Adult talk versus Baby talk

[cstitches]

Is it better to speak to babies in adult talk or baby talk? TWTM recommends using adult talk, but I read in my psychology text that using baby talk may actually help babies learn to speak sooner.

 

The reason babies like baby talk, from what I gathered, is because they find the inflection and high-pitch more stimulating.

 

On the other hand, the advantage to adult talk is that it provides a clear, articulate, and logical model of language for them to pick up on.

 

This made me wonder if perhaps the best way to speak to babies is a combination of both: speaking clearly in adult language, but also using an interesting voice that babies find stimulating. This makes me think of how I've heard adults reading to young children.

 

What do you all, who have much much much more experience with children than I do, think about this? Two of my cousins have 1-year-olds, so I'm rather interested to know :001_smile: Thanks!

[Jennifer in NH]

I guess I do what you were asking. i speak adult language, but more animated. I've never spoken baby talk, and it has always bothered me...

babies do like the high, soft tones, but why make up nonsense words or poor grammar?

[Mrs Mungo]

I think one should do what comes naturally.

[Perry]

They're both important. I have 2 recommendations:

 

Here is a fascinating interview with Todd Risley, who co-authored the landmark Hart-Risley study on language development in children.

 

The book How to Increase Your Child's Verbal Intelligence: The Groundbreaking Language Wise Method has a great discussion on how to talk to your baby.

 

I wish I had been familiar with these before my kids were born.

[Kay in Cal]

Here is a fascinating interview with Todd Risley, who co-authored the landmark Hart-Risley study on language development in children.

 

Wow! Go watch this link, folks!!!:thumbup1:

 

Short form: Those families who talk to their kids MOST in the baby/preschool years see the greatest vocabularies later, higher IQs, better test scores and reading comprehension. The correlation is amazingly direct--ie, the more you talk, the better the kids did.

 

The amazing variability got to me--the family that talked the most was 3600 words an hour addressed to their child, the one that talked the least was 150 words an hour addressed to their child. No wonder!

 

I think this study is probably right on. We had our own little experiment in our family, because my dh (who was/is a stay at home dad) went into the hospital for 6+ months when our kids were 3 and 1. The boys were with a nanny during the day for that entire--I was at the hospital with my dh, and even when he was home he needed nursing care and was bedridden. Our kids missed out on having dad there 24/7 and Mom was busy and exhausted. I believe that's in large part why our younger son is not as verbally strong as our older son--he missed out on our family, our dynamic, during a super developmental stage. There's nothing I can do to change it, and at the time we had no choice, but I still regret that he missed out on what WE would have done and said with him. No nanny is as good...

 

I think he's bright, and he's catching up. Still... talk talk talk! I wouldn't be surprised if our family breaks that 3600 an hour easily, as do many of you, most likely! Lol!

[Jen500]

I've done the 'regular adult' language, but more soothing or more animated, with all my 3 kids. I talked to them A LOT. I think that's important. Sometimes if they weren't with me I'd forget and start talking.

Jen

[Perry]

I was also floored by this:

 

What we found is that the more talkative parents, like the parents with college educations and the professionals like doctors and lawyers are hearing about 2,100 words an hour, hour after hour after hour. The children of welfare families were hearing about 600 words and hour, hour after hour after hour.

So we said, "All right, what was the difference in language input, in language experience, of the language they heard, words they heard in meaningful contexts?" We estimated that the average child, figuring 100 hours a week, by the time they were four, heard thirty million words addressed to them.

But the children of professional parents -- I mean, talkative families and college educated -- heard forty-eight million words addressed to them by the time they're four.

Children in welfare families who were taciturn heard thirteen million words addressed to them by the time they were four.

Those are massive differences in language experience way before children enter school. Those differences were so large that we devoted the first book to focusing on them, on those massive amounts of differences.

 

and this:

 

 

Dr. Todd Risley: Oh, yes. The difference is -- when we counted up and did that kind of elaboration, how many affirmations an hour with talkative parents by the age of four, the children had heard about 750,000 times that they were right, and about 120,000 times that they were wrong.

And with very taciturn parents, it was almost the reverse, they only heard they were right about 120,000, and they had heard they were wrong about 250,000 times. In other words, the massive lifetime experience of these kinds of affirmations and prohibitions indicating you're right and you're wrong is...

 

The main thing is to talk to them. Constantly.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I did not use baby talk, though I was silly with them and did rhymes and finger plays etc.

 

I always used adult vocabulary which I think increased their vocabulary. My dh said it had gone too far though when he heard me telling my 2 year old to "comply"! (I was watching too much Star Trek: Voyager at the time.)

[nancypants]

I have never ever talked baby talk to my babies. Honestly, I really can't stand to hear it... now I may have spoken in a slightly higher pitch to them when they were super tiny but once they became interactive I spoke to them normally. Don't get me wrong... we are a whole family of goofballs and strange voices aren't entirely out of the question at any age! :tongue_smilie: And I am not saying we start reading Homer's Illiad to them when they are 4 days old (though... I can't see any harm in it either of course!) But what makes me sick is hearing people talk to 1, 2 and 3 year olds like they are idiots. But then I also hate seeing toddlers and preschoolers running around with pacifiers in their mouths too. (Oh dear... I'm sure I just offended someone... I'm sorry!!)

 

It's the same reason I have never let my kids watch any number of "educational" television shows (Teletubbies, Boobah, Doodlebops, etc.... ad nauseum), namely because I feel like they are insulting to a child's developing intelligence.

 

All of my children have been early and prolific talkers so it's "worked" for us (even though it wasn't really a tactic or a philosophy that drove me to talk to my babies/little ones as I did... just my personal parenting style.) But to each their own... there are much worse things a parent can do than talk baby talk to their little ones (and give them binkies for a long time)... I am much happier to see a loving and tender parent who does things differently than me than a disconnected parent.

[myfunnybunch]

Books on education and child development offer valuable advice, but every writer and researcher (not to mention pediatrician-MIL-nosy neighbor) has different ideas about the best way. Once you've read the ideas of others, use your own instincts. :)

 

The more language we use with young ones, the better. We used both, and more. Adult talk. Baby talk. Nonsense words. Read the newspaper or gardening book out loud. Silly rhyming books. Songs, real and made-up. Described the rain or spoke our thoughts out loud, "Gee I wish that goofy UPS guy would bring my package. Let's see what's in the refrigerator." We filled the day with words-- real words, imaginary words, long words, baby words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I just wish they would be quiet once in a while. :D

 

Cat

[Laura Corin]

I guess I do what you were asking. i speak adult language, but more animated. I've never spoken baby talk, and it has always bothered me...

babies do like the high, soft tones, but why make up nonsense words or poor grammar?

 

Laura

[Kanga]

I guess I do what you were asking. i speak adult language, but more animated. I've never spoken baby talk, and it has always bothered me...

babies do like the high, soft tones, but why make up nonsense words or poor grammar?

 

I do the same. I always pronounce words correctly, but I do change my tone and pitch.

[MelissaM]

There is a big difference between tone/pitch and grammar. It's almost insticntual to use a higher pitch when speaking to babies and work up to a regular tone. That's entirely different than asking your toddler, "Does him want a dwinky-winky?"

 

My 2 yo sounds adorable when she says something along the lines of, "My needs a gink peas" (I need a drink,please.) It would sound ridiculous if I said it like that. We would rather repeat her request back to her in standard grammatical form with proper enunciation so she learn to ask for a drink without needing a translator.

 

That said, we live in the deep south. I'm convinced I sound like Gomer Pyle. But I suppose accent is whole 'nother story. :001_smile:

[gandpsmommy]

I have never ever talked baby talk to my babies. Honestly, I really can't stand to hear it... now I may have spoken in a slightly higher pitch to them when they were super tiny but once they became interactive I spoke to them normally. Don't get me wrong... we are a whole family of goofballs and strange voices aren't entirely out of the question at any age! :tongue_smilie: And I am not saying we start reading Homer's Illiad to them when they are 4 days old (though... I can't see any harm in it either of course!) But what makes me sick is hearing people talk to 1, 2 and 3 year olds like they are idiots. But then I also hate seeing toddlers and preschoolers running around with pacifiers in their mouths too. (Oh dear... I'm sure I just offended someone... I'm sorry!!)

 

It's the same reason I have never let my kids watch any number of "educational" television shows (Teletubbies, Boobah, Doodlebops, etc.... ad nauseum), namely because I feel like they are insulting to a child's developing intelligence.

 

All of my children have been early and prolific talkers so it's "worked" for us (even though it wasn't really a tactic or a philosophy that drove me to talk to my babies/little ones as I did... just my personal parenting style.) But to each their own... there are much worse things a parent can do than talk baby talk to their little ones (and give them binkies for a long time)... I am much happier to see a loving and tender parent who does things differently than me than a disconnected parent.

 

:iagree: with your last sentiment. I think that loving parents who are trying to stay connected to their children and be involved are the key to success in most issues of development. And I agree that it is so annoying and disheartening to hear adults speak to toddlers and preschoolers as if they are incapable of intelligent thought or speech. I had to LOL at your post, though, because my younger child both used a pacifier chronically for the first two years of his life and thoroughly enjoyed Boobah and Teletubbies during his toddler years, and yet he still was an early talker. Dh and I never engaged in "Baby talk" with our children, though.

 

I naturally used a higher-pitched voice with them when they were babies. I learned in my linguistics studies in university that this is a very common practice and actually accomodates infants' natural preferences and learning patterns. But I didn't contrive to do it because I felt it would be beneficial; it just came naturally. I didn't, however, make up cutesie little words and distort my voice in a babyish or condescending way (unless I happened to be playing around and trying to make them laugh, that is!). Dh and I talked to our children a lot and used normal adult vocabulary. We read to them from the time they were newborns, described activities as we were doing them, pointed out things to them in our environment and talked about them, etc. Both of our children were early talkers, had large vocabularies at an early age, were able to communicate clearly with other adults at an early age, and remain very articulate children. I guess it just goes to show that in the context of a loving, caring, thoughtful family in which the parents are interacting intelligently and meaningfully with the children and there are ample opportunties for intellectual stimulation, even Teletubbies and Boohbah can't mess it up!

[gandpsmommy]

There is a big difference between tone/pitch and grammar. It's almost insticntual to use a higher pitch when speaking to babies and work up to a regular tone. That's entirely different than asking your toddler, "Does him want a dwinky-winky?"

 

My 2 yo sounds adorable when she says something along the lines of, "My needs a gink peas" (I need a drink,please.) It would sound ridiculous if I said it like that. We would rather repeat her request back to her in standard grammatical form with proper enunciation so she learn to ask for a drink without needing a translator.

 

That said, we live in the deep south. I'm convinced I sound like Gomer Pyle. But I suppose accent is whole 'nother story. :001_smile:

 

I agree about the distinction between tone/pitch and grammar, and we have never used "baby talk" with our dc. But isn't it so fun to remember some of our dc's classic baby talk words? My dd has always been advanced and was able to articulate to me, "Mommy, sometimes I need you, too," at age 2 when her baby brother was born, instead of just having a temper tantrum when she needed my attention. But she also gave us some of the most classic words that we still occasionally use just for fun. When she was a toddler, she said "hivel" for "little". And when we started calling her baby brother "Little Guy," she would call him "Hivel Guy". We still say "hivel" for "little" sometimes, even though she long ago adopted "little" as the proper word. She also used to say "nigh" for "now" when she wanted you to do something for her quickly. Dh now jokes around and says it to me when he is pretending to be impatient.

[elegantlion]

I did not use baby talk, though I was silly with them and did rhymes and finger plays etc.

 

I always used adult vocabulary which I think increased their vocabulary. My dh said it had gone too far though when he heard me telling my 2 year old to "comply"! (I was watching too much Star Trek: Voyager at the time.)

 

I think we've used the "you shall be assimilated" thing a few times in our house. We even have the Klingon dictionary to use.

 

I always talked adult but with some drama thrown in. Ds has always had a good vocabulary, he used the word "actually" in prek a lot, the teacher thought it was a hoot.

[Plaid Dad]

We never used baby talk, which I heartily dislike, although I certainly speak differently to infants and small children than I do to adults. The differences are the ones everyone else has mentioned - pitch, intonation, animation, a certain type of playfulness. My parents did the same with me. People were forever saying I talked like a book; the truth was, I talked like my parents.

[tinkgumby]

I do the same. I always pronounce words correctly, but I do change my tone and pitch.

 

I also did this with my boys. They loved hearing me talk softly in a high-pitched voice, but I can't stand the goo-goo ga-ga stuff.

 

In fact, I have a sister-in-law who is permanently stuck in baby talk mode, and doesn't seem to realize it. She talks like that to ADULTS!!!!! :confused:

[amyable]

Be advised though that constantly talking to your young children can grow four little girls and a boy who all day assault you with words and don't know how to be quiet. :lol::lol: I now cannot get a word in edgewise. :tongue_smilie:

 

Seriously though, I do what many of the other posters say - vary my pitch, but always use real words (well, I have been known to use one or two of my DD's made up words because I find them so cute, LOL - I was giving her a shoom with her fork for quite some time :D)

 

I was a speech-language pathologist before having kids, so I think speaking to them a certain way (the way I was trained) just comes naturally to me now.

[amyable]

In fact, I have a sister-in-law who is permanently stuck in baby talk mode, and doesn't seem to realize it. She talks like that to ADULTS!!!!! :confused:

 

LOL, I'm guilty of talking to dh like that after a full day of talking to my kids constantly. :001_huh: I usually immediately realize and ask for forgiveness though. :D

[OnTheBrink]

We never used baby talk, which I heartily dislike, although I certainly speak differently to infants and small children than I do to adults. The differences are the ones everyone else has mentioned - pitch, intonation, animation, a certain type of playfulness. My parents did the same with me. People were forever saying I talked like a book; the truth was, I talked like my parents.

 

:iagree:

 

I absolutely abhor hearing baby talk spoken to children and I never used it with my own. With the little one I watch now, she has her own language, so to speak, but I always answer her with the appropriate words. She knows what I mean, too.

 

However, to puppies, I will use stupid baby talk. Dogs don't need to know appropriate vocabulary or grammar! LOL

[Old Dominion Heather]

Wow! Go watch this link, folks!!!:thumbup1:

 

Short form: Those families who talk to their kids MOST in the baby/preschool years see the greatest vocabularies later, higher IQs, better test scores and reading comprehension. The correlation is amazingly direct--ie, the more you talk, the better the kids did.

 

The amazing variability got to me--the family that talked the most was 3600 words an hour addressed to their child, the one that talked the least was 150 words an hour addressed to their child. No wonder!

 

I think this study is probably right on. We had our own little experiment in our family, because my dh (who was/is a stay at home dad) went into the hospital for 6+ months when our kids were 3 and 1. The boys were with a nanny during the day for that entire--I was at the hospital with my dh, and even when he was home he needed nursing care and was bedridden. Our kids missed out on having dad there 24/7 and Mom was busy and exhausted. I believe that's in large part why our younger son is not as verbally strong as our older son--he missed out on our family, our dynamic, during a super developmental stage. There's nothing I can do to change it, and at the time we had no choice, but I still regret that he missed out on what WE would have done and said with him. No nanny is as good...

 

I think he's bright, and he's catching up. Still... talk talk talk! I wouldn't be surprised if our family breaks that 3600 an hour easily, as do many of you, most likely! Lol!

 

 

Wow, this is such a cool interview! My highest vocabulary kid is the child who we found out at six months was visually impaired. We started talking to him non-stop, especially after his eye surgery, explaining everything he saw. We named everything, talked through what we were doing and asked him questions about what he could see all the time and read to him more than we did the other two. The result was a very, very high vocabulary.

 

Very interesting .

[Perry]

We never used baby talk, which I heartily dislike, although I certainly speak differently to infants and small children than I do to adults. The differences are the ones everyone else has mentioned - pitch, intonation, animation, a certain type of playfulness.

 

 

I'd consider those differences "baby talk".

 

Babies respond better to higher pitch, shorter phrases, and longer pauses. Most people, at least in western countries, just naturally talk to their babies that way. I think it's a continuum- extreme baby talk would include lots of invented names and exaggerated intonation.

 

Most of us (I'm sure there are exceptions) would have said "look at the kitty" instead of "look at the cat" to an infant. I would call that baby talk, because you wouldn't talk to an adult that way.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I wouldn't be able to speak that way, I wouldnt be able to stand myself! And then to begin hearing it from my dc? I'd go bonkers.

:tongue_smilie:

[Kimber]

Actually, I disagree. When I speak to people who don't speak English (which isn't that often), I speak the same way. Short sentences, less complex speech, simple words, longer pauses. The only difference is the lack of higher pitch and the sing-songiness and repetition. I repeat a lot to my little ones and tend to talk-sing to them to try and emphasize the differences in certain sounds. I do it on purpose. And I also do it when I'm teaching my kids at home and when I'm teaching high school kids--just to varying degrees. I just don't do it the adults I'm interacting with that can't speak English. I think it would be offensive because it would place me in the role of teacher when they didn't ask me to be in that role.

 

But I think this is the normal way that people talk to anyone that doesn't know the language. Once they're familiar with the words, you don't have to do it anymore.

 

 

 

Kimberly

[Jami]

Be advised though that constantly talking to your young children can grow four little girls and a boy who all day assault you with words and don't know how to be quiet. :lol::lol: I now cannot get a word in edgewise. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

Isn't that the truth! I'm a pretty verbal person and when I was first at home with just my firstborn, I talked and talked and talked to him. And then with my second, he and I talked and talked to her. Now the third has probably suffered a bit because she's grown up with more older sibling conversation than direct mom-talk, though I still try, but more often now I just want QUIET! :lol:

 

I"ll add that I think good quality books on tape/CD have also done a lot to build vocabulary and correct language use here. Though it's not a substitute for real back and forth conversation with mom and dad.

 

Jami

[Perry]

Actually, I disagree.

 

I don't understand. What do you disagree with?

[Kimber]

Most of us (I'm sure there are exceptions) would have said "look at the kitty" instead of "look at the cat" to an infant. I would call that baby talk, because you wouldn't talk to an adult that way.

 

I don't see what he described as baby talk. And the reasons I don't were here--

 

When I speak to people who don't speak English (which isn't that often), I speak the same way. Short sentences, less complex speech, simple words, longer pauses.

 

Sorry I was so unclear, I'm fixing a late breakfast and having a late school day because we all had a late night.

 

We caught a mouse at 12:30 last night. I hate mice!

[Rosie_0801]

Do whatever comes naturally. As long as you do a lot of it, it'll be fine. I do a mixture of adult and "motherese" in both our home languages. I'm certainly not in for saying "goo goo ga ga" to kids. That's dumb, and I don't know about yours, but mine has never said that. I do imitate what she (aged 1) says sometimes. It's a fun game. We can happily discuss politics too. She's starting to respond to the question intonation of my voice, and when I sign, and will nod sagely and say "yeah" when I do it, whatever the question was. :)

Rosie

[Just Me]

I don't speak "baby talk", although I do speak differently to children. I try to speak clearly and with more animation. My SIL, however, just drives me crazy talking to her children. She constantly says "dis" or "dat" for "this" and "that". AARRUUGH! I am like a crazy women by the time I get away from her.

[Jenny in Atl]

We just talk a lot. :tongue_smilie: I don't think I used baby talk, maybe some mothering tones when they were wee ones.

[Kanga]

Be advised though that constantly talking to your young children can grow four little girls and a boy who all day assault you with words and don't know how to be quiet. :lol::lol: I now cannot get a word in edgewise. :tongue_smilie:

 

My dh and I used to tease that we should have given our dc the middle name fillabuster!