Think of the last time you met a baby in the company of an
adult. Chances are your conversation went something like this:
To baby, in high- pitched
voice:
"Helloooo, sweeeetie. How's my baaabeee?
Ooooh, you're sooo cute. You are sooooo cuuuuute!"
To adult, groaning:
“What a day. It took me 15 minutes to get on the freeway. Then another half-hour to make it to work. I was late to the morning meeting again.”
To baby, high-pitched:
"Can you give me a smiiile? Give me a big,
big smiiile!"
It’s a phenomenon that even the most serious-minded parents can’t
explain. They see a baby and they start talking in silly voices.
Researchers call the special way we talk to babies “motherese,” or “parentese”.
This sing-song speech, often accompanied by exaggerated facial
expressions, seems to be used by nearly everyone who talks to a baby (Gopnik,
Meltzoff & Kuhl, 1999; Grieser & Kuhl, 1998; Snow, 1977). We all love to
do it—mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, even preschoolers
addressing younger brothers and sisters. And what’s more, babies seem to
like it too.
How do we know
infants like it?
Researchers have found that infants prefer to hear parentese to adult
conversation (Fernald, 1985). To test this, scientists sat babies in
their mother’s laps and let them choose to hear tapes of adult-to-adult
speech or adult-to-infant speech (parentese). When babies turned their
heads one way, an eight-second tape of adult conversation played. When
they turned their heads the other way, the babies heard parentese. The
researchers found that the babies consistently chose to turn their heads
to hear the speech directed toward infants (Fernald, 1985). Amazingly,
further testing showed this to be true even when the speaker spoke in a
foreign language (Gopnik et al., 1999). Babies, quite simply, enjoy
hearing the higher-pitched sounds and exaggerated speech patterns of
parentese. Babies not only enjoy the sounds we make when we do it, they
also enjoy watching our faces as we talk to them.
In fact, researchers have found that babies as young as five months old
are capable of some simple lip-reading. In this test, babies were first
shown a silent video of a face forming the sounds “ahhh” or “eeee” and
then they heard audiotapes of one of the sounds. The babies knew which
face matched which sound. Babies hearing the “ahhh” sound looked at the
video with the wide-open mouth, while those that heard “eeee” looked at
the video with the grinning mouth (Kuhl & Meltzoff 1982; Gopnik, et al.,
1999).
Does parentese
help infants learn?
Does parentese serve a purpose beyond making everyone feel warm and
happy? Could sing-song speech, silly faces and short, simple sentences
of baby talk help infants learn language? Researchers are just beginning
to look at the possible benefits of parentese. In fact, one study found
that parentese helps children acquire certain aspects of language (Thiessen,
Hill & Saffron, 2005).
Our universal
mother tongue.
It’s well established that most of us use it,
regardless of our culture or native tongue (Kuhl, et al., 1997). Various
studies have documented parentese in speakers of English, German,
Russian and Swedish. One study found it amoung speakers of Mandarin
Chinese, a tonal language in which, unlike English or German, a change
in the pitch of a word alters the meaning of that word (Greiser & Kuhl,
1988).
But in every language, parentese seems to share several characteristics
and scientists theorize that it has several purposes.
Parentese is higher-pitched, sometimes as much as an octave higher. Why
do we all seem to become sopranos when we talk to babies? It may help to
get their attention. After all, it we’re getting high and squeaky, we’re
probably not addressing anybody with more authority, or even more
height, than we have.
Parentese uses short and simple sentences, often repeated over and over
again. We’ve all said it, probably multiple times, “Who’s a sweet baby?
Are you a sweet baby? Yes, you’re a sweet, sweet baby.” Repeating
ourselves may help babies figure out words, and simple, repeated
sentences may help them with grammar.
Parentese features well-formed, elongated consonants and vowels. We tend
to pronounce words precisely when we talk to babies – pulling out the
vowel sounds and clearly voicing consonants – in marked contrast to the
hurried way we speak to other adults. A slurred “sweebabe” becomes a
bright “sweeet baaabeee” when spoken to someone who truly fits the
description. Hearing the exaggerated sounds of parentese may make it
easier for infants to learn the sounds of their own language. Research
in this area provides the clearest indication so far that babies use
parentese to help solve the mystery of language. (Gopnik, et al., 1999).
Babies learn words
with parentese!
And don’t be embarrassed about it for a second.
Around the world, adults love to use parentese. Babies love to hear
parentese. It’s delightful to move in close to a child and communicate
in a warm, friendly way that’s sure to get a smile. And the slow,
higher-pitched, sing-song speech may be just what an infant needs to
hear to help her figure out how language is put together.
Helpful
Parenting Tips
Talk to your baby as you go through the day. Even if young children don’t understand what your words mean, they love to hear the sounds of language. And don’t be shy about smiling and making goo-goo eyes while you talk!
Move in close when talking to your child, so that your baby can see your face and your lips move when you talk.
Draw out your vowels and pitch your voice as high as you like.
Smile and make eye contact.
Praise his pretty brown eyes. Tell her she’s a sweetie.
References:
Fernald, A. (1985).
Four-month-old infants prefer to listen to motherese. Infant
Behavior & Development, 8, 181-195.
Gopnik, A., Meltzoff,
A. N., & Kuhl, P. K. (1999). The scientist in the crib: Minds,
brains, and how children learn. New York: William Morrow & Co.
Grieser, D. L., &
Kuhl, P. K. (1988). Maternal speech to infants in a tonal language:
Support for universal prosodic features in motherese. Developmental
Psychology, 24(1), 14-20.
Kuhl, P. K.,
Andruski, J. E., Chistovich, I. A., Chistovich, L. A., Kozhevnikova,
E. V., Ryskina, V. L., et al. (1997). Cross-language analysis of
phonetic units in language addressed to infants. Science, 277,
684-686.
Kuhl, P. K., &
Meltzoff, A. N. (1982). The bimodal perception of speech in infancy.
Science, 218, 1138-1141.
Snow, C. E. (1977).
The development of conversation between mothers and babies. Journal
of Child Language, 4, 1-22.
Thiessen, E. D.,
Hill, E. A., & Saffran, J. R. (2005). Infant-directed speech
facilitates word segmentation. Infancy, 7(1), 53-71.
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speech or adult-to-infant speech (parentese). When babies turned their
heads one way, an eight-second tape of adult conversation played. When
they turned their heads the other way, the babies heard parentese. The
researchers found that the babies consistently chose to turn their heads
to hear the speech directed toward infants (Fernald, 1985). Amazingly,
further testing showed this to be true even when the speaker spoke in a
foreign language (Gopnik et al., 1999). Babies, quite simply, enjoy
hearing the higher-pitched sounds and exaggerated speech patterns of
parentese. Babies not only enjoy the sounds we make when we do it, they
also enjoy watching our faces as we talk to them.
Parentese is higher-pitched, sometimes as much as an octave higher. Why
do we all seem to become sopranos when we talk to babies? It may help to
get their attention. After all, it we’re getting high and squeaky, we’re
probably not addressing anybody with more authority, or even more
height, than we have.
Talk to your baby as you go through the day. Even if young children don’t understand what your words mean, they love to hear the sounds of language. And don’t be shy about smiling and making goo-goo eyes while you talk!
