Motherese: Infant Directed Speech

Motherese, also known as infant directed speech, or parentese, is a universal instrument utilized during communication with young infants which severely impacts their speech development. There are several aspects of motherese which are employed when parents and other adults interact with babies. Although no one knows for certain how infant directed speech originated, there is an interesting theory that it derived from primates. There are several factors that can influence the characteristics and effects of motherese, such as the familiarity of the speaker to the infant, cultural differences among families, and socioeconomic variables. However, motherese shares the common outcome of positively effecting the development of infant speech.
This type of speech involves several characteristics, which include a slower rate of speech, a higher pitch, an abridged sentence structure, repetition, and a frequent reference to full names in comparison to pronouns (Spenader). These traits allow the child to more easily acquire characteristics of his or her language. A slower rate of speech will allow the baby to understand more of the key sounds, or phonemes, in the language, and will also contribute to a more advanced vocabulary. The mother’s higher pitch is used to maintain the attention of the infant while the mother is speaking. A simple sentence structure is crucial in infant communication so that the child is able to grasp the novice syntax of sentences. Repetition, similar to the slower rate of speech, will allow the infant to pick out phonemes and will also trigger associations between words and objects. For instance, the repetition of the word “dog” whenever the family canine enters the room will allow a link to exist, and the child will begin to understand that that animal is called a dog. The use of full names has a similar purpose to repetition in that it allows the infant to connect these proper names to the
According to a study performed by Keio University, certain sections of an infant’s brain, specifically the orbito-frontal cortex, is active when viewing their own mother smile, but is inactive when observing an unfamiliar female smiling. (Naoi) The study found similar results when inspecting infant directed speech. The study found that “significantly stronger responses were elicited in the left posterior temporal regions and in the left and right anterior prefrontal cortex when [the] 2-month-old infants [were] listening to their own mothers' voice [compared] to the voice of a stranger (Naoi). What this means is that even if an adult vocalizes exactly the same as an infants’ mother, the infant will not react identically. This may be indicative of the vocabulary development and cognitive development of children in the foster care system. The lack of mother-infant interaction that some of these children endure may have an effect on their