How we inherit, or evade, family traits, gaits and quirks.
According to latest scientific research, German and French babies as young as just two days old already produce quite different ‘cry melodies’. For the record, French babies wail with an upward intonation, German babies downwards. So if such tiny babes are capable of copying their mother tongue, how closely do children mimic their parents as they continue to grow and develop and what happens when it’s not merely a matter of speech inflection but potentially less desirable family attributes as say, incurable flat footedness. To discuss how we might inherit, or evade , family traits, gaits and quirks Jenni is joined by comedienne and mimic Jan Ravens and author of ‘The Baby in the Mirror’, developmental psychologist, Charles Fernyhough.
The Baby in the Mirror: A Child's World from Birth to Three, written by Charles Fernyhough, published by Granta Books, ISBN-10: 184708074X |
