How does ‘Child Directed Speech’ (CDS) differ from normal adult speech?

-Sophie Roller

 

Surely I can't be the only person who finds baby talk strange. I mean, if you heard someone talking to an adult the same way they talk to a child, you would be right to question their sanity. Yet when you use this simple, slow, repetitive language with infants, it is perfectly acceptable. This got me thinking about the effect of CDS on language development and how it is that we learn to talk normally as adults.

 

It has actually been found that infants prefer to listen to CDS than other speech but it is not essential for language development as they do not receive it in some cultures. However, the use of exaggerated pitch changes, elongated vowels, and longer pauses appear effective at getting infants attention. It also allows them more time to process the information being conveyed to them, which may aid language development as it is thought that children develop correct grammatical rules from hearing relevant examples in adults' speech.

 

Other characteristics of CDS are repetition and rhyming, substituting onomatopoeic variations, for example, 'moo-moo' instead of 'cow', using nouns instead of pronouns, and assuming the role of both speaker and listener. Replacing pronouns with nouns is a strategy used to try and reinforce people's names, for example, 'mummy wants Sarah to eat her din-dins'. This example also includes another common feature of baby talk which is the duplication of a single syllable. Words like this are used when talking to infants so that they can understand meaning but won't find the word too difficult to pronounce.

 

Another fact that I find unusual is that CDS is very similar to the language used by people when talking to their pets. When you think about this, it seems odd that parents choose to talk to their children the same way they would talk to their dog, especially when a child is learning how to speak. However, by assuming the role of speaker and listener i.e. asking the question, presuming the response, and continuing the discourse, a child may gain an understanding of how discourse structure works which is very important in their language development.

 

Adults may also overemphasise two words in a sentence when trying to teach their child new words and how to say them, for example they may say, 'the sky is blue' and exaggerate the words in bold by perhaps pronouncing them more slowly or in a higher pitch. Overall Child Directed Speech does seem to have its benefits for an infant developing language; however I am sure that I will still find myself holding in laughter whenever I hear an adult using baby talk.

 

References:

 

Jean Stillwell Peccei, 2006, Child Language in Routledge English Language introductions.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/baby-talk

 

Baron, Naomi S. 1989, The uses of Baby Talk. ERIC Digest in ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Washington DC. www.ericdigests.org/pre-9215/baby.htm