Do deaf babies also ba-ba-babble on their way to learning language?
Babbling is an exciting stage because the baby beginning around six months is in the process of discovering the set of sound “syllables” out of which all later words and sentences will be built, says McGill cognitive neuroscientist Laura Ann Petitto. The marvel of this developmental milestone is that it reflects a sensitivity of the brain to the patterns of natural language, and this can as well be TALKING WITH THE HANDS! Deaf babies who learn Sign Language show “manual babbling,” running through “sign-phonetic units” while in the learning stages of signing. Actually, hearing babies also babble a little with their hands, and deaf babies babble a little with their mouths, but not fully developed. “These discoveries tell us that language is a spectacular capacity of the human brain that wants to ‘out’ itself and can equally do so by using tongue or hands.
