How to Talk and Not to Talk to My Baby?

After going through our website, we hope you've learned a little about the importance of using IDS with your baby! Here are some of the main takeaways:

IDS is NOT Baby Talk

While it's easy to conflate the two, IDS is actually much richer in input than baby talk. It isn't simply making "cutesy" sounds at your baby, IDS involves a change of pitch and mouth contour, as well as an exaggeration of emotions.

IDS has a slew of benefits for your baby!

From helping them distinguish between vowel sounds, to helping them segment the speech stream so they can expand their lexicon, IDS only presents benefits to infants that will compound in the long term to make them successful in producing adult-like utterances.

A father is watching his baby eating a baby.
The baby girl has on a EEG ( Electronencephalogram) while their mother is holding her.

Studies encourage the use of IDS

There have been countless studies showing the importance of IDS in a baby's development and how it sets them up to be successful adult speakers. The baby on the left is being prepared for an EEG test to look at how her brain waves react to IDS (you can read up on a study like this on the Studies page). Also, it's shown that babies prefer IDS too!