Making Sense of It

Last month, we talked a little more about attention, which is the first step to communication “flow”. No matter how old you are, you need to pay attention to get any benefit from what people say, whether you’re a baby developing her language or adult who’s lost and listening to directions. Attention is the key. 

The next step is to make some sense of what was said. This involves all sorts of mechanisms in the brain, particularly the left side. In developing babies, their brains begin to make sense of the sound patterns of what they hear from their caregivers. Over time, their brains “bank” these groups of sound patterns – and associated gestures, objects and actions – as meaningful units: words! 

Babies’ word and sound banks grow in proportion to how much they hear. Mountains of studies have shown a very clear connection between how much we talk to babies and how much – and how soon – they talk back to us, as well as a whole pile of other benefits that last a lifetime. And no, sticking babies in front of a screen doesn’t count, no matter what’s on. They need a human being to interact with them.

Among the words that babies keep hearing are words used for orientation, direction, description…words that enable us to think and then eventually explain. As adults, there is no arguing that we use language not only as a way to express our thoughts, but also to actually think. As babies develop their language banks, you’ll notice through their actions that their thinking is developing also. Even for late talkers with typical language comprehension, you will notice that the more complex the information they understand, the more complex their responses are, regardless of whether they can express themselves or not. 

Of course, there’s a lot more that goes on inside the brain, and we’ll talk more about what is generally referred to as “processing” next month. Until then, your Friendly Neighbourhood Speech Pathologist is here to help with all things language!

 

Mohamed (Mo) Oshalla, MHSc.,
Speech-Language Pathologist & Executive Director,
Ontario Speech & Language Services