What were your first words? Odds are, if you grew up in the United States speaking English, these words were nouns. Nouns like mama, dada, a favorite animal or food (or “lawnmower,” if my father is to be believed). But in languages like Korean and Mandarin Chinese, babies’ first words are more often verbs like “go” and “want.”
New research suggests these differences in early word learning might lead toddlers down different paths toward understanding relations between objects. For example, children struggle with learning relationships like right and left. They might be able to apply it to their hands but not know their right foot from their left foot. And that’s a key part of higher-level reasoning.
The new finding means that the language you speak and the culture you grow up in might shape your ability to recognize similarities and differences, like noticing that dogs and cows both have ...
