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Call Me Mother

The way children acquire language is explored by parent and New Generation Thinker Dr Rebecca Woods, who lectures in language and cognition at Newcastle University.

Why do babies say "daddy" earlier and what might it mean when a baby does call for "mum" or "anne"? Dr Rebecca Woods, from Newcastle University, calls upon her training in linguistics and observations from her own home to trace the way children鈥檚 experiences shape their first words and the names they use for their parents.

Rebecca Woods is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the 大象传媒 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to put academic research on radio.

Producer: Ruth Watts

You can hear more from Rebecca Woods in a Free Thinking discussion about childhood and play when Young V&A opened - it's available from the programme website and as an Arts & Ideas podcast

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15 minutes

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