Eye contact helps babies learn language

Researchers at NTU and the University of Cambridge have shown that babies use eye contact to learn language, offering new insights into how social cues guide learning in infants.

The researchers studied 42 infants aged eight to 10 months from Singapore and the UK. The infants watched videos of an adult speaking three artificial languages. The speaker’s eyes were either fully visible, partially obscured or completely hidden behind different types of glasses.

The study found that infants only learned a language when the speaker maintained full eye contact. When a baby was learning the language, their brainwaves were also more likely to align with those of the speaker.

The researchers say the findings could help deepen understanding of how the brain uses social cues to guide learning during early life.

Read more at the NTU Research Hub.