Say Goodbye to "Baby-Talk" Candace Del Fattore

In today's society, as each day comes and goes so does those fads of what is considered acceptable in regard to how adults regard/talk to kids. The days of adults, specifically those adults that are parents to young children, talking to their children in charismatic, sweet and energetic tones muttering “baby talk” is now on it's way out, toward extinction. Parents and caregivers are trading in their mission to get their young children to mutter the words “baba” or “momma” for a better mission, one that leads them to long and developed sentences. According to the CBS article, “if you (parents) want your kids to learn to talk in the best possible way, a new study suggests you should ditch the baby talk and speak to them in normal sentences” (2014). The article titled, "Speaking to babies in long sentences boosts language development" provides much explanation as to why young children of the past, such as myself, spent much of their infancy getting their cheeks pinched and being begged to speak their first word like their parents “taught” them.

Language development begins as early as infancy or an individual's young childhood. From this young age, children are being spoken to and regarded, commonly in baby talk. Recent studies have provided much reasoning for individuals such as parents and caregivers abandoning these means of communication in order to model more adequate and advanced means of modeling language to children. According to the blog titled, "Mum's the Word" “language skills form the foundation for literacy development and are critical to educational success” (Mum's the Word trademark). This article which was published electronically (online), exposes the way in which parents of this generation are beginning to understand the impact that modeling advanced language skills positively impacts young children, even those under the age of 3. It is evident that those infants and children that are being modeled and talked too far-pass infants and children whose' parents or caregivers are not fostering their language development. The “child-directed speech sharpens infants' language processing skills and can predict future success” as well as promote a child's social and emotional development (Mum's the Word). With all of these benefits to talking to young children in long, developed statements and sentence- why would adults refuse the opportunity to enhance and foster language development.
Though adults may take the time to speak to their children in long, developed statements there is a piece missing to this puzzle which is language development. How do those young children who can not yet speak to model the language skills that they are being taught, in the adults' hopes of fostering language development, use the information they are being taught to their benefit? It can't simply be that children that are modeled advanced language skills and spoken to in regard to more developed skills, acquire a better basis of language development. There has to be more too it. It has been said by researchers that good ways to foster language development include “simply talking babies, which was found to be key to building crucial language and vocabulary skills -- but sooner is better, and long sentences are good” (CBS 2014). Some other ways include turning to authors such as Dr. Seuss for “silly language and tone of his poetry made his books incredibly appealing to a young child” which give students a fun way to learn about language (The Odyssey 2015). Dr. Seuss...one of the classics! It is evident that these advancements from “baby talk” to more advanced sentences give children the ability to develop language and acquire skills they will use for the rest of their lives.

Dr.Seuss motivates student learning and development of language. These sweet and funny quotes are evidence of this.

The Odyssey

CBS News

Mum's the Word