Babies love baby talk, all the world over

Stanford psychologist Michael Frank and collaborators conducted the largest ever experimental study of baby talk and found that infants respond better to baby talk versus normal adult chatter. Babies love baby talk all over the world, says Michael Frank , the Stanford psychologist behind the largest study to date looking at how infants from across the world respond to the different ways adults speak. The study, published March 16 in the journal Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science , tested 2,329 babies from 16 countries on their preference for baby talk, the sing-songy, high-pitched way that adults often naturally talk to small children. And the results are in: Little ones prefer it when grownups "ooh" and "coo." "Overall, babies from every site preferred baby talk," said Frank, the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Human Biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences. The researchers found that older babies preferred baby talk more than younger infants, and infants of all ages preferred baby talk when it was uttered in their native language - probably because that's what they recognize, said Frank. "Often parents are discouraged from using baby talk by well-meaning friends or even health professionals," Frank said. "But the evidence suggests that it's actually a great way to engage with your baby because babies just like it - it tells them, 'This speech is meant for you!'" Studying baby talk.