Researchers are studying how mothers' moods affect infants' language development

Researchers are studying how mothers' moods affect infants' language development

Child-friendly communication with babies is considered an essential prerequisite for the successful language development of the little ones. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences have now examined how mothers' moods in the period after birth affect their child's development. They found that even children whose mothers suffer from mild depression and do not yet require medical treatment show early signs of delayed language development. The reason for this could be the way the women talk to the newborns. The findings could help prevent possible deficits at an early stage.

Up to 70 percent of mothers develop postnatal depressive moods, also known as baby blues, after the birth of their baby. Analyzes show that this can also have an impact on the development of the children themselves and their language. However, it was previously unclear exactly how this impairment manifests itself in the early language development of infants.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have now conducted a study to investigate how well babies can differentiate between speech sounds depending on their mother's mood. This ability is considered an important prerequisite for the further steps towards a well-developed language. If sounds can be distinguished from one another, individual words can also be distinguished from one another. It was found that when mothers report a more negative mood two months after birth, their children, on average, have less sophisticated processing of speech sounds at six months of age. The infants found it particularly difficult to distinguish the pitches of the syllables.

Specifically, they showed that the development of their so-called mismatch response was delayed than in those whose mothers were more positive. This mismatch response, in turn, serves as a measure of how well someone can separate sounds from one another. If this development is delayed towards a pronounced mismatch reaction, this is an indication of an increased risk of developing a language disorder later in life.

“We suspect that the affected mothers use less child-friendly language,” explains Gesa Schaadt, postdoctoral researcher at the MPI CBS, professor of child and adolescent development at the Free University of Berlin and lead author of the study, which has now been published in the journal JAMA Network Open. “They are less likely to use pitch variations when addressing their children.” This also leads to a more limited perception of different pitches in the children, she said. This perception, in turn, is considered a prerequisite for further language development.

The results show how important it is that parents use child-friendly language for their children's further language development. Child-friendly language is considered to be child-friendly, which varies greatly in pitch, emphasizes certain parts of words more clearly - and thus draws the little ones' attention to what is being said. Mothers who suffer from a depressed mood often use more monotonous, less child-friendly language.

In order to ensure the development of young children, appropriate support is also necessary for mothers who suffer from minor complaints that often do not require treatment.”

Gesa Schaadt, postdoc at MPI CBS, professor of child and adolescent development at the Free University of Berlin

These do not necessarily have to be organized intervention measures. “Sometimes fathers just need to be more involved.”

The researchers examined these relationships using 46 mothers who reported different moods after giving birth. Their moods were measured using a standardized questionnaire typically used to diagnose postnatal moods. They also used electroencephalography (EEG), which can measure how well babies can differentiate between speech sounds. The so-called mismatch response is used for this, in which a specific EEG signal shows how well the brain processes and distinguishes between different speech sounds. The researchers recorded this response in the babies aged two and six months when they were presented with different syllables such as “ba”, “ga” and “bu”.

Source:

Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Reference:

Schaadt, G., et al. (2022) Association between postpartum maternal mood and infant speech perception at 2 and 6.5 months of age. JAMA network opened. doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.32672.

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