3 Ways “Baby Talk” Improves Emotional State with Your Infant

Many first-time parents ask me: “how should I talk to my infant to heighten their interest and curiosity during interactions?”. In fact, developmental psychologists have asked the same questions and have found that parents universally use infant-directed speech due to its inviting and intriguing speech qualities. It also has a myriad of advantageous qualities that will be touched on. Moreover, it is critical that parents like yourself are familiar with how to manipulate your tone of voice to better suit your infant’s processing abilities.

What are the features that define baby talk or, in more advanced terms, infant-directed speech? 

• The features of infant-directed speech:
  • Fewer words used when speaking 
  • Repeating phrases and words
  • Precise articulation 
  • The structure of sentences is less complex

The rhythmic pattern of infant-directed speech also differs from other speech types:

• The rhythmic features of infant-directed speech: 
  • Higher pitch 
  • Increased duration of pauses 
  • Relaxed tempo
  • More stress placed on phonemes

• The 3 main ways infant-directed speech enhances child development: 

1. Increases Attention:  

    Studies have found that infant-directed speech (ID) can increase infants’ attention, influencing other developmental qualities such as social, emotional, and even linguistic skills. In fact, Cooler and Aslin found that 1-month-old infants, on average, had longer looking times for infant-directed speech over adult-directed speech (AD) during a task where the infants listened to recordings that used these two different types of speech patterns. Previous research using other age groups of infants has found similar patterns of preference. Researchers explain that the infant’s attention is increased when viewing stimuli with infant-directed speech because of the speech’s contours, specifically the pitch and tone increase. So next time when playing with your infant, incorporate more infant-directed speech qualities into how you converse with your infant, especially when teaching them the names of objects. 

2. Improves Emotion/ Effective state:

It has been found that when infants listen to videotapes utilizing infant-directed speech instead of adult-directed speech, they express an increase in positive emotions. Werker and McLeod analyzed this phenomenon by showing 7-9 mon olds two videotapes. The first video showed a female talking with infant-directed speech, and the second video showed the female talking with adult-directed speech. The reason this preference was observed is described to be due to the obscure qualities of adult-directed speech; therefore, the infant’s mood may be less elevated due to the challenges with processing the pitch contours. 

3. Increases Linguistic Processing Skills:

The rhythmic patterns of infant-directed speech facilitate infants’ ability to discriminate changes in syllables because of the magnified aspects. This also connects how infant-directed speech has been shown to increase attention, which will help the infant identify certain qualities and alterations within the speech.  For example, Karzon conducted a study with 1-4-month-olds and found that they could distinguish two-syllable words from three-syllable words when infant-directed speech was utilized instead of adult-directed speech. Furthermore, Kemler-Nelson et al. found that 7-9-month-olds preferred to listen to sentences that used infant-directed speech instead of adult-directed speech. 

Now you know the beneficial impacts of “baby talk,” and you can alter your tone of voice to increase your infant’s attention, mood, and ability to process certain aspects of speech . I hope that parents will use these tools when interacting with their infants to aid in healthy language development. Make sure to check out SignShine’s youtube channel, where there are videos that address the essential question on how to communicate with your infant to benefit their development and much more. The research article that provided the vital information elaborated on above is called Preference for infant-directed speech in the first month after birth. SignShine™ also discusses other skills that will enable you to have more satisfying and constructive interactions with your infant during quarantine. Also, expand your toolbox and learn tactics that will increase your child’s ability to listen to you during daily conversations.