Cracking the Code: How Babies Learn Language Before Their First Word with Dr. Saffran - Beyond Words with Garrett Oyama

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What does it take to make sense of the sound soup that surrounds a newborn? In this episode of Beyond Words, Garrett Oyama sits down with Dr. Jenny Saffran—pioneer of infant statistical learning—to explore how babies transform streams of speech into meaningful language, all without seeing “white spaces” between words.

Together, they dive into:

• How infants use statistical learning to segment and group sounds
• Why the brain’s ability to track syllable patterns is like a built-in prediction engine
• How context and the physical environment (like shape-sorter toys!) support early word learning
• New work applying eye-tracking to understand language in children with cerebral palsy
• The intersection of music, language, and domain-general learning mechanisms

Dr. Saffran also weighs in on nature vs. nurture, the rise of large language models, and why infants may be motivated not by communication—but by the desire to grip the world with meaning.

Whether you’re a speech therapist, a cognitive science fan, or just fascinated by how humans learn to speak, this conversation opens up wonder and insight on every level.