What Parentese Is and Why Every Parent Does It
"Hiiii baby! What a gorgeous girrrl!" "Helloooo handsome! How are you doing?" If you've said something like that this week, you've used Parentese . Parentese, or infant-directed speech, is a style of communication that is used across various cultures and languages to talk to infants and young children. It sounds cute, but it plays a critical role in early development. What Parentese Actually Sounds Like Parentese is not baby talk. Baby talk replaces real words with silly ones to get a laugh. Parentese uses real words, but changes how you say them. You are using Parentese when you: - Use a higher pitch and lots of melody, as if you are singing - Use a slower tempo with stretched-out vowels: "Goooood moooorning!" - Use shorter sentences: "Look! Big ball!" - Use lots of repetition and big pauses - Use bright facial expressions and maintain eye contact Research shows Parentese is found in every culture studied from English to Swahili to Jap...
