• Question: Can we teach animals English from birth, like a baby? And if not why?

    Asked by itssmeemayaa to Sarah, Will on 22 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Hi itssmeemayaa!

      It’s been tried! There was a famous scientific experiment 80 years ago where scientists Luella and Winthrop Kellogg raised a baby chimpanzee called Gua together with their human baby son Donald. Gua and Donald were raised as brother and sister. In tests Gua often tested ahead of Donald in reading and understanding, but not language. Donald was about 16 months and Gua was a little over a year old when they had language testing. Gua could not speak, but Donald could form words. When Donald began to copy Gua’s sounds the experiment ended!

      Here is some very old film footage of the experiment:

      Chimpanzees cannot speak because, unlike humans, their vocal cords are located higher in their throats and cannot be controlled as well as human vocal cords.

      🙂 Sarah

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