by Rasanjanee Polgampala

Recently, when I was trying to engage with a baby, I found myself unconsciously using a speech pattern that was different from how I usually speak. Looking back, I realised that I was using Baby Talk with the infant without consciously deciding to do so. Baby Talk (BT), also known as motherese, parentese, infant-directed speech (IDS), infant-directed language (IDL), “toňdol” (in Sinhala) and "koiy" (in Tamil) is the special way of communicating when we interact with babies. Baby Talk consists of simple, short and slow-paced utterances that are often high pitched and exaggerated. As my little anecdote suggests, it is not something that only parents use. Rather, it is something that all adults and sometimes even older siblings use almost instinctively when they interact with infants. Further, it is not something that is limited to spoken languages. The widespread use of child-directed signing indicates that non-verbal languages also have their own infant-directed language varieties.

Various studies show that this is a common phenomenon across communities. However, it must be noted that not everyone even within the same community opts to use IDL. Thus, despite Baby Talk being quite common, some people advise against using Baby Talk, saying that it hinders the child from acquiring full mastery over language. This certainly sounds like a problem, especially when you have a baby and are trying to figure out what sort of language they should be exposed to.

Baby Talk captures the attention of babies easily

According to studies done by various researchers, infants prefer to listen to Baby Talk during the early stages of language acquisition. For example, a study by Prof. Goswami at Cambridge University shows how baby Elsie listens to Baby Talk with interest and loses interest when she starts hearing normal adult speech. Moreover, Prof Goswami’s experiment shows that babies’ brains easily pick up the exaggerated and rhythmic words of Baby Talk. Therefore, it is clear that Baby Talk captures the baby’s attention easily, thereby aiding their language development.

Baby Talk helps infants identify linguistic features in the language

I will be drawing my examples from English, but you can read about Sinhala Baby Talk here.

• Exaggerated intonation used in baby talk helps babies identify grammatical structures and how speech “chunks” together. This then helps infants organise and remember the input they receive to be used later in their speech.

• Baby Talk uses an expanded vowel triangle that is different from what is used in adult speech due to its exaggerated nature. This helps infants construct vowel categories easily.

• Another feature that is commonly found in Baby Talk is the repetition of words and phrases. Repetition of words and phrases gives the infant additional time to process what is being said, thereby increasing their chances of correctly understanding what was said.

• The use of diminutives is another common occurrence in Baby Talk. For example, the adult words ‘dog’ and ‘frog’ become ‘doggie’ and ‘froggy’ in Baby Talk. Researchers show that these kinds of modifications help infants segment their words better. Some researchers like Soderstrom (2007), alert adults to be mindful when opting for full lexical replacements, such as using the word ‘bunny’ to refer to a rabbit, as it is difficult to show how such modifications help infants learn the adult words.

• Adults carry out the entire conversation during the early stages of language acquisition, and the infant only produces unintelligible sounds. However, as the infant reaches the single-word utterance stage and then the telegraphic stage, they start taking turns during these conversations. In such contexts, Baby Talk functions to clarify things, through which the infant picks up the correct use of language.

For example, when the infant says something like “cat table”, the adult often clarifies it by saying something like “yes, the cat is under the table”.

Baby Talk MUST evolve with the baby!

As infants continue to grow and enrich their vocabularies, it is the responsibility of the adults to pay attention to these developments and make the necessary advancements in their Baby Talk as well. This is specially so in households where the children interact primarily with their immediate family members and do not come into contact with other adults often. Failure to do so might end up hindering your child’s language acquisition and development! These changes will also let you know when to stop using Baby Talk.

That sounds like a lot of pressure, doesn’t it? But don’t worry. Baby Talk is not a language teaching tool. Instead, it is a way of communicating that helps adults communicate with infants.

Therefore, rather than relying on the parents, primarily the mother, to make the right modifications at the right times through Baby Talk, parents should direct their infants towards formal language teaching and learning resources and environments that facilitate proper child language development.

All in all, Baby Talk does not hinder your infant from acquiring adult speech. In fact, it helps child language development in multiple ways, as we discussed. However, the secret lies in understanding when to change and even stop.