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submitted 2 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 47 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not sure why this triggered a snarky response unless Ted is just waving a monkey puppet for internet points. Talking normally to kids is not rocket science, and it's not stereotypical yuppies desperate to get their gifted darlings into AP class. It's very simple - little kids can handle normal speech just fine, so why use baby talk?

[-] Echinoderm@aussie.zone 41 points 2 months ago

It really depends on the kid and the complexity of the message. Young kids are still learning the intricacies of the language and building a vocabulary. Not talking down to them helps build those skills up. But at the end of the day, if the message is not getting across, it's the fault of the communicator.

Plus it's an annoying flex to say "see how amazing my kid is? It's all because of me!" Some kids just pick up language easier, some kids sleep all the way through the night earlier, some kids toilet train easier, etc. Usually it's better for parents to quietly take the little victory rather than treat it as a reflection of their amazing parenting skills.

[-] wolfpack86@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Exactly, there's a difference between baby talk and using age reasonable vocabulary.

You don't need to ask a 3 year old why they are being disobedient. But it's perfectly reasonable to ask why they "aren't doing what you asked them to do".

Those are all different from why u no lissen bebe

[-] fosho@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

regardless of a child's inherent language skills I would argue that it's a detriment to baby talk to them. surely the earlier they receive regular communication the sooner they are going to learn it.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 months ago

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure, it's not that simple.

For one, you might not have much to chat about with your baby, so doing baby talk might actually get in more language training.

But then baby talk is also very emotionally charged. So, it might help with emotional development, or simply make the baby pay attention for longer and therefore actually help the language development.

Well, and then it also still depends on the baby. For example, this research suggests that babies with autism react differently to baby talk: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2022/toddlers-responses-to-baby-talk-linked-to-social-cognitive-language-abilities

[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

For one, you might not have much to chat about with your baby, so doing baby talk might actually get in more language training.

In a good environment babies should be exposed to plenty of language. There's tribal societies which don't talk to their kids until they start to talk themselves and those kids turn out fine by all metrics researchers could throw at them. What they do do is take them with them everywhere.

You do not need to capture a baby's attention for them to sponge up information. They do pretty much nothing else no matter what you do.

What has been shown to be beneficial is to give them the opportunity to talk to their caregivers earlier, figures that language capability develops faster than the capability to make complex sounds, it's the whole point behind baby sign: So they can tell you that no they aren't hungry they want their teddy. Doesn't benefit language skills, it does reduce frustration (you might figure), bonds to their caregiver, and benefits both party's emotional states.

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago

Can't expect nerds to have the social intelligence to understand that.

[-] kromem@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Because there's a ton of research that we adapted to do it for good reasons:

Infants between 6 and 8 months of age displayed a robust and distinct preference for speech with resonances specifying a vocal tract that is similar in size and length to their own. This finding, together with data indicating that this preference is not present in younger infants and appears to increase with age, suggests that nascent knowledge of the motor schema of the vocal tract may play a role in shaping this perceptual bias, lending support to current models of speech development.

https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00412

Stanford psychologist Michael Frank and collaborators conducted the largest ever experimental study of baby talk and found that infants respond better to baby talk versus normal adult chatter.