posted November 30, 2006 11:39 PM
Neh, owh, heh, eairh, ehAustralian says she's unlocked the mystery to five sounds made by all babies
Nov. 30, 2006. 07:03 AM
FRANCINE KOPUN
FEATURE WRITER
An Australian mom claims to have discovered the holy grail of infant development — a universal baby language spoken by all newborns the world over.
She believes it's composed of five distinct sounds: Neh, Owh, Heh, Eairh, Eh, meaning, I'm hungry; I'm sleepy; I'm experiencing discomfort (also known as "change my diaper already"); I have lower gas pain and I need to burp.
The sounds aren't randomly produced; they arise from a reflex to a physical need, says Priscilla Dunstan, 32, adding she made her discovery after reaching wit's end with her own crying infant son in 1998.
For example, the "Neh" sound is created when a baby gets hungry and cries through the sucking reflex, which pushes the tongue against the roof of the mouth. The "Eh" (I need to burp) sound is made when there's an air bubble trapped in baby's chest.
Dunstan, who had a gift for recognizing patterns in sound, eventually realized her infant's cries weren't random at all. Until that moment, the new mother had felt overwhelmed by the mysterious demands of her screaming newborn. At times, when he cried, she'd cry too.
"I felt terrible, very isolated and alone, and I thought that all the other mothers had this piece of information that I didn't have, they had an instinct I didn't have, the little key I was missing because I didn't understand my son's cries," Dunstan said in a phone interview.
Her pediatrician told her what every new mother is told: that she would get to know his cries over time.
"I asked: `How do I know the difference between a tired cry and a pain cry?' She couldn't tell me," Dunstan says. "No one could tell me exactly what it was that I needed to listen for."
Dunstan says that as a child, she had only to hear a piece of music once to be able to play it on her violin. She began writing down the sounds her baby made. She noticed a pattern.
"With the "Neh" cry my breasts leaked, and it didn't hurt to nurse — with the other cries it hurt and he pulled off," she says.
She had her first word: hungry. Soon she found others.
"The first thing I noticed was that there were other babies and they were all saying the same words," Dunstan says.
She sent friends who were travelling to far-flung countries to maternity hospitals, equipped with video cameras to record infants crying. It was when she saw the tape of babies in a remote part of Turkey that she began to believe she had uncovered something universal. The Turkish babies made the same sounds as babies in Australia, New Zealand and Holland.
Dunstan was recently featured on Oprah Winfrey's show, and the TV host raved about her findings.
The feeling, though, isn't universal.
Roberta Golinkoff, a professor at the School of Education and the departments of psychology and linguistics at the University of Delaware, is author of a book on infant language called How Babies Talk: The Magic and Mystery of Language in the First Three Years of Life.
She felt compelled to write Winfrey after watching the show.
"There is no research that supports these claims," she said in an interview.
"Therefore, I would have to say that it is not likely to be based on more than women's intuition. Think about the fact that if you keep trying, you will usually be able to chance upon what will make your baby happy."
Dr. Celeste Johnston, associate director for research at the McGill University School of Nursing, began conducting studies into infant cries in 1987. Her studies involved several hundred infants and included coding their cries using a computer program. Attempts to distinguish between a baby's everyday cry and cries of pain were not successful.
"We did not find an acoustic signature to states," Johnston says. For example, while some infants emit a distinctive wail — like a siren — when in pain, others do not.
"Some of them would just cry and you couldn't really distinguish it from a hunger cry," Johnston says. "I haven't done research in that area for a number of years now, because it's not that predictive."
Amy Halpenny, founder of the Ella Centre for pregnancy and parenting in Toronto, says many parents are totally unprepared for the first few weeks with a new baby.
She recommends parenting courses that focus on infant care and to help parents learn to pick up on their child's unique cues.
"So much of childbirth education focuses on preparation for labour and delivery, and nine times out of 10 people forget about bringing baby home. It's like when you plan your wedding day and you forget about the marriage," she says, adding Ella Centre gets a lot of calls from parents on days three, four and five of baby's life.
Each child and every parent is unique and they need to get to know each other, Halpenny says.
"I find there's so much focus on materialism and gear. It doesn't matter if you have the best diaper bag and the top-of-the-line stroller; if you don't have the confidence and a sense of calm, it's disastrous for everyone: the baby, the mom, the dad."
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posted November 30, 2006 11:39 PM
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