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An Infant's Mind
Baby's Brain Development
By Teri Brown
"Humans have an almost infinite ability to segment linguistic codes," Thibaut says. "For example, are you confused with the meanings of 'house,' 'casa' and 'maison.' No, they're different words for the same meanings. We recognize their meanings instantaneously because our minds have segmented and stored their meanings. Very young children are just as capable of segmenting and storing meaning."
According to Thibaut, babies begin clearly articulating their first words between 8 and 20 months because they have been absorbing and retaining the sounds of a language and associating meanings to those sounds. "Before that time they start uttering 'proto-words,' otherwise known as babbling, as young as 5 months," Thibaut says. "Although their babbling sounds insensible to us, the babies are beginning to talk to us, are trying to convey meaning and attempting to repeat what adults around them are saying."
Thibaut says babies are highly sensitive and receptive to everything they hear and see. Their brains are programmed to imprint and later recall every sound and every word pattern. "A baby's brain forms a separate neuron with which to store each different sound they hear," Thibaut says. "Let's program children to become the most articulate and communicative adults they possibly can become."
Thibaut's program does just that with language immersion action games, structured games, visual aid games, props and vocabulary-rich songs. "Between 8 and 20 months, toddlers start what linguists term their 'one-word stage,'" Thiaut says. "Before that they simply listen and store what they hear. This is the prime of their critical period
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