`Babbling' and social context in infant monkeys: parallels to human infants

Although only humans use spoken language, the vocal communication of many animals shares some features with language. Within the context of their family, normal children and young non-human primates develop proficiency in the nuances of their species-specific vocal communication system. Engaging in speech-like phonetic activity, or babbling, occurs in all normal children regardless of their native language. Similar periods of vocal development have not been described previously for non-human primates. However, in the pygmy marmoset, a South American monkey, we found that the primary vocal behavior of infants parallels many characteristics of human infant babbling. These analogous features include universality, repetition, use of a subset of the adult vocal repertoire, recognizably adult-like vocal structure and lack of a clear vocal referent. Also, like human infants, young marmosets develop in a closely knit family unit that includes both parents and often older siblings. In this context, the babbling-like behavior of the marmoset infant stimulates interaction with caregivers, thereby serving a key role in the infant's own development. These developmental and social processes indicate that the study of vocal development in non-human primate species can provide insights into the function of babbling in humans.