Last year, a study from the Netherlands found evidence that unborn babies can remember sounds. Dutch researchers studied almost one hundred pregnant women. They played sounds to the fetus and watched its movements with ultrasound equipment. They found that by thirty weeks of development the fetus could remember a sound for ten minutes. By the thirty-fourth week, it could remember the sound for four weeks.

BOB DOUGHTY: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children.

The study involved more than one thousand two hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. The researchers also observed the women for evidence of depression.

The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they heard.