It is clear that infants like listening to baby talk better than adult speech, and new research confirms that it actually helps them learn language faster.


March 16, 2005 - What a cuuute baaaaby. Does baaaaby want to plaaaay? It just feels natural to talk baby talk to babies, but is it a good idea?

It is clear that infants like listening to baby talk better than adult speech, and now new research from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin confirms that it actually helps them learn language faster.

Babies in the study were able to identify specific words from nonsense sentences more quickly when the sentences were delivered in baby talk than when they were delivered in the more monotone cadence characteristic of adult speech.

Lead researcher Erik D. Thiessen, PhD, of Carnegie Mellon University says the infants learned words about 25% faster when exposed to baby talk.

"Parents often hear that if they want their infant to grow up speaking like an adult they should talk to them like they are adults," Thiessen tells WebMD. "But it turns out that talking to babies in this special way, as mothers have been doing for centuries, is pretty effective for learning language."

Simple Sentences, Clearly Spoken

Known in language development circles as infant-directed speech, baby talk is characterized by short, simple sentences delivered in a high-pitched, sing-song voice. Vowels are also dragged out, and each word of a sentence tends to be clearly spoken.

Thiessen says baby talk and the exaggerated body language that goes along with it tends to grab an infant's attention. And the simple sentence structure and slow word delivery make it easier for infants to learn.

"It isn't that babies can't learn from adult-directed speech," he tells WebMD. "They will figure it out eventually no matter how they are talk ..

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