Mothers who respond quickly to baby babble may lower child's ADHD risk, study finds

How quickly a mother verbally responds to her 12-month-old baby's babbling and sounds may be linked to the child's risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other mental health conditions, according to new research.

A team led by researcher Bethany Stanley at the University of Glasgow published findings Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS ONE showing that the faster a mother responded vocally to her infant's sounds at 12 months of age, the less likely the child was to be diagnosed with ADHD or another mental health condition before age 7.

The research team said the degree to which a mother responds vocally at the right moment could serve as an indicator for assessing a child's later risk of disruptive behavior disorder, among other conditions.

The team said the findings could contribute to the development of screening tools for mental health conditions where early intervention is possible.

The researchers drew on data from families enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a large-scale cohort study, focusing on households that participated in the Children in Focus program at 12 months. They examined the relationship between maternal responses to infant babbling and mental health diagnoses up to age 7.

The Children in Focus program included video recordings of mothers and babies interacting while looking at picture books together. The researchers used this footage to measure how quickly mothers responded vocally to their infants' sounds.

The final analysis covered 158 mother-infant pairs. Of these, 55 children had received at least one mental health diagnosis by age 7, while 103 served as gender-matched controls.

The analysis found that for every 10 percentage point increase in the probability of a mother responding vocally within one second of her baby's vocalization, the likelihood of the child receiving any mental health diagnosis by age 7 fell by 17 percent (OR=0.83).

The likelihood of an ADHD diagnosis was 21 percent lower, and the likelihood of a disruptive behavior disorder diagnosis was 20 percent lower. However, no significant association was observed for autism spectrum disorder or emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression.

The research team said the speed at which a child responded to the mother's vocalizations showed no significant link to later mental health outcomes, while the mother's response speed emerged as the more meaningful indicator in parent-child interaction.

However, the team noted that the videos used in the study were recorded in a laboratory setting and were of poor audio quality, which may mean they did not fully reflect everyday parent-child interactions.

The researchers were clear that the study does not imply that parental responsiveness causes mental health conditions in children.

Philip Wilson, a professor at the University of Aberdeen and co-author of the paper, said the study "suggests that observing early parent-child interactions could provide important information for assessing a child's psychological vulnerability." He added, however, that "it is not yet known whether a mother's slower response is an actual cause of mental health conditions, or whether it reflects the influence of other factors such as genetic risk."

Babbling refers to the sounds infants make before they can accurately produce specific words and sentences — the most rudimentary form of speech.

Babies typically begin babbling around 4 to 6 months of age, starting with single syllables made up of consonants and vowels. They gradually progress to producing various syllables in different sequences, slowly developing the sounds found in their native language.

Infants are generally understood to treat their own babbling as a kind of vocal play, enjoying the sounds they make. They may babble again simply because they want to hear themselves.

In addition, as babies repeatedly listen to and imitate the speech of adults around them, their vocal organs develop and they become capable of producing an increasingly wide range of sounds.

Babbling represents an important period during which infants develop the ability to monitor and control their own vocalizations and articulatory organs. It is also used as an indicator of hearing ability and cognitive development.