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Babies: 6 - 9 Months
Baby talk? Grown up talk?
I am having troube talking to Dylan like he is 30. you know, the voice and all..
I don't say weird stuff like gushymushybaby.. oooo goo ahhh laaa.. I talk to him normal, pronounce words and such, but my voice is a tad bit different than when I talk to ppl...like high pitched (well, not really...don't know how to explain honestly..)
Same for you?
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Re: Baby talk? Grown up talk?
We don't do baby talk, but I think we talk a little higher and slower.
Perfect explanation.. that's what I do...
I read something recently (like in the past couple months) about mom-speak. It's not googoogaagaa baby talk, but normal talk in a higher pitch. Lemme see if I can dig it up. I think it was on parentdish.
But thats what we do too. No baby talk, just higher pitch and slower.
No, we don't baby talk at all. I might sound a bit more "excited" when I talk to the girls, but I think that just comes with the territory. I actually pride myself in Libby's good vocabulary. I'm surprised how much she talks and all the words she knows for just being under two years old.
The only thing I don't get is that she refers to herself in third person. But, I think that might be because we watch Elmo every morning....
No baby talk - I like to think that's why my DS had a 30+ word vocab before his 1st bday and now he is talking in full sentences and is able to differentiate between between the different pronouns - example: Do you want to walk down the stairs or do you want me to carry you? His answer: "No mommy, I want to walk down the stairs."
He'll be 2 in December! I am hoping that his sister takes after him in that respect.
Ditto.
We hardly speak to our daughter in baby talk. Every once in a while, I'll have a "break-down" and do it, but it's mostly normal tone, normal speech.
My husband's mother (no claim on my end for MIL) talks to our daughter in the SAME manner as she talks to her dog (high pitched, squealing baby talk) - SOOOO ANNOYING.
Try googling "motherese" - the term for the way moms exaggerate their intonation when speaking to their little one. It's not baby talk in the sense that we all walk around sounding like teletubbies (ah! the horror!) - it's just more sing song like, and slower. I do this when talking directly to her, for sure. No nonsense words or traditional baby talk for me, though.
Here's a linky to motherese.
It is called motherese, parentese, or caretaker speech when we change the inflection and tone of our voices. It comes naturally to most people. There is a tendency to use more simplified sentences and name exact objects in simplified terms (fuscia is describe as pink in motherese). It is an exaggeration of sentences and questions as if waiting for a response. We also use it when correcting children (ie child: I has a dog, mother: I HAVE a dog) We use the higher pitch and sing song voice because babies actually hear those noises better, so that is also what they respond to. Motherese is an essential part of language acquisition in children. You do not need to use goo-goo, gah-gah to use it. It is just the different tone of voice and language patterns used between a caretaker and a child. It is used across languages and cultures.
My Masters degree is in language acquisition and I LOVE this stuff! There is nothing more fascinating to me than how people learn language.