Hello curious parents!
Welcome to University of Connecticut’s HELLO Lab Presents, a channel all about language and development.
If you’re a parent with a baby or toddler at home, you probably have a TON of questions about how they best learn to communicate with others.
Questions like, “Am I talking to my baby enough?” and “What should I talk to my baby about?” are super important.
For our first ever episode, let’s tackle a related question – “HOW should I talk with my baby?”
WHAT IS “BABY TALK” ANYWAY?
At some point it’s likely that family members, friends, or even doctors have warned you against using so-called “baby talk”.
“Baby talk” is a scientifically-backed language booster for your baby. It goes by a lot of names, like “Motherese” or “Parentese” or “infant-directed speech” (IDS). (Outters, Schreiner, Behne, & Mani, 2020; Ramírez-Esparza, García-Sierra, & Kuhl, 2017; Soderstrom, 2007*; Saint-Georges, Chetouani, Cassel, Apicella, Mahdhaoui, Muratori, Laznik, & Cohen, 2013; Wang, Seidl, & Cristia, 2014).
We can think of baby talk as a special way of talking to babies that both adults and even kids do without having to think about it. And I bet you already know what this playful, sing-songy form of speech sounds (and looks) like.
Just imagine you’re having a baby chat right now. You’d probably:
- Raise your pitch:
- Slow things down:
- (Keep it simple and) use short sentences (Cristia, 2013*; Soderstrom, 2007*; Wang, Houston, & Seidl, 2018)
This way of talking to your kid sometimes gets a bad rap because many believe that it will somehow “mess up” how a kid learns language, especially doing things like imitating baby sounds like “goo-goo ga-ga” or using cutesy words like “wah-wah” instead of water and “put on your shoeshies” instead of “put on your shoes”. But there’s no proof for that.
Babies are actually really good at learning different words for the same things (for more on that, check out our next episode on bilingualism).
It’s important to emphasize that there’s NO scientific evidence that any aspect of baby talk is bad for your little one.
HOW EXACTLY DOES “PARENTESE” HELP?
In fact, there’s tons of evidence that “baby talk” is actually really beneficial. How so?
“Baby talk” might let your baby know you’re talking to them and that they need to really turn on their listening ears. (Csibra & Gergely, 2009; Lloyd-Fox, Széplaki-Köllőd, Yin, & Csibra, 2015*; Nencheva & Lew-Williams, 2022*; Parise & Csibra, 2013). Evidence also shows babies pay more attention to “baby talk” compared to normal “adult-directed” speech (Cooper & Aslin, 1990; Fernald, 1985; ManyBabies Consortium, 2020).
While we’re still exploring this idea, “baby talk” might play a role in making language easier to recognize and process for babies. It helps them recognize new words, grow their vocabulary, and learn grammar. (Graf Estes & Hurley, 2013 *; Ma, Golinkoff, Houston, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2011; Nencheva & Lew-Williams, 2022*; Singh, Nestor, Parikh, & Yull, 2009*; Song, Demuth, & Morgan, 2010; Thiessen, Hill, & Saffran, 2005*).
Evidence shows this happening with both typically hearing babies AND those who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), such as little ones with cochlear implants (Wang, Bergeson, & Houston, 2017; Wang, Bergeson, & Houston, 2018; Dilley, Lehet, Wieland, Arjmandi, Kondaurova, Wang, Reed, Svirsky, Houston, & Bergeson, 2020). More on childhood deafness in a future episode.
And we also know that it exists, in some form or another, across the world (Broesch & Bryant, 2015; Fernald, Taeschner, Dunn, Papousek, de Boysson-Bardies, & Fukui, 1989*;Hilton et al., 2022). That’s right – babies all over the globe love “baby talk”.
And the benefits of baby talk go beyond just language learning. Using it makes babies calmer, happier, and it’s important for forming social bonds (Fernald, 1993; Golinkoff, Can, Soderstrom, Hirsh-Pasek, 2015; Papoušek, Bornstein, Nuzzo, Papoušek, Symmes, 1990*; Ramírez-Esparza, García-Sierra, & Kuhl, 2017).
This is great stuff, but it’s important we point out what “baby talk” ISN’T. This special way of talking to your baby doesn’t mean that you’re speaking unnaturally and ungrammatically – this is NOT something that’s recommended.
Of course, as your kid grows, the way you talk to them should too. Baby talk isn’t forever. It isn’t meant to be. The bigger a baby’s brain, the more language they can handle.
GOO GOO… GAH GAH?
Bottom line: Whether you call it “baby talk” or “Parentese”, your baby learns language by interacting with you. So if this involves a few “goo goo gah gahs”, it’s more than likely to help boost, not hinder, their language growth.
Just remember not to do all the talking. It’s important to give your little ones time to respond to what you are saying, too. Until next time!
Don’t just take our word for it, check out our “Evidence Library” on our website to learn about the research that helped us make this episode! Link in description.
And there’s plenty of awesome language-y topics and baby cuteness where that came from! Check out our next episode all about multilingualism.
Got a burning question about baby talk or anything else you want us to explore? Or maybe you have a cute clip of you using baby talk with your little one? Leave us a comment or post it on social media and tag us! Info in video description. And of course, like and subscribe!
*Please contact us at thehellolab@gmail.com if you are have difficulty accessing any articles.