Baby Talk

From little babbling voices, high-pitched words, and short pauses we use various ways to talk to babies and this talking is almost effortless, in that we often feel drawn to talking in particular ways to children and especially babies than how we would talk to other adults. We often take for granted the benefits that this talking ensues and how it aids in the development of a child’s language. So, in this article, we’ll talk about why it is beneficial for parents to talk to their babies.

Research has demonstrated that a very early age, children can process language. This ability was demonstrated by DeCasper and Spence’s (1986) study using “The Cat in the Hat” poem which was read by pregnant women two times in the last six weeks of their pregnancy. It was found that the babies were able to recognise the story two to three days after their birth. This ability to discriminate sounds has been narrowed down to single units of a sound, that is a child can differentiate between small sounds that may change the meaning of the word e.g., “b” and a “p” sound (Eimas et al., 1971; Dehaene-Lambertz and Dehaene, (1994).

While various studies have established that children can differentiate between sounds, it is also important to consider what function this ability may serve. One reason is that acquiring language early on would later facilitate learning for children (Kastner et al., 2001). Furthermore, it has been found that children who heard more child-directed speech had a larger expressive vocabulary and were better at processing words in real-time (Weisleder and Fernald, 2013). Weisleder and Fernald’s (2013) study goes on to regard early language exposure as a critical step in early language experience and later vocabulary of a child and concludes that children who hear more talk have greater opportunities to exercise skills involved in separating speech into sounds, interpreting language, and word representations that are crucial skills to word learning (Gershkoff-Stowe, 2002; Saffran et al., 1996. For example, Weber, Fernald and Diop, (2017) found that when the verbal engagement was increased in villages in rural Senegal, where cultural traditions discourage parents from verbally engaging with children, children in the village produced more utterances and showed greater improvements in vocabulary and other outcomes in language.

This prompts an important question: What is responsible for differences in early language growth? One reason is varying access to language by caregivers (Weisleder and Fernald, 2013). Hurtado, Marchman and Fernald, (2008) give support to this hypothesis by showing that children of mothers who talked more knew more words and also could recognise words faster. Weisleder and Fernald’s (2013) study goes on to propose the caregiver's use of more diverse language as more beneficial. It is noteworthy, however, to remember that such improvements are noticed only in a speech addressed directly to the infant, and not the speech overheard in adult conversations (Shneidman et al., 2012) (Weisleder and Fernald, 2013). It has also been found that parentese, a style of speaking distinguished by slower tempo, higher pitch, and exaggerated rising and falling of voice advances children's language learning. The use of parentese between 6-18 months has indeed been shown to increase a child’s speech-related vocalisation (Ramirez et al. 2020).

Despite the strong evidence, some studies have reported a diminution of the positive effects (McGillion et al., 2017; Suskind et al., 2016); however, it is important to consider that this does not necessarily point to a lack of effect, but it may be a need for more intensive training of the parent by the researcher. Nevertheless, a large body of research shows that children are capable of understanding speech in childhood, and this ability plays an important role in the acquisition of language. Furthermore, keeping in mind a few points like the use of parentese, speech directed at the infant and use of more diverse language, talking to children can play an important role in enhancing their speech capabilities.