Baby-Talk” Words Support Language Development
How “Baby-talk” Words Support Language Development By Julie Erdmann Speech-Language Pathologist & Clinical Program Assistant, The Hanen Centre If you were to walk past a parent talking to her baby, you might hear any of the following phrases: “Uh oh!” “Pop!” “Where’s your belly?” “Woof-woof says the dog!” “Night-night, baby!” As Hanen certified SLPs, we know that modeling playful words is a natural part of interaction-building activities. In It Takes Two to Talk®, we teach caregivers to use this type of vocabulary when they join in and play in order to follow their child’s lead and let the interaction grow. “Fun sounds and words are easy to remember and understand because they’re said with lots of animation and often have gestures that go with them” (Weitzman, 2017, p. 37) These words are a familiar part of parentese, or infant directed speech. Infant directed speech (IDS) consists of language that is, as its name suggests, directed specifically to the child and not conversation that he may simply overhear. IDS has been studied since the 1960s (Ferguson, 1964) and the research on this topic has continued. Studies have shown that “[i]nfant directed speech…systematically differs from adult directed speech” (Ota, Davies-Jenkins, Skarabella, 2018). Some studies have focused on the quantitative variation between IDS and adult-directed speech (ADS), showing that all the elements are the same but vary by degree. Infant directed speech (IDS) generally has slower speech rates, higher pitch ranges, and longer pauses than speech directed at adults. Sentences are shorter than those in adult directed speech (ADS) and contain more concrete and less diverse vocabulary – the same set of words tend to be used more often (Cristia, 2013; Phillips, 1973; Saint-Georges, Chetouani, Cassel, Apicella, Mahdhauoi, Muratori, Laznik, & Cohen, 2013; Thiessen, Hill, & Saffran, 2005; Trainor, L.
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