A recent study has found that using baby talk when communicating with babies is much better at improving their vocabulary than regular speech.
Researchers at the University of Washington and University of Connecticut examined thousands of 30-second snippets of verbal exchanges between parents and babies. They measured parents' use of a regular speaking voice versus an exaggerated animated baby talk style, and whether speech occurred one-on-one between parent and child or in group settings. Dr. Patricia Juhl, co-author of the study, from the University of Washington's Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences, said: "What our analysis shows is that the prevalence of baby talk in one-on-one conversations with children is linked to better language development, both concurrent and future.
This means that the more parents used exaggerated vowels for example "How are youuuuu?" and raised the pitch of their voice, the more the one-year-olds babbled, which is a sign of word production. Baby talk was also found to be most effective when parents spoke with the child individually, without other adults of children around. "The fact that the infant's babbling itself plays a role in future language development shows how important the interchange between parent and child is," Dr. Kuhl said.
Nairan Rammrez-Esparza, co-author of the study and an assistant psychology professor at the University of Connecticut said: "Some parents produce baby talk naturally and they don't realize they're benefitting their children. Some families are more quiet, not talking all the time. But it helps to make an effort to talk more. What this study is adding is that how you talk to children matters. Parentese is much better at developing language than regular speech, and even better if it occurs in a one-on-one interaction."
