According to a story published in elmundo.es, a group of scientists in Canada have conducted a study that concluded that Babies four to six months distinguish languages by gestures.
The study was done by observing a group of 36 babies, who were shown short videos without sound, from adults who said English and French phrases from the book The Little Prince. Within the group of babies there were some who were growing up in bilingual families (where English and French are spoken) and others in homes where only English is spoken.
The results indicate that babies can distinguish between their own tongue and another by observing visual stimuli.
However, according to experts, this capacity decreases from the eighth month of life in children of a monolingual family, while to the surprise of specialists in bilingual children, the explanation they give is that, probably, children living in an environment where only one language is spoken, they lose that capacity because they do not need it.
The study according to the news has been important to understand the role that visual stimuli play so that the baby can distinguish his native language, since until now it was known that they could differentiate it by sound.
An interesting study to understand a little the process of language learning in babies where the stimuli received by the toddler are fundamental.
