Hearing baby talk is the cutest thing. The sound created while a baby is singing or the soft coos is probably the prettiest sound in the world. There is something about a child’s speech that can warm your heart. In addition, listening to babies can help to relieve stress in adults. But there is more to it. More importantly, many people often wonder if baby talk gives infant brains a boost.
Every conversation with a baby always leads to improving their development. In other words, baby talk is much more than the phrases or words that the baby hears. In this article, we will discuss how talking to a child helps the brain, and put forward strategies that would help your baby develop their speech and vocabulary in a short time.
What is Baby Talk?
Baby talk refers to the unique sing-song voice in which caregivers speak to babies. It is the manner of communication and not the content that matters. Baby talk is marked by the repetition of simple words, exaggeration of syllables, along with elongation of vowels, and avoidance of complex sentence structures. Everything, including your face, gets amplified. The baby isn’t just listening to you, they are watching you too.
Why is Baby Talk Important?
Your child’s development happens rapidly during the first few years of their lives. During this stage, how you engage with your child greatly influences their cognitive capabilities. To support them, try and speak to your baby as much as possible. Even if your little one isn’t able to partake in a discussion like older children do, it doesn’t mean they’re not actively listening.
Some Facts How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost
Here are some interesting facts about engaging in baby talks for brain development in infants
Baby Talk Captivates Your Baby’s Attention
Ever wonder why your speech grabs someone's attention longer than when you talk in a dull monotonous tone? It’s all about how effectively your speech is modulated. When you wonder how baby talk gives infant brains a boost, recall that whenever your child engages with another child, it tends to capture their focus more than talking to an adult. Therefore, when you baby talk, your intonation and pitch tends to increase. This tempo along with the increase in pitch helps to capture and sustain your child’s attention and encourage them to respond. A study showed that babies are able to pay attention for up to 40% longer when they hear infant sounds.
Makes Babies Feel Safe and Secure
Feeling safe and protected is crucial for an infant’s brain development. Only then will the baby have the confidence to explore new surroundings, which is necessary for their right brain development and cognitive growth. Parents who use baby talk can foster that secure bond, which makes the infant feel safe.
Listening To Each Other Rather Than Adults Is Preferable For Babies.
Babies love to listen to voices that belong to other babies. They tend to enjoy the melodic ways adults talk to children, because of the exaggerated sounds that are produced. Even though the words might be meaningless, the way they are spoken is full of positivity. Give this a shot, use baby talk with your infant and blanket them with your love. Notice the difference between you talking like an adult with them compared to when you talk like a baby with them.
Inspires The Brain
Wondering how baby talk gives infant brains a boost? A quintessential piece of advice for you would be to try baby talk. This is because raising your voice allows syllables to stretch and the baby's brain gets stimulated. You are engaging your infant in some listening activity and the attempt in repeating words is helping the child for better behavior build some connections between words and things.
Advantages Of Baby Talk For Their Cognitive Development
Let’s go over the advantages of baby talk that enables cognitive growth:
It Helps Solve Neurological Problems Like Cognitive Sound Production Identification
Baby talk engages your baby’s senses, especially the singing tone that has a pretty high pitch and which helps them recognize the sounds they have the ability to produce. This will probably explain why baby talk is so appealing to babies.
It Makes It Possible For The Infant To Imitate Mouth Movements And Attempt to Speak
Exposed infants aged between seven and eleven months old to speech stimuli showed a response which has to do with speech hearing. The fact that cognitive movements in speech seem to be extremely likely enhances the brain development in infants significantly. For example, infant speech helps in creating the necessary brain impulses to stimulate movements for speech.
It Helps with Vocabulary Learning through ‘Babbling’
Before talking, babies have to first master the art of babbling. For them, it is a form of experimenting with sounds. Research suggests that babies exposed to a lot of infant speech tend to engage in excess babbling. This may have astonishing effects on their vocabulary and speaking capabilities when they are older. These babies can have double the vocabulary of babies who did not hear as much baby talk and did not babble as much.
Tips to Foster Infant Brain Development Using Baby Talk
As elaborated earlier, baby talk has a significant impact on the growth and development of the brain of an infant. Here are some suggestions you can follow:
Use Every Opportunity to Talk to your Baby
Every chance you get, such as feeding time, nappy changing, or bathing, is a good time for chit chatting to your baby. But notice their state of mind: if they look tired or cranky, they might need some quiet time.
Use Smiles and Eye Contact When Speaking with your Baby
When talking to your baby, use smiles and eye contact so that you grab and maintain their attention. This also helps the baby know that you are addressing them. You should avoid looking away when they babble in response so that they feel acknowledged.
Progressively Listening and Responding to Your Baby’s Nonverbal Behavior
Listen carefully to the gestures your baby makes, and what they may mean. When your baby is already pretending to grab, touch or point to objects, say the name of the object. This will help them learn quickly, boost their brain, and also keep them busy. Try to use the same name for the object as this will help them to form associations.
Mimic Your Child
Convert speech into a participatory activity when your child begins to talk by using simple words. If the child starts making sounds such as ‘goo-goo’ and ‘ga-ga,’ try to copy them. Just as it is with adults, children also like acknowledgement.
Talk Aloud While Doing Specific Things
There are ways in which you can use baby talk constructively even when young. As much as your baby can’t communicate verbally, they will begin to establish a connection to the words you mention. After some time, the child will learn to associate the words eat, play, bath, and so on with actions.
Interact with Actions and Rhymes
Young toddlers can be entertained longer by singing songs with accompanying movements. This helps them develop motor skills while strengthening the association between words, gestures, and their meanings.
Show Your Kid Books with Pictures
Any kid will enjoy looking at a book that has big colorful images. When your baby shows interest in a specific page, be creative and make up a narrative that correlates with the pictures.
Every child learns to communicate at their own pace, so there is no need to panic if your child is developing later than others. Keep in mind, baby talk and other toys for the baby’s age can stimulate the child’s brain and subsequently help with baby speech development. For further tips on how to assist your child learn fundamental concepts as early as possible, have a look at Mom and I toddler-development program.
Wrapping Up
