Shouldn’t I Talk To My Baby Like A Little Adult?
One of the most popular questions I receive as a speech-language pathologist is: “Shouldn’t I talk to my baby like a little adult?”
Yes and no. You should use proper grammar and sentence structure when speaking to them, but make your sentences a little shorter and to the point.
But you should also use that sing-songy quality that most people naturally do when conversing with babies, otherwise known in my profession as ‘child-directed speech’ or ‘parentese’, or in other words, baby talk!
Baby talk doesn’t mean using improper grammar or making speech errors when talking with your baby, i.e. Oooh, I just wuv your wittle toesies (read: Oh, I just love your little toes!), but it does mean using clearly pronounced words with that high-pitched melodic quality that comes naturally to us adults as we encounter a beautiful little baby!
So, don’t be afraid to use baby talk as I just defined it. Scientific studies have shown that babies are more interested in sing-songy speech than just plain speech.
Get talking!
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