At what age do babies understand human speech?

a reply to: DISRAELI

A fascinating post, thank you.

And I do want to respond and will at a later time ... have to leave in a few...

Think about all the ways we communicate that are non-verbal. That, and, good old, trial and error are the mechanism of learning language over time.

Your examples seem, with little real thought, to show that progression.

i recall my mom to take me to sleep and saying evening prayer

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

i remember the room and and house we lived in then. I was in diapers. My parents told me that i was a clean girl i didn´t like diapers so they stop putting me in those when i was about 1 year old ( i always took them off ) . At 4 yeas old i cut apple tree with a saw, my father watched over when i took the saw and told me to finish what i have started.. he said it took me 4 days but i finished it.

a reply to: dollukka
So, if I read you correctly, you were understanding that prayer when you were about one year old?
Thank you for that help.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Yes, my mom was not very religious but i remember this one time prayer from her.

What an anchor point for memory research.

I'd find someone who is trained in hypnosis, to take you back to that moment, and see if you can find any other memories attached to it. It seems to be a solid anchor.

Serious, too.

I'd be fascinated if I could recall things from then. I have such vague memories of things, but nothing as sharp. And some I do not wish to remember, given the colour of some memories.

a reply to: SummerRain
I think I would be very nervous of giving myself up to hypnotism. I would prefer to stay under my own control.
Of course these were just momentary flashes. I don't have anything else as old as that.

originally posted by: dollukka
i recall my mom to take me to sleep and saying evening prayer

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

i remember the room and and house we lived in then. I was in diapers. My parents told me that i was a clean girl i didn´t like diapers so they stop putting me in those when i was about 1 year old ( i always took them off ) . At 4 yeas old i cut apple tree with a saw, my father watched over when i took the saw and told me to finish what i have started.. he said it took me 4 days but i finished it.

I remember that prayer, also the other one we would say. Now I lay myself down to sleep, a bag of peanuts at my feet, if I die before I wake, you know I died of a belly ache.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
Homo sapiens infant brains are in constant overdrive to 'wire up', as they arent 'at all' at birth. By around 10 months there is significant wiring as for example, in the Chinese language there are two (to them) distinct sounds (words), but to our brains they both sound identical. By 10 months of non-exposure to this we've completely lost our ability to perceive the difference, and there's no getting it back.

I included some bits about this, from a brain documentary, in my "PRIMAL":
www.abovetopsecret.com...

There's also some bits from another documentary specific to human language, Stephen Fry's Planet Word. And you might also check out Noam Chomsky.

Well...wiring up is maybe a misnomer. Wiring down is maybe more accurate. Physiologically, we prune down unreinforced connections. Neural pathways stay, that get reinforced. The ones that don't, simply dissolve.

I’m told that I was speaking in full sentences by the time I was 18 months old.

I have haven’t shut up since.

Odd thing is through; My first conscious memory is of building a plastic model car, a Ford Model T, all in black plastic, as I recall. I was four or five years old at the time.

a reply to: Bhadhidar
Yes, I seem to have started late, for some reason.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: Bhadhidar
Yes, I seem to have started late, for some reason.

Probably because you instinctively knew that it was better to remain silent and be thought a fool that to speak and remove all doubt.

Very wise for one so young!

Most people remember things from the age of three although it can vary a year in either direction. Some claim even earlier memories. As for speech, reacting to a word or any sound is more like conditioning and not real speech. If you say baba every time he gets a bottle, then he reaches for it when he hears that sound, that is different than understanding complex speech. It might be the beginning of learning though.

a reply to: DISRAELI


I know that my granddaughter has pretty good speech comprehension at 18 months. She's not speaking much yet though. That's probably due to the fact that she hasn't yet been weened from the pacifier.

My earliest memory was from about three years old. My grandmother was about 90 years old at the time, and she was your proverbial hillbilly; literally. Born in the mid to late 1800's in the mountains of North Carolina, she had an aversion to bathing. I remember her walking through the living room, where I was sitting on the floor watching TV, with a persistent and lingering trail of strong BO in her wake. I yelled out to my mother, "Momma, it stinks in here!" She came into the room chuckling to herself and sprayed some air freshener.

Probably the main reason that memory was so ingrained in me is because of the odor. When multiple strong sensations, especially odor, are experienced simultaneously, memories tend to become more concrete. Perhaps that has something to do with the persistence of your early memories.

-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley
Thank you for all that. Well, perhaps the strong sensation in my first story was frustration and claustrophobia!

I actually have a vague memory of before even being born, but that's for another time.

I remember being a baby and wanting to be rocked. I was crying because my Mom had me in her arms and was trying to sooth me and speak in a soft loving voice, but I kept crying because I didn't understand why she didn't know I was telling her in my mind that I wanted to be rocked. I remember thinking, you're my Mother, you should know this, you should understand and questioning in my mind why she didn't 'hear' me. Eventually she did get in the rocking chair. LOL

I have memories of being around 4 years old sitting in the yard and wondering about the creation of everything. I was in absolute awe and wonder. I think kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

a reply to: Night Star
Do you think the questioning in your mind was verbal or non-verbal? Perhaps, as in my case, it isn't easy to tell from this distance.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Good question. I would imagine I understood language as I understood when she was asking what's wrong with her sweet baby girl. Since I wasn't capable of speaking at that age, I just thought the words "I want to be rocked', they just weren't getting across telepathically as I assumed they would. LOL

a reply to: DISRAELI

Hi i checked your stats because i saw you replied after me to a new member. Then i saw this thread - it is amazing,some babies from the age of 10 months seem to understand exactly what one says. My youngest daughter spoke real words at age 10 months. My oldest daughter have two sons, twins, and at 1+half years, they only gurgle their own stuff, no proper words at all.

a reply to: Jasona
Thank you, that's interesting, because it lends support to my speculation that the upcoming birthday might have been my first.
I was very late in talking for some reason. It may have something to do with working mother and baby-sitter.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Yes i'm beginning to wonder..because with my daughters, they either went to creche early( my firstborn because i had to work to keep a roof over our heads ) or my second born (i was a married housewife then,she was at home with me). But my grand children are home every day with their mother, my oldest daughter, and she talks to them all the time, and they have a huge TV bouquet of whatever you could possibly wish to watch. They are Very matrix-slaved, my oldest daughter and her hubby and kids but oh well as long as they are happy i guess.Thing is, these 2 boys, though obviously very intelligent, do not speak, except in newborn gurgles and such. Seems strange I mean,they are 1 and a half year old. By that time both my daughters were talking quite a bit, and in intelligible language, even 2 languages, because i always raise my kids in 2 languages - to help them.