Parentese is the New Baby Talk
How to Use Parentese in 5 Easy Steps
February 2, 2024
Embedded Files
ParenteseYou’ve heard of Portuguese, Japanese, and even Cantonese, but have you heard of parentese? Well chances are… you're fluent!
Parentese is also referred to as motherese, infant-directed speech (IDS), or child-directed speech (CDS). It is a special way of talking to infants and young children that has many benefits to their language development. It is seen across most cultures and languages, crosses gender roles and strengthens emotional bonds.
How to speak parentese in 5 easy steps:
Use high pitched speech
Elongate vowels
Use a sing song voice
Keep words short and slow
Stick to simple phrases
Can you identify the elements of
parentese in this video?
Babies love parentese!
Speaking in parentese captures and holds a baby’s attention (Gopnik, Meltzoff, Kuhl 1999). Because parentese is used mostly for praising, playing, teaching, and comforting a young child, it strengthens the child’s bond to the adult (Saint-Georges et al., 2013).
Parentese helps a young child start to “crack the code” of language (Gopnik, Meltzoff, Kuhl, 1999; Bergeson-Dana, 2012), and begin to understand words in sentences (Song et al., 2010). Children who were exposed to more parentese at 1 year old tend to have larger vocabularies at age 2 than children who were exposed to less.
A 2018 study found that babies whose parents participated in parentese coaching babbled more and produced more words by age 14 months than infants whose parents did not. “Children of coached parents produced real words — such as ‘banana’ or ‘milk’ — at almost twice the frequency”. -Naja Ferjan Ramírez, UW Assistant Professor of Linguistics.
5 Common Mistakes:
Making up words
Substituting incorrect speech sounds
Speaking too fast
Using many words/sentences
Facing away from your child
Example: “You want a ‘wittle’ ‘wawa’ in your ‘cuppie’?” This is known traditionally as ‘baby talk’ and is not conducive to language development.
Some easy ways to practice parentese are to read repetitive books that are rich in intonation, such as Brown Bear Brown Bear and Mama Llama Red Pajama. More repetitive books can be found here. Take a chance with singing songs and nursery rhymes. Trust us, your baby will think you sing beautifully!
As speech therapists, we are uniquely qualified to mentor and guide you to speak your best parentese. Schedule a parent coaching session with us to get a one-on-one session to meet you and your child’s needs. Virtual sessions are available for your ease and convenience.
Contact us here or email us at admin@curatedcom.com!
Contact us to schedule a free consultation with a Speech Language Pathologist! Our bilingual SLP Assistant is also available for scheduling therapy.
Page updated
Report abuse