Читать книгу Zero to Five - Tracy Cutchlow - Страница 28

Speak in a singsongy voice

The best way to talk with baby is to snuggle in close and use a high, lilting voice with drawn-out vowels.

It’s called “parentese.” In the first eighteen months, it helps baby pick out and imitate parts of language.

That’s because each vowel and word becomes more distinct, so they’re easier for baby to discern. The higher pitch matches the limited range of a baby’s smaller vocal tract—one-quarter the size of yours.

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it

Infants prefer the pitch of parentese to adult speech, according to decades of research:

• Babies’ heart rates increased when they heard parentese, even in a foreign language.

• At 5 months old, babies smiled more at approvals and looked worried at disapprovals in parentese.

• At 12 months old, babies asked to look at a picture did so more often when asked in parentese.

TRY THIS

Read a magazine story to your baby, using the same tone and speed you would with your partner. See how your baby reacts. (Mine tries to pinch my lips closed.) Now read it again in parentese. It’s pretty funny to look baby in the eyes and say, wide-eyed and smiling, something like, “Unfortunately, encounters with cops are always at the worst moments in your life.” But watch baby engage!