2023-11-03 09:00:35
Who has never found themselves helpless when faced with the cries of an inconsolable baby? It must be said that it is often difficult to understand the origin of the discomfort of a young child who does not yet know how to speak. Crying remains the only way for him to express his discomfort. Would it nevertheless be possible to decipher babies’ cries? This is what two teams of French scientists sought to find out in a study published in the journal Communications Psychology.
Crying babies: a vocal signal to express their discomfort
When faced with a crying baby, it is often difficult to immediately understand what may be distressing them. Colic, sleep, fatigue or even teething, there are many reasons that can push him to become vocal. The only way for him to express his discomfort, crying constitutes a vocal signal thanks to which the infant manages to communicate with those around him.
That being said, would it be possible to understand a baby’s crying? If popular belief is that each cry provides information regarding its cause, it is clear that until now, scientists have not been able to prove it. In this context, two teams of French researchers from Inserm and the CNRS set out to decipher babies’ cries.
The cause of babies crying: impossible to identify by ear!
To carry out their work, the researchers studied nearly 40,000 cries from 24 babies (girls and boys) recorded during the first four months following their birth. The stated objective? Identify possible links between the characteristics of crying and the reason for these cries using algorithms.
It emerged from this experiment that the cries of babies motivated by hunger, isolation or any discomfort did not present any different characteristics. It is therefore impossible for scientists to identify by ear the cause of each cry or to distinguish whether it was the crying of baby girls or baby boys.
The researchers also called on more than 200 people (men and women) to listen to some of the recorded crying and try to identify the cause. But once more, the origin of the crying remained unknown.
The sound of crying indicates the child’s level of distress.
Published in the journal Communications Psychology, this work also communicates interesting information. They indeed demonstrate that babies’ cries are subject to an individual vocal signature constituted by a set of specific acoustic characteristics. Simply put, each infant cries in their own way.
The results of this study also demonstrate that at the acoustic level, the characteristics of a baby’s crying are linked to the child’s level of distress. Crucial data if it is seen as it informs on the degree of urgency to react to a crying baby.
Déborah L., Doctor in Pharmacy
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#Baby #cries #decipher
