Most babies are only babbling at that age and don't start talking until after they turn one. However, areas of their brains are already planning and coordinating for those first words. They're preparing how to talk back even if they aren't actually saying anything coherent. More from HealthDay News:
"Hearing us talk exercises the action areas of infants' brains, going beyond what we thought happens when we talk to them. Infants' brains are preparing them to act on the world by practicing how to speak before they actually say a word," Patricia Kuhl, author of the study and co-director of the Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a university news release.
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