Many of us instinctively lisp or speak in a baby like, high pitched, singsong manner when speaking with children.
While some disapprove of this and are of the view that this will retard speech development in a child, others hold a contrary view:
Many experts believe that baby talk may actually be good for an infant and that it gets more baby attention than normal speech. There is also a view that is able to demonstrate that babies may prefer baby talk over regular talk and that baby talk is an important part of the bonding process.
Baby talk, it is suggested may aid a baby’s development. When a baby babbles and the adult babbles right back at it, the interactional nature of the babbling shows the baby that talk is two way and is rewarded by replies.
Also the fact that baby talk uses peculiarly high-pitched voices, invest it with an acoustic quality that babies find appealing.
So baby talk may be a good idea after all. And it is particularly a good idea if it is interspersed with normal, grammatically correct words and sentences spoken in a normal voice so that baby becomes used to both.
