Hym, C. 1, 2 , Barbu-Roth, M. 1, 2 , Dollat, C. 1, 2 , Provasi, J. 3 , Huet, V. 1, 2 , Nazzi, T. 1, 2 , Gervain, J. 1, 2 & Anderson, D. 4
1 Université Paris Descartes
2 CNRS
3 Ecole Pratique des Hautes études
4 San Francisco State University
Human newborns can discriminate their native language from other languages. However, the effect of listening to their native language on newborn?s general motor behavior has not been explored. Here we investigate such an effect on newborn crawling, a crucial activity for early mother-infant interaction. Our hypothesis was that native, but not foreign, language would motivate newborns to make more crawling movements and to orient their head and body more often toward the auditory stimulus. Sixteen 2 day-old French newborns were wrapped prone on a Crawliskate® to facilitate use of their arms and legs to translocate freely on a mattress in any direction. Their crawling was 2D video recorded and 3D motion captured in two randomized two-minute conditions in which newborns listened to a woman speaking French (NATIVE condition) or English (FOREIGN condition) from a right or left speaker. Preliminary data showed that newborns significantly increased the number of their leg steps, F(1,15) = 4.80, p=0.031, and were more likely to turn their head toward the speaker in the NATIVE condition (correlation between speaker position and head orientation, r(1,14)=0.60,p=0.013) compared to the FOREIGN condition. These findings suggest that native language could potentially be used to stimulate newborn crawling at birth.