May 9, 2018


As much as your infant niece or nephew reacts happily to your high-pitched coos, your "baby talk" is no competition for another baby's voice.

As new study presented at the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, held this week in Minneapolis, Minnesota, found that even before babies are babbling themselves, they prefer to hear sounds from the mouths of other babies than our best efforts to imitate “baby talk” with them. In their experiment, 5-month-old babies were discovered to spend 40 percent more time listening to the vowels sounds of their peers than adults vocalizing the same vowels.

Also read: Baby Talk

Don’t feel badly, Auntie. It’s not just you. Even their own Mommy and Daddy can't compete with their infant’s preference for baby talk from other babies. The sounds those tiny little bodies can vocalize make a real difference as to what babies are more attracted to and may even be best at helping build their spoken language skills.

The researchers’ findings shine a new light on "how infants develop their understanding of spoken language -- what they bring innately and what is shaped by their experience as listeners and as 'talkers-in-training,'" said Linda Polka, a professor at McGill University.

Also read: Baby to Baby: Looks Who's Talking!

"Access to infant speech, likely including a baby's own vocalizations, seems to have a broad and significant impact, influencing receptive, expressive and motivational aspects of speech development," Polka said. In addition, recent tests with 7-month-olds who have begun to babble, also indicated that babies “appear ‘tuned’ to sounds produced by very small talkers just like them.”

Also read: Keep Talking, Baby!

“Infants' own vocalizations are quite potent; infant speech seems to capture and hold infant attention, sometimes prompting positive emotions. This may motivate infants to be vocally active and make it easier to evaluate their own vocalizations, perhaps energizing and supporting spoken language development,” Polka said.

But don't stop what you're doing! Mommy, Daddy and Auntie should keep on talking to infants and babies in high-pitched voices. Babies respond to your squeaky voice.

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Acoustical Society of America. "From the mouths of babes: Infants really enjoy hearing from their peers: An attraction to vocal sounds from infants may help build spoken language skills in infancy." ScienceDaily.  (accessed May 9, 2018).

 Photo: galitskaya