The way we instinctively speak to babies — higher pitch, slower speed, exaggerated pronunciation — not only appeals to them, but likely helps them learn to understand what we're saying.
They associate them with warmth, food, and comfort. Babies like high-pitched voices in general—a fact that most adults seem to understand intuitively and respond to accordingly, without even realizing it. Listen to yourself the next time you talk to your baby.
Research has suggested that this exaggerated emphasis may help infants learn the sound patterns to develop speech or increase attention when parents are warning of dangers.
“We now think parentese works because it's a social hook for the baby brain — its high pitch and slower tempo are socially engaging and invite the baby to respond.” Parentese is not what is often called “baby talk,” which is generally a mash-up of silly sounds and nonsense words.
When caregivers yell, toddlers will focus on the emotion rather than the message. In addition, using loud or aggressive tones can have a negative effect on a child's self-esteem, behavior, and their own ability to communicate. Using positive, gentle, and calm tones can: Be more effective when disciplining.
Go for firm—not loud.
While volume might seem like the best way to get your point across, aim for a firm—not loud—tone of voice. Being firm without screaming is the best way to show your child you mean business without causing him unnecessary stress.
“Goo goo ga ga? Are wu my widdle baby?” If your idea of “baby talk” makes you throw up in your mouth a little, then it's time to get educated. True baby talk, which a new study shows can boost infant brain and speech development, is actually proper adult speech, just delivered in a different cadence.
Fetuses showed a heart rate increase to both voices which was sustained over the voice period. Consistent with prior reports, newborns showed a preference for their mother's but not their father's voice. The characteristics of voice stimuli that capture fetal attention and elicit a response are yet to be identified.
A baby may also begin what psychologists call "jargon" or "pseudo" conversations. Your baby will babble just as if talking in sentences, imitating an adult's speech pattern, facial expression and tone of voice. This conversational babble is another sure sign that your baby is getting ready to talk.
5 month old infants show this reaction for happy, sad, and angry emotional tones. This tells us that at 5 months of age, babies are sensitive to changes in emotional tones of voice.
Making nonsense words and adopting fake terms for things (e.g., sip-sip for a cup and the act of drinking) can hinder language development and even slow down your baby's learning.
Babies and toddlers don't have the ability to decipher where it is acceptable to yell and where it is not. They like to yell to hear their own voices and at times they like to scream to see the reaction that comes from their parents.
Infants learned how to produce the mother's voice and produced it more often than the other voice. The neonate's preference for the maternal voice suggests that the period shortly after birth may be important for initiating infant bonding to the mother.
Human newborns can discriminate between individual female voices and prefer their mothers' voices to that of another female (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Fifer, 1980). They can discriminate between female and male voices and prefer the females' (Brazelton, 1978; Wolff, 1963).
After an initial regular display of Vocalizations, at 6–12 months there is a decrease in Vocalizations in infants with ASD, as opposed to the increase found in TD infants. At 6–18 months Babbling emerges and increases progressively both in ASD and TD infants.
Talking to your baby is an important way to help him/her grow. It promotes communication and language development. It also supports social and emotional development. Even before your baby starts to talk, he/she communicates with you through facial expressions, body language and crying.
In these months, your baby might say "mama" or "dada" for the first time, and may communicate using body language, like waving bye-bye and shaking their head.
At around 14 weeks, your baby can start to hear your voice. There are many ways you can interact with your baby through audio stimulation. Traditionally, people put headphones on their tummy for letting your baby listen to music in the womb, but there are much better results of your baby hearing your own voice.
Kissing your baby has a lot of emotional benefits. When a mother shows her baby love by kisses, hugs and the like, it shows the baby that being sensitive to others needs and feelings is important. This in turn can help them relate as well as interact better with those around them.
They talk to you.
Your baby's very earliest coos will be directed at you or another trusted caregiver – it's their way of saying, “love you too!” By four months, babies will make sounds in response to your voice and turn their head to try to find you when you're talking.
Understanding newborn bonding behaviour
Your newborn baby uses body language to show you when they want to connect with you and strengthen the bond between you. For example, your baby might: smile at you or make eye contact. make little noises, like coos or laughs.
Having one-way conversations with your infant might sound silly. But, talking to your little ones is actually beneficial and crucial to their development. In other words, baby talk is a good thing! Hamptons-based speech therapist Elise Duryea suggests that babies should hear about 15,000 words every single day.
YSK: What happens if you don't "baby talk" to your baby and instead speak like a regular adult? If you speak normally to your child, without made up words, they will learn the correct way to speak faster. They won't have to unlearn baby talk later on. The result is: Your baby learns faster and smarter!