Untreated depression during pregnancy can slow a child’s prenatal learning of mother tongue traits, according to a study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This is one of the first studies to investigate the effects of maternal depression and therapy on how quickly a child begins to learn the sounds of the mother tongue. Today we do not know yet whether accelerating or slowing down this process in the prenatal period may permanently affect the later ability to acquire language – says Prof. Janet Werker from the University of British Columbia.
The study involved mothers suffering from depression who took antidepressants (serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs), women who had not been treated for the disease, and a control group without symptoms of depression. The researchers analyzed the babies’ reactions to the sounds of the tongue at 36 weeks in utero by measuring changes in heart rate. Then they assessed the linguistic development of toddlers in the sixth and tenth months of life.
Observations showed that in the case of children of women taking antidepressants, language acquisition was faster, while among children of women with untreated depression, the process was much slower.
During his previous research, prof. Werker found that in the first few months of life, babies quickly adapt to the sounds of the language and the accompanying images (such as the movements of the facial muscles while speaking). After this basic period of speech recognition, they concentrate on learning their mother tongue, ignoring other languages.
Current results suggest that the key time for language development, which usually ends between the eighth and ninth months, may be accelerated or delayed, in some cases by up to several months. Therefore, treating depression in pregnant women is of great importance, says Prof. Werker. (PAP)
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