The Benefits of Baby Talk

From WikiParenting

While it may be embarrassing to coo to your baby in front of other grown-ups, research suggests that baby talk helps infants focus on the sound of words and ultimately learn the rhythm of sentences.

[edit] More Beneficial than Adult Speech

In a study involving forty babies between the ages of 6 1/2 and 7 1/2 months, scientists found that they listened longer to nonsense words spoken in high-pitched, swooping tones than they did to the same words delivered in an adult monotone. According to researchers, even a slight difference in the speed of learning a language from the beginning can make a big difference later. By one year of age, children who are exposed to a lot of baby talk have better speech perception skills than others who were not.

[edit] Advice for Better Communication Between Caregiver and Baby

Baby talk, also known as child directed speech, is more than simply uttering gibberish phrases or speaking in a high-pitched tone. Good child directed speech engages the baby on a variety of levels. It urges the child into action, questions him and confirms things for him.

• See eye-to-eye: Interact with your baby at eye level. Sit on the floor next to your baby to chat and play. Small children are far more receptive to stimuli that are within easy sight and reach of them.

• Be responsive: When your baby pauses in her babbling, you should respond. Babies learn the give and take that occurs in conversation by playing verbal ping-pong. Social interactionists believe that babies build language skills through a process of negotiation with their parents. This process is enabled when parents treat their babies’ speech, even if it is babbling, as meaningful and intentional.

• Read books with rhymes: Rhythms and repetition build verbal learning skills by stimulating the memory. A baby will eventually be able to fill in the rhyming words herself if she is exposed to the same rhyme repeatedly.

• Respond to gestures: When he points at an object and you say, "Oh, you want the ball," it teaches him that words help control his environment.

• Stay in the here-and-now: Child directed speech is most conducive to learning when it is constrained to the here-and-now and related to the baby’s present focus of attention or ongoing activity. Parents may be inadvertently stalling language development when they redirect children’s attention and

activity from the topic about which the child is attempting to communicate. Changing the child’s focus by introducing non-present referents seems to complicate the task of learning language.

[edit] Worth the Embarrassment

Even if you are subject to some ribbing or a few eye rolls, it is important to talk to your baby all the time, especially in the exaggerated intonation of baby talk. Learning language is one of the most critical tasks of an infant’s first year and the special way we have of talking to babies helps them learn.