When any individual encounters a baby, immediately, their unconscious reaction is to begin using a high-pitched, sing-songy baby talk – also known as “parentese” in the scientific world – when speaking to the adorable child. Researchers have determined that it is nearly universal for humans across the globe to talk to babies in this manner.
“In the most wide-ranging study of its kind, more than 40 scientists helped to gather and analyze 1,615 voice recordings from 410 parents on six continents, in 18 languages from diverse communities: rural and urban, isolated and cosmopolitan, internet savvy and off the grid, from hunter-gatherers in Tanzania to urban dwellers in Beijing,” writes Oliver Whang, a New York Times writer.
The results collected from a recently published journal, Nature Human of Behavior, revealed that in each different culture, the style in which parents spoke and sang to their infants was entirely different from the way adults communicated with other adults – these contrasts within each culture were found to be profoundly similar to those of other cultures.
“We tend to speak in this higher pitch, high variability, like, ‘Ohh, heeelloo, you’re a baaybee!’” said Courtney Hilton, a psychologist at Haskins Laboratories at Yale University and a principal author of the study. Cody Moser, a graduate student studying cognitive science at the University of California, Merced, and the other principal author, added: “When people tend to produce lullabies or tend to talk to their infants, they tend to do so in the same way.”
Information learned from the study includes the fact that infants remember words better when parents speak in parentese. It allows babies to connect the dots between the sound and the mouth shape. Additionally, lullabies sung in a higher-pitched voice can not only soothe crying infants, but they can also hold babies’ attention to calm them down.
“You can push air through your vocal tract, create these tones and rhythms, and it’s like giving the baby an analgesic,” said Dr. Mehr, a psychologist and director of The Music Lab at Haskins Laboratories.
Sources: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658688608731x758073396689811000/%E2%80%98Parentese%E2%80%99%20Is%20Truly%20a%20Lingua%20Franca%2C%20Global%20Study%20Finds%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
“In the most wide-ranging study of its kind, more than 40 scientists helped to gather and analyze 1,615 voice recordings from 410 parents on six continents, in 18 languages from diverse communities: rural and urban, isolated and cosmopolitan, internet savvy and off the grid, from hunter-gatherers in Tanzania to urban dwellers in Beijing,” writes Oliver Whang, a New York Times writer.
The results collected from a recently published journal, Nature Human of Behavior, revealed that in each different culture, the style in which parents spoke and sang to their infants was entirely different from the way adults communicated with other adults – these contrasts within each culture were found to be profoundly similar to those of other cultures.
“We tend to speak in this higher pitch, high variability, like, ‘Ohh, heeelloo, you’re a baaybee!’” said Courtney Hilton, a psychologist at Haskins Laboratories at Yale University and a principal author of the study. Cody Moser, a graduate student studying cognitive science at the University of California, Merced, and the other principal author, added: “When people tend to produce lullabies or tend to talk to their infants, they tend to do so in the same way.”
Information learned from the study includes the fact that infants remember words better when parents speak in parentese. It allows babies to connect the dots between the sound and the mouth shape. Additionally, lullabies sung in a higher-pitched voice can not only soothe crying infants, but they can also hold babies’ attention to calm them down.
“You can push air through your vocal tract, create these tones and rhythms, and it’s like giving the baby an analgesic,” said Dr. Mehr, a psychologist and director of The Music Lab at Haskins Laboratories.
Sources: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658688608731x758073396689811000/%E2%80%98Parentese%E2%80%99%20Is%20Truly%20a%20Lingua%20Franca%2C%20Global%20Study%20Finds%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
