It's official: your baby knows how to speak from birth! A breakthrough in baby communication shows that your baby uses 5 'words' within cries to communicate with you. These words have been hailed the 'Universal Baby Language', as tests show the same few sounds are reflex reactions used by all babies aged 0-3 months.
This amazing discovery was made by mother Priscilla Dunstan, who has had a photographic memory for sound since she was a child. From the age of 4, she could listen to and memorise an entire concert performance, then play it back note for note on a piano.
As she grew older, Priscilla's gift meant she could detect small changes in mood just through listening to a person talk. "Other people might hear a note but I sort of get the whole symphony," Priscilla says. "So, when someone's speaking, I get all this information that other people might not pick up."
However, the most important use of her gift came when Priscilla became a mother to her son, Tom. "Because of my gift for sound, I was able to pick out certain patterns in his cries and then remember what those patterns were later on when he cried again," says Priscilla. "I realized that other babies were saying the same words."
According to Ms Dunstan, the 5 words spoken by all young babies regardless of background or race are:
* 'Neh' = I'm hungry
* 'Owh' = I'm sleepy
* 'Heh' = I'm experiencing discomfort
* 'Eair' = I have lower gas
* 'Eh' = I need to burp
Priscilla recommends that parents listen for these words in their baby's pre-cry before crying has a chance to escalate. Although all babies use the same words, some babies use certain words more than others. With practise, Priscilla insists that all parents can decipher the sounds with equal success, but that babies who do not receive responses to their words eventually stop using them.
For more information, you can visit the official Dunstan baby language site at www.dunstanbaby.com.
