Baby talk – we all do it, and it’s almost like an instinct that just takes over from the moment we meet our babies for the very first time.
It seems there’s a science behind it, however; and while people might roll their eyes at you, researchers have just discovered that there’s a VERY important function to baby talk.
A team at Princeton University have discovered, through a series of experiments, that what we perceive as ‘baby talk’ is actually a universal type of ‘motherese’ that helps our babies to not only recognise us but to develop their language skills.
This ‘baby talk’ or ‘motherese’ comes about when we subconsciously change our voice timbre – ‘best defined as the unique quality of a sound’ – when we talk to our little ones.
This, in turn, is said to play a key role in our babies’ language development; it engages their emotions and also helps them to identify language structure (syllables, etc.). Of course, it also helps our little bubs to recognise us!
So, how did the researchers figure all of this out? Well, it’s actually really, really interesting!
They asked mums to record themselves playing with, and reading to their babies who were aged between seven months and a year old. They also recorded themselves talking to other adults.
What they found, was that timbre change applied only for babies, and – amazingly – that the exact same results applied across a whole range of languages including English, Cantonese, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Spanish.
Elise Piazza, who worked on the research, explained the basis of the study.
“Barry White’s silky voice sounds different from Tom Waits’ gravelly one – even if they’re both singing the same note,” she said.
“We use timbre – the tone colour, or unique quality of a sound – all the time to distinguish people, animals and instruments.
“We found that mothers alter this basic quality of their voices when speaking to infants, and they do so in a highly consistent way across many diverse languages.”
So, there you go, mums – the next time someone rolls their eyes at you for your ‘baby talk’, you can lead them right back here!
