• Question: Do babies think in english? How can they think if they can't talk?

    Asked by strawberrygirl12 to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Babies don’t think in any particular language. Before they have acquired language, they think in an instinctive way, a bit like a dog. Interestingly, it is possible to teach a baby sign language before it can actually talk. That makes them happy as they can get the things they want (usually milk-related) more quickly!

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Oooh good question. I’ve never thought about it – Ian seems to know what he’s talking about though so I’d go with his answer! 🙂

    • Photo: David Corne

      David Corne answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I just found this in a review of a book called “How babies think”:
      ” studies suggest that children learn about the world in much the same way that scientists do—by conducting experiments, analyzing statistics, and forming intuitive theories of the physical, biological and psychological realms.”
      … so, scientists are people who haven’t grown up.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      David has given you the current theory about how babies think and learn. They are constantly absorbing and analysing and trying to order every bit of information they are exposed to (sound, light, movement, taste, touch). This gets very tiring so they have to sleep a lot to give themselves some “head space” to sort all the information out

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