Real life is messy
When scientists study word learning in babies, they usually put them in front of a screen, present them two images of objects and label one of them repeatedly. This is, of course, not how word learning happens in real life. Real life is messy.
“What does that mean?“
The babies' world is bombarded with objects and words. If parents name an object and babies do not know the word yet, they have the hard task of deciding what object the word refers to among many distractions. How do babies learn which word matches which object? What grabs their attention in messy real-life word learning moments?
A child's perspective
In a new study we tracked the eye movements of 12 month old babies while they explored scenes that mimic their everyday word learning moments. We found that even in cluttered environments, babies only attend to a few objects. What they attend to depends on the saliency of the object: if it’s nearby and centered within the infant’s view, he or she is more likely to look at it. These are ideal word learning moment because babies are most likely to link a word with an object that naturally draws their attention.
Word learning at home
Do you want your baby to learn an object name? This study shows you can help them by making the object stand out. Move the object close to your baby or have them hold it themselves, so its big and centered in their view. When the baby’s attention is on the object, you can name it. This way word learning is fun, natural and effective!