Say it again, mama

Moran Ben-David was proud of his infant daughter Shaya when she said her first word around the age of one year: "Aba," which is Hebrew for "dad."

The Toronto resident doesn't doubt that she associates the word to him.

"When she said it, she meant it," he said. "It was me."

But he also acknowledges that it's an easy word to say, particularly because it ends with an "a."

'The learning process actually starts on Day 1, or maybe even before in the womb.' Judit Gervain, researcher

Ben-David is likely on to something, according to a University of British Columbia study.

Judit Gervainof the psychology department's Infant Studies Centre has examined why babies are so efficient and fast when learning to speak.

The study hypothesized that babies start to learn immediately after birth.

Babies may learn through structural patterns

Gervain and a team of researchers studied 22 newborns, exposing them to a recording of made-up words, half with repeated syllables and half without.

The two- and three-day-old infants listened to words such as "mubaba" and "penana," along with others such as "mubage" and "penaku."

(Researchers often use made-up words in infant research so that the test subjects aren't influenced by stress patterns or enunciation.)

Gervain said she wanted to find outwhether babies learn through structural patterns. Her studies appeared to verify that.

"We found the newborn brain responds with increased activation to these repeated words, the words that had the repeated syllables," she said.

The researchers noticed, using light-based brain imaging, that the babies' brain activity would increase in the area associated with language. In other words, the babies would think more when they heard the words with repeated syllables.

This could be why babies' first words are often easy words like "mama" or "dada," or in Ben-David's daughter's case, "aba." In many different language, the "baby words" for mother and father often have repeated syllables.

"Newborn babies are able to learn about the structures of language as long as the structure is simple enough, namely through repetition," Gervain said.

Learning starts early, study suggests

The findings also led the research team to conclude that children learn much earlier than most people believe.

"The learning process actually starts on Day 1, or maybe even before in the womb," Gervain said.

However, Gervain said Ben-David's assumption that his daughter knows that he is "aba" is probably wishful thinking. She said putting together words and meaning likely doesn't come until later in development.

"Our results showthat these sounds or these forms are easy to learn," Gervain said. "Associating meaning to them is another step."

The study was originally conducted at the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy.

Gervain took part in the research as a graduate student and replicated the study at the B.C. Women's Hospital.