There are benefits to baby talk

Parents who babble in 'baby-speak' to their newborns really are helping them to learn more words, experts claim.

Parents who babble in 'baby-speak' to their newborns really are helping them to learn more words, experts claim.

Published Jan 9, 2014

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London - They may sometimes sound silly but parents who babble in ‘baby-speak’ to their newborns really are helping them to learn more words, experts claim.

Researchers in the US examined thousands of 30-second snippets of verbal exchanges between parents and babies – and compared adults’ use of a regular speaking voice with an exaggerated, animated baby-talk.

The more that parents exaggerated vowels - for example, ‘How are youuuuu?’ - and raised the pitch of their voices, the more the one-year olds babbled, which is a forerunner of word production.

Study co-author Dr Patricia Juhl, of the University of Washington, said: ‘What our analysis shows is that the prevalence of baby talk in one-on-one conversations with children is linked to better language development.’ The findings are to be published in the journal Developmental Science.

Daily Mail

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