Active auditory learning in infants born preterm

Abstract

In this volume of The Journal, Richard et al report a study demonstrating auditory learning of sounds in a foreign language by infants born preterm during their hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). By sucking on a specialized pacifier, infants of English-speaking parents were able to actively elicit lullabies and speech in French or Mandarin Chinese. After 20 of these sessions, infants hearing either language showed differential electrophysiologic responses to speech sounds in these languages with no effects on their responses to English language speech sounds.