Foetal and Newborn Auditory Perception

Initial Response to Auditory Stimulation

• Fetuses show an ability to respond to auditory stimuli, indicating early auditory processing capabilities.

Newborn Sound Preferences

• Newborns prefer to listen to voices, particularly their mother's voice, indicating an emotional and biological connection.

Frequency Range of Newborns

• Newborns are most responsive to sounds in the frequency range of 250-2000 Hz, aligning with the human voice's key frequencies.

Sucking Responses to Sounds

• Newborns will preferentially suck on pacifiers to hear sounds that they find stimulating or interesting, particularly voices.

Maternal Voice Recognition

• Evidence from DeCasper & Fifer (1980) suggests that fetuses can recognize their mother's voice, showing a predisposition for familiarity.

Mother's Voice Preference

• DeCasper and Prescott (1984) found that newborns displayed a clear preference for their mother’s voice compared to unfamiliar female voices.

Perception of Speech Sounds by Infants

• Eimas et al. (1971) demonstrated that 1- and 4-month-old infants could differentiate between the speech sounds /ba/ and /pa/, indicating early phonetic awareness.

Habituation to Sound /ba/

• Eimas et al. (1971) found that infants habituated quickly to the sound /ba/, signifying that they recognized it as a constant stimulus and reduced their response over time.

Preference for Father vs. Male Stranger

• In studies by DeCasper and Prescott (1984), 2-day-old infants showed a preference for their mother's voice over that of their father and a male stranger.

Significance of Categorical Perception

• Infants’ categorical perception of speech sounds indicates that they can distinguish phonetic categories, which is crucial for language development.

Outcome of Eimas et al.'s Experiment

• Eimas et al. (1971) concluded that infants' ability to discriminate between /ba/ and /pa/ showcases an early understanding of speech patterns, facilitating future language acquisition.

Explore the development of auditory perception in foetuses and newborns, including how they respond to auditory stimulation in the womb and their preferences for different types of sounds at birth.