Shine OnBaby talk enhances infants’ vocabulary, study shows
It turns out that all the cooing and babbling parents have been doing at their little ones is actually helping them learn new words, new research suggests.
While conventional parenting wisdom has long maintained that talking to infants will help their vocabulary, the specific practice of baby talk -- exaggerated vowel signs, raised voice pitch, nonsense words -- is believed by some to be ineffective in teaching kids.
Yet a new study from the University of Washington debunks that myth, suggesting that even baby talk can produce a smarter kid by age two.
"What our analysis shows is that the prevalence of baby talk in one-on-one conversations with children is linked to better language development, both concurrent and future," says study author Patricia Kuhl, a leading U.S. researcher of infant language development.
Out of 26 toddlers, Kuhl found those exposed to the most baby talk knew approximately 433 words compared to only 169 words by toddlers whose parents used the least baby talk.
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The more parents exaggerated vowels, such as "How are youuuuu?", and raised the pitch of their voices, the more toddlers at age one babbled, which is a precursor to learning new words.
"The fact that the infant's babbling itself plays a role in future language development shows how important the interchange between parent and child is," Kuhl says.
Baby talk was found to be most effective when a parent spoke with a child individually, without other adults or children around.
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"Baby talk is much better at developing language than regular speech, and even better if it occurs in a one-on-one interaction," says study co-author Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, psychology professor at the University of Connecticut.
Previous research also suggests that educational baby videos, such as Baby Einstein, do not help infants develop their language skills.
"We think there's something special with face-to-face communication," Kuhl says.
