Baby Talk vs Parentese: How to Talk with Your Baby

As parents and caregivers, we want to foster our baby’s overall development. One developmental area targeted throughout the day is our baby’s speech and language skills. Babies respond to a variety of noises, exclamations, and differences in our tone of voice. They can learn words through everyday interactions.

What is Baby Talk vs. Parentese?

There are two common terms for the way we talk to babies.

• Baby talk – silly nicknames for words (i.e., “nanners” for bananas, “baba” for bottle)
• Parentese – true words, with a change in the way our voice sounds (higher pitch, sing-song tone)

Many parents wonder how they should be speaking to their baby. Should they speak to them in full sentences, narrating their day while using their regular voice? Should they use “baby talk” only? Or how about parentese?

We want our babies to grow up speaking in sentences and using an ordinary, everyday voice. It’s okay to use baby talk and parentese, but there is a time and place for each. Think about the way we naturally raise our pitch, slow down our words and speak with more exaggeration when we interact with a baby. This way of speaking with babies catches their attention and helps them learn language from the time they are born. When your baby uses “baby talk”, repeat the baby talk back to them and pair it with the real word. For example, if your baby asks for a snack by saying “num nums”, you can respond with “num nums! Puffs!”

How Should I Talk with My Baby?

When you talk to your baby, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) suggests keeping these tips in mind:

• Be animated! Slow down your words and use a higher pitched, sing-song voice.
• Respond to any noise or sound combination your child makes and imitate (repeat) it back to them. This will help your baby understand that their noises and sound combinations have meaning and will gain attention from you.
• Take conversational turns While you may think you can’t have a back-and-forth conversation with your baby who hasn’t yet mastered word use, you can take turns making sounds with them!
• Engage in back-and-forth interactions by making silly faces with them, producing exciting noises, and laughing when they do.
• Narrate for your baby by talking about what you are doing during the day. Say things like “Eww, stinky diaper” or “Mmm, yummy milk!”
• Teach your baby to copy actions during daily interactions and play time (e.g. peek-a-boo, clapping hands, waving hi / bye, gestures in songs). This teaches them how to take turns and use gestures.
• Engage your baby in song play and book time. You can model gestures, exclamations (“oh no”, “peek-a-boo”, “whee”), animal sounds, and common words used throughout the day.
• Talk in your native language(s) to your child. Being exposed to multiple languages does not hinder a child’s language development.

Building language is a social interaction. Without that back-and-forth interaction with your child, they are not going to learn language as well. So, warm up your sing-songy parentese voice and start baby talkin’ to your baby! They’ll be talking your ear off before you know it.