ALTHOUGH they can only babble, babies seem to have a keen eye for speech: they can distinguish between different languages simply by reading your lips.
Whitney Weikum and colleagues from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, showed babies videos of talking adults, with the sound turned off. Babies soon got bored of the silent clips, but they watched with renewed interest when speakers switched from English to French (Science, vol 316, p 1159).
This ability lasted only until the age of about 8 months – unless the babies came from bilingual households, when it continued. This suggests…
