New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK has found evidence that talking to toddlers helps to shape their developing brain. MRI scans were also carried out to explore the structure of the participants’ developing brains, focusing on a substance called myelin. The devices recorded 6,208 hours of language data in total – including extra speech from adults, conversational patterns and words spoken by the children themselves. “What we found is that the toddlers who heard more speech in their everyday environment, also had more myelin, which is likely to support more sophisticated language processing, Prof. Spencer said. Not only are they listening, but your language input is literally shaping their brains.” Prof. Spencer concluded.’Language exposure and brain myelination in early development’ is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.