whose mums ate a lot of garlic in pregnancy were more likely to be attracted to the smell after birth.
They already know how to flatter their dads:
Has your baby come out bearing an uncanny resemblance to their father? It may not be a coincidence. They are more likelyto start out life looking liketheir father.
In studies, when volunteers were asked to match pictures of babies with their parents, researchers found they were more likely to correctly spot who their father was, rather than their mother. Scientists believe infants have developed this tendency over millions of years in order to remove any lingering doubts in a man’s mind that he is not the father – and make him more likely to feed and protect the tot.
They already knowhow to communicate and develop five different cries:
Most babies don’t weep tears until they are about three months old because it is only then that they produce enough fluid to lubricate and protect their eyes, and there’s not enough to spare. But tears or no tears, a new baby’s cries are impossible to ignore.
Studies have found that a newborn’s wails pull at the heartstrings in a way that no other sounds do – in order to increase their chances of survival. A team of scientists at Oxford University scanned the brains of men and women as they were played a range of calls and cries. They found that after just 100 milliseconds, two regions of the brain that respond to emotion lit up.
The response was seen in both men and women, even if they didn’t have kids. And even though all baby cries may sound the same at first, if you tune in you’ll begin to notice subtle differences in pitch and intensity. Research has found that, within a few months, babies’ cries come in five different styles to signal hunger, tiredness, feeling overwhelmed, being in pain and feeling bored.
They’ve even picked up your accent:
To the adult ear, a baby’s cry at the age of nine months may just sound like a call for attention. But you may not realise they have already picked up your accent. This is because even before they were born, they were already working out how to mimic what they heard.
Several studies have found that as soon as they come into their world, babies already prefer listening to the language they heard in the womb. To discover this, researchers at the Centre for Pre-speech Development and Developmental Disorders at Germany’s Würzburg University studied the cry “melodies” of 60 healthy new-borns. Thirty were French and 30 were German.
They chose these nationalities because French speakers typically raise their pitch at the ends of words and phrases, while German speakers end on a down-note. When the researchers studied the babies, they found they did the same. The French baby’s cries tended to end on a rising note, while the German babies went down.
They already know right from wrong:
Parents assume they will have to drum the difference between good and bad behaviour into their baby as they grow older. In fact, little ones already seem to have a pretty good idea from the start. In one experiment, babies aged between three and 19 months were shown a puppet show, featuring a rabbit that behaved well and one that was naughty.
In the first act, a cat character is seen opening a big plastic box. When he can’t open the lid by himself, the friendly rabbit comes to his aid. In act two, the same scene was repeated. But this time, a ‘bad’ bunny came along. and acted in a ‘mean’ way. Instead of helping the cat, it slammed the box shut before running away.
Afterwards, when the babies were shown the puppets, 80% made a grab for the ‘good’ bunny – showing they preferred it.
US scientists at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Centre believe telling nice from nasty people is a skill that’s hardwired into infants’ brains. This is because babies need to know who is a friend and who’s a foe as early as possible in life to keep themselves safe.
- Tanith Carey is author of What’s my Baby Thinking? Practical Child Psychology for Modern Parents, with Dr Angharad Rudkin, published by Penguin/DK and out now. It can be pre-ordered here.
