The benefits of 'baby talk'

[Posted: Wed 16/03/2005 - www.irishhealth.com]

Most adults use a certain degree of 'baby talk' when speaking to infants - short, simple sentences, coupled with a higher pitch and an exaggerated tone. However new research has found that babies who are spoken to in this manner learn to speak sooner.

According to Professor Erik Thiessen of the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, it has long been known that babies prefer to be spoken to in this manner, i.e. adults using baby talk, rather than talking as if to another adult.

However in a series of experiments, Professor Thiessen found that 'infant-directed speech' helped infants to learn words more quickly, compared to normal adult speech.

He and his colleagues exposed eight-month-old babies to fluent speech made up of nonsense words. The researchers assessed whether after listening to this fluent speech for less than two minutes, the babies had been able to learn the words.

They found that infants who were exposed to fluent speech in a baby talk style - with exaggerated intonation - learned to identify the words more quickly, compared to those who heard the fluent speech spoken in a more monotone style.

Professor Thiessen also believes that this may explain why many adults struggle to learn a second language, even though they can speak their own language effortlessly. Children, he said, learn to speak from scratch and most experts believe that they are more adept at learning new languages than adults.

"Learning a language is one of the most critical things that an infant has to do because communication with other people is tremendously important. It makes a great deal of sense that the special way we have of talking to babies would help them learn", he explained.

This research is published in the journal, Infancy.