Why high-pitched baby talk is actually AWESOME for your little one

Ever wondered why parents automatically tend to talk to their baby in a high pitched voice? Well, as it turns out, there is an actual scientific reason behind why we do it.

What’s more a new study has just shed light on why baby talk is so IMPORTANT for our little ones. And it’s not just to entertain them!

The benefits of baby talk

Researchers at the MARCS Institute for Brain Behaviour and Development at the University of Western Sydney have discovered that there is a relationship between baby talk and language development.

After examining 72 children at MARCS BabyLab, experts found that kids at certain ages respond better to different vocal tones, and they concluded that baby talk is actually helping your little one develop their linguistic skills!

“Mums are intuitively shortening their vocal tract which creates a higher pitch when producing sound,” says Dr. Marina Kalashnikova, who led study.

“This coincidently also results in clearer speech that helps with language learning.”

Experts explain that the sounds we talk to our children in – help them learn language. And high pitches voices appear to be clearer to babies. 

How did baby talk evolve?

This technique has evolved from primates, who use similar high-pitched sounds to provide comfort and appear less threatening to their offspring.

“What we showed is that parents do not specifically make speech movements to make their speech clearer,” Dr. Kalashnikova continues.

“Mothers are not attempting to use baby talk, but as soon as we’re in front of a baby we do it anyway.”

Interesting stuff!

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