Baby talk is an integral component of communication development for infants. Through exaggerated voices and repetition, infants learn words quickly while developing the necessary language skills they’ll need later.
Studies have demonstrated that seven-month-old brains show activation when exposed to baby talk. Perhaps they’re trying to emulate its sounds themselves?
It lights up their mind.
Baby talk’s gentle, higher-pitched tone draws infants’ attention for longer than adults do, as its slower tempo and repetitive nature help them associate sounds with objects they see around them – for instance, learning that people use a chair for sitting and that mommy puts socks on often by hearing those phrases repeated frequently.
Babies exposed to baby talk tend to babble more, an essential step in learning how to speak. Babbling allows babies to experiment with producing sounds on their own and accelerates the transition to speaking significantly faster than those who never babble at all. A study revealed that infants exposed to baby talk had double the vocabulary than those who hadn’t.
Studies show that when infants listen to a parent speaking in “baby speak” or “parentese,” certain motor areas in their brain light up; this indicates they’re actively trying to communicate back!
Since baby talk can sometimes be confusing, most speech-language pathologists advise using simple, repetitive phrases when communicating with infants. When speaking, be sure to look directly into their eyes without interrupting or talking over them, and try limiting television and media exposure, which has been shown to impair language development.
When searching for the perfect baby book, select one with lots of repetition and an engaging narrative. Reading aloud together and pointing out objects relevant to them will help your child to associate words with events as they happen in real life. Books featuring adorable illustrations with a playful tone will encourage a focus on text while offering cuddling time as you read together – make sure that everyone involved enjoys themselves!
It strengthens the connections in their brain.
As babies listen to their parents talk, they are creating and strengthening billions of neuron connections – long before they understand a word – and this process continues as they grow up and learn new skills such as picking up objects or remembering song lyrics. This stage in a child’s development is crucial, and how we interact with our babies may have lasting implications for their future lives.
Baby talk’s higher-pitched, singsong tones help our babies focus and understand what’s around them, including mouth and throat movements. For instance, researchers showed infants playbacks of human speech and found they could only detect changes in its second syllable when spoken in an exaggerated baby voice (Karzon 1985). Baby talk helps them practice articulations while potentially giving them a head start toward learning their language.
Previous studies focused on how much language babies hear; however, the new research shows that quality is far more significant. Researchers discovered that infants were better at learning when their parents spoke to them in baby talk than in regular conversation, specifically one-on-one conversations in which parents exaggerated vowels and raised voice pitch – leading them to babble more before developing words – or where mother and child worked in unison for optimal performance. Furthermore, the more in sync the mother and child were, the better off they both were in terms of performance.
Study findings included evidence that motor areas of infants’ brains became active when listening to their parents’ babbling. This may indicate that infants are actively trying to create their speech – perhaps explaining why infants perform better when their moms and dads speak in familiar baby talk voices.
The authors concluded that infant brain myelination levels could serve as an accurate predictor of later language and cognitive skills; however, further research should be conducted to validate these findings.
It helps them learn new words.
Baby talk may not only be cute, but it may actually help your child learn. A recent study suggests that talking to infants using baby talk causes their brains to start practicing the movements that comprise speech.
Researchers conducted this research study by pairing babies with one of their parents and asking them to interact in an informal conversation–similar to how adults might converse–in order to assess how infant brains responded. A unique brain activation scanner was then employed. Researchers found that infants listened more attentively when their parents used parentese than when speaking in everyday adult language. But the results were particularly astonishing: when listening, researchers observed activity in an infant’s superior temporal gyrus. This area helps guide motor movements that produce sound; its findings indicate that even at seven months, infants’ brains are already trying to figure out how to make those movements!
Research also demonstrated that when parents exaggerated vowels and raised the pitch of their voices, 1-year-olds babbled more. This effect was even seen when infants were listening to what their parents were babbling without actively taking part in a dialogue; moreover, its strength increased when spoken directly to without other children or adults present.
Developmental Science published another study in March 2015, which showed that babies exposed to both baby talk and regular language gained greater comprehension of the sounds that make up words. For this experiment, 7-month-old Paul was sitting on his mother’s lap as two women spoke simultaneously – one out of sight behind a wall spoke parentese while on the right, she used adult language. Researchers then tested Paul’s ability to distinguish the two forms of speech; Paul preferred listening to parentese over adult language, even when aware of its meaning.
It’s a two-way street.
Baby talk may seem like just another cute way of communicating with your little one, but it actually plays an essential part in their brain development. Baby-talk’s high pitch and long syllables capture babies’ attention and allow them to make associations between objects and their names; repetition helps new words be learned faster; many babies recognize sounds they heard during gestation more readily compared to male voices; for this reason, many prefer mother’s voices over mens’.
Researchers recently conducted a study in which they recorded parents talking to their babies and playing back the sound. Infant voices held babies’ attention for 40% longer than adult-sounding voices due to higher pitch and vowel-dragging that mimicked sounds they heard while still in their mother’s womb.
As adults, our conversations with children often use more monotone tones. But by employing baby talk, we not only grab their attention but also encourage them to imitate the speech sounds they heard while still in utero. Baby talk’s higher pitched and long syllables help our infants learn both sounds themselves and how vital pausing can be in adult conversation.
Studies on the impact of baby talk have been extensive, and most researchers agree it does have an effect. Unfortunately, however, its exact causes remain elusive; one possible theory is that its higher pitch and syllable-dragging help our children better hear certain speech sounds, leading to increased babble production later on in life.
Another theory holds that infants respond to baby talk because it repeats what they’re already babbling; during conversations, pauses provide space for infants to react with their babble – perhaps reaching both arms up in a gesture to indicate they want to be picked up or handing you toys to show they want to play!
