They respond most strongly to cries of babies their own ages. The emotional turmoil which crying expresses can already exist in the womb and may be vocalized if air reaches the area around the fetal larynx. Over one hundred cases have been reported. Newborns clearly communicate their feelings about what has happened to them by contortions of the face, writhing movements of the torso, flailing movements of arms and legs, by changing color to angry red, dangerous blue or yellow, as well as by reassuring coos and gurgles. These obvious skills of communication displayed by both prenates and newborns accompany skills of perception.
Babies begin formal language training in the womb.
An early discovery using acoustic spectrography revealed that the initial cry of a 900 gram baby already contained intonations, rhythms, and other speech features of the baby s mother. By about 26 weeks of gestation, this baby had acquired certain features of its mother tongue. After birth, babies show more interest in listening to an adult speaking in the mother tongue rather than in a different language. Superior lip-reading skills are seen when babies quickly detect which sound track matches the talking faces they are watching. They also quickly spot the appropriate emotional sound track for the faces they are watching.