Babies begin to learn language before they are born.
Babies start learning language in the womb
Scientists have discovered that expectant mothers who chat to their unborn babies boost their children's linguistic skills in the strongest evidence yet that a foetus is capable of listening and learning from within the womb.
Experts from Italy and France discovered that "language exposure before birth may help newborns acquire language with ease" after birth, suggesting that is particularly helpful for pregnant women to speak to their baby bumps during the final trimester of pregnancy.
The research - which has been published in the journal Scientific Advances - concluded: "These results provide the most compelling evidence to date that language experience shapes the functional organisation of the infant brain, even before birth.
"Human babies can pick up language at a remarkable pace, becoming attuned to the sounds of their native language by around a year old. Research has suggested that this ability may begin before birth, as unborn babies can start to hear sounds outside of their mother's body by almost seven months of gestation."