New York – A viral video of two diaper-clad babies babbling in the kitchen has people wondering what the tots are talking about.
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Eighteen-month-old fraternal twin boys Sam and Ren appear to be having a grown-up conversation complete with questions, answers, facial expressions and gestures — even the odd laugh. But they aren’t speaking English.
“These kids are right on the cusp of language,” said Stephen Camarata, professor of hearing and speech Sciences at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center in Nashville Tenn.
Instead of producing words, the boys are making different sounds in the tone and rhythm of speech.
“They’re using the intonation patterns of sentences — imitating sentences in a crude way,” Camarata said. “It’s one way that children learn how to talk.”
“Even before they have words, they know how conversation works,” said Dr. Roberta Golinkoff, education professor and director of the infant language project at the University of Delaware in Newark.
“They’re producing syllables emphatically and using them for communication purposes,” she said. “They’re having a ball.”
big deal. Most kids do this. Thing is that in america kids are a novelty
“They’re producing syllables emphatically and using them for communication purposes,” she said. “They’re having a ball.” “
Wow! It takes a college degree to figure this out.
This is to cute for words!
They’re so cute!
They clearly are communicating. Its not merely babbling. Their eyes are locked on each other and their gestures are reciprocated in kind. Almost mind boggling.
They’re cute but, all they’re saying is da da da da da etc. nothing like my twin grandchildren, who at 9 months have a much more varied vocabularly!
I saw this video on Jimmy Kimmel…One of the best baby videos of all time
I watched the video and its clear that all they are doing is making sounds and motions and entertaining each other. This cant be called communication as they do not appear to understand each other at all.
If you watch is carefully all they are doing is mimicking each other, nothing more.
What are they doing so close to the oven, stove, and other major appliances? Very dangereous indeed.
One of them sounds just like my ex-husband. He never made any sense either.
#13 #14 You sound like my mother-in-law, always complaining.
I laughed so hard my eyes are tearing!!!! I think the first kid is trying to find his missing sock, and then it looks like they’re working on a business deal. Look at the body language! “No Way!” “This much” “Higher!” “I’m not budging.” Anyway, they must’ve inherited smart genes form the mother- she saves a lot of $ by buying Target diapers. They were the same as the brand names that cost 1.5- 2 times as much.
13, 14, and 15, you sound like a pack of women sharing their labor and delivery horror stories – so busy trying to get sympathy for you own stories and woes that you have long since lost track about what the original conversation was about.
Heard that someone suggested a nomination for best foreign language film… absolutely we agree!