Motherese: A specialized way of speaking to infants
Motherese
Motherese is a primary way that caregivers teach an infant about speech and language. It simplifies and sometimes exaggerates the structure of language arguably making language easier to learn.
Motherese enhances social communication; its simplified syntax, slower tempo, and melodic intonation contours evoke a social response. Moreover, its timing gives children ample opportunity to babble or talk in response. Enhanced use of motherese between 6 and 14 mo increases infant babbling measured concurrently, as well as word production at 14 mo, suggesting that the use of parentese increases infant communication as well as their language skills
Its plays an important role in many treatment approaches used with infants and young children. It helps answer a question most caregivers naturally have: How do I get my baby’s attention and keep it?
Attention is needed for a child to learn, but it can be often difficult to get and keep an infant’s attention due to an infant’s cognitive limitations.
Technically speaking, motherese is a special way of speaking (specialize speech register). It is one of many ways people naturally change how they talk depending on the situation and who they are speaking to.
In addition to motherese, there are also styles called fathereseand siblingese. However, there is less research on these styles, and their role in infant learning is not as well understood.
Parentese is a newer term used to describe this type of speech, but it is not yet commonly used.
Capturing an Infant’s Attention
Changing the way we speak is a normal part of using language. Think about how your speech changes when you talk to family versus strangers, to a younger person versus an older one, at a baseball game versus a bank, or with people you respect compared to those you do not.
Verbal tricks of Motherese that caregivers use to get and hold an infant’s flickering attention include:
Using a higher-than-normal pitch*
Talking about things the child and caregiver are experiencing together
Using exaggerated tone and melody (intonation)*
Using frequent repetitions*
Calling attention to objects
*used across most definitions - other definitions also include short utterance length, simple vocabulary, and simple syntactic structures or others include the use of content words (i.e., nouns, verbs) in isolation, placement of content words at the end of sentences in (“A doggie, see the doggie”), increased pitch on content words, and talking about objects and events in the “here” and “now.”
*it’s also important to note that Motherese is fully grammatical and uses words referencing observable objects and actions, and it has exaggerated pitch contours, and uses a significantly slower tempo with elongated vowels
Motherese requires an adult to know a child well enough to anticipate and respond totheir needs and wants. The conversation topics of Motherese are those that interest a child and modifications in intonation, syntax and vocabulary are those needed to keep the child's attention. Thus, a caregiver shapes the vast complexities of language into a lesson from which a child can learn.
Motherese changes as a child develops, adjusting to fit a child's cognitive level and greater experience with language. To illustrate, Motherese appropriate to a child of 3 months would seem silly and immature if directed to a toddler or preschooler.
Families are the principal users of Motherese. Motherese comes naturally to most caregivers. However, situations arise when a family may have difficulties using Motherese spontaneously. Here’s why:
Motherese is not baby talk
Some families confuse Motherese with baby talk. When this occurs, every time a clinician says Motherese, they picture you asking them to say gee gee and gaa gad to their child, and that you are asking them to talk in a way they find embarrassing. They may also hold the belief that an infant will benefit more from an adult speaking to them in full, complete sentences.
The Silent Infant
A different challenge may arise if an infant is silent, perhaps unable to vocalize or interact extensively for medical reasons or developmental delay. Families may limit their interactions with a silent infant, even in the face of encouragement from hospital staff, believing the child does not benefit from the contact.
Family Stress
A family under severe chronic stress may limit their time with an infant, or may be too distracted to interact in a way that promotes learning. Chronic severe stress can have neurological consequences for both caregivers and infants, as well as being a risk factor for future educational and social challenges.
The general clinical advice is to encourage families to talk to their child in ways that they and the child find enjoyable and natural. A child who has fun communicating is more likely to want to communicate again.
It can help to ask parents to keep these questions in mind while interacting with their child:
Does my baby seem interested?
Is my baby paying attention?
Encourage parents to speak in a way that makes it more likely they can answer “yes” to both questions.
For most infants, this happens more often when adults use short sentences or single words, talk about what is happening right now, and focus on what seems to interest the child.
In other words, “yes” happens more often when a caregiver uses Motherese—even if a clinician chooses not to use that word. For a silent infant, interest and attention may take the form of eye widening, smiling, movement of the extremities, or imitative oral motor movements.
Talking Points with Parents
When discussing Motherese with families, the following four points may help summarize the essential ideas about talking with an infant: