Since the mid-20th century, scientists have observed unique features in speech, facial expression, and content directed to infants and toddlers in comparison to speech directed to adults. Whereas much research has studied the characteristics of so-called infant-directed speech and speculated about its significance for language learning, research directly testing these ideas has been more limited until recently. Studies now suggest that infant-directed speech (a) promotes infant attention to language, (b) fosters social interaction between infants and caregivers, and (c) informs infants about various aspects of their native language by heightening distinctions relative to the speech addressed to adults. New developments focusing on the social role of infant-directed conversational interactions highlight the importance of caregiver responsiveness to the infant. Building a communicative foundation even prior to the time language emerges is crucial for fostering language development.
HartB.RisleyT. R. (1995). (See References). Rocked the developmental world by showing vast differences in language addressed to middle- and low-income children.
2.
KuhlP. K. (2007). (See References). Shows that language is fundamentally social.
3.
Saint-GeorgesC.ChetouaniM.CasselR.ApicellaF.MahdhaouiA.MuratoriF.. . . CohenD. (2013). (See References). Reviewed 144 studies on prevalence of IDS.
4.
SinghL.MorganJ. L.BestC. (2002). (See References). Shows that babies prefer happy talk, a typical property of infant-directed speech.
5.
SoderstromM. (2007). (See References). An extensive review of studies on infant-directed speech and its functions.
6.
Tamis-LeMondaC.KuchirkoY.SongL. (2014). (See References). Shows the importance of contingent responses for language learning.
BohannonN.Hirsh-PasekK. (1984). Do children say as they’re told? A new perspective on motherese. In FeagansL.GarveyC.GolinkoffR. M. (Eds.), The origins and growth of communication, (pp. 176–195). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
9.
BornsteinM. H.Tamis-LeMondaC. S.HaynesO. M. (1999). First words in the second year: Continuity, stability, and models of concurrent and predictive correspondence in vocabulary and verbal responsiveness across age and context. Infant Behavior & Development, 22, 65–85.
10.
CaskeyM.StephensB.TuckerR.VohrB. (2011). Importance of parent talk on the development of preterm infant vocalizations. Pediatrics, 128, 910–916.
11.
CristiaA. (2011). Fine-grained variation in caregivers’ /s/ predicts their infants’ /s/ category. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129, 3271–3280.
12.
FernaldA. (1992). Human vocalizations to infants as biologically relevant signals: An evolutionary perspective. In BarkowJ.CosmidesL. (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 391–428). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
13.
FernaldA.TaeschnerT.DunnJ.PapousekM.de Boysson-BardiesB.FukuiI. (1989). A cross-language study of prosodic modifications in mothers’ and fathers’ speech to preverbal infants. Journal of Child Language, 16, 477–501.
14.
GauthierK.GeneseeF. (2011). Language development in internationally adopted children: A special case of early second language learning. Child Development, 82, 887–901.
15.
GoldsteinM. H.SchwadeJ. A. (2008). Social feedback to infants’ babbling facilitates rapid phonological learning. Psychological Science, 19, 515–552.
16.
GolinkoffR. M. (1986). “I beg your pardon?”: The preverbal negotiation of failed messages. Journal of Child Language, 13, 455–476.
17.
GolinkoffR. M.AliotoA. (1995). Infant-directed speech facilitates lexical learning in adults hearing Chinese: Implications for language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 22, 703–726.
18.
GolinkoffR. M.AmesG. J. (1979). A comparison of fathers’ and mothers’ speech with their young children. Child Development, 50, 28–32.
19.
GreenwoodC. R.Thiemeann-BourqueK.WalkerD.BuzhardtJ.GilkersonJ. (2011). Assessing children’s home language environments using automatic speech recognition technology. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 32, 83–92.
20.
GrieserD. L.KuhlP. K. (1988). Maternal speech to infants in a tonal language: Support for universal prosodic features in motherese. Developmental Psychology, 24, 14–20.
21.
HartB.RisleyT. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
22.
Hirsh-PasekK.AdamsonL. B.BakemanR.OwenM. T.GolinkoffR. M.PaceA.. . . SumaK. (2015). The contribution of early communication quality to low-income children’s language success. Psychological Science, 26, 1071–1083.
23.
HollichG.Hirsh-PasekK.GolinkoffR. M. (2000). Breaking the language barrier: An emergentist coalition model for the origins of word learning. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 65 (3, Serial No. 262), i–vi, 1–123.
24.
KaplanP. S.BachorowskiJ.SmoskiM. J.HudenkoW. J. (2002). Infants of depressed mothers, although competent learners, fail to learn in response to their own mothers’ infant-directed speech. Psychological Science, 13, 268–271.
25.
Kemler NelsonD.Hirsh-PasekK.JusczykP. W.CassidyK. W. (1989). How prosodic cues in motherese might assist language learning. Journal of Child Language, 16, 55–68.
26.
KoE.-S.SeidlA.CristiaA.ReimchenM.SoderstromM. (2015). Entrainment of prosody in the interaction of mothers with their young children. Journal of Child Language. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1017/S0305000915000203
27.
KuhlP. K. (2007). Is speech learning ‘gated’ by the social brain?Developmental Science, 10, 110–120.
28.
KuhlP. K.AndruskiJ. E.ChistovichI. A.ChistovichL. A.KozhevnikovaE. V.RyskinaV.. . . LacerdaF. (1997). Cross-language analysis of phonetic units in language addressed to infants. Science, 277, 684–686.
29.
KuhlP. K.Coffey-CorinaS.PaddenD.DawsonG. (2005). Links between social and linguistic processing of speech in preschool children with autism: Behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Developmental Science, 8, F1–F12.
30.
KuhlP. K.TsaoF.-M.LiuH. M. (2003). Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 100, 9096–9101.
31.
MaW.GolinkoffR. M.HoustonD.Hirsh-PasekK. (2011). Word learning in infant- and adult- directed speech. Language Learning and Development, 7, 209–225.
32.
McMurrayB.Kovack-LeshK. A.GoodwinD.McEchronW. (2013). Infant-directed speech and the development of speech perception: Enhancing development or an unintended consequence?Cognition, 129, 362–378.
33.
NaoiN.Minagawa-KawaiY.KaboyashiA.TakeuchiK.NakamuraK.YamamotoJ.KojimaS. (2012). Cerebral responses to infant-directed speech and the effect of talker familiarity. NeuroImage, 59, 1735–1744.
34.
PrudenS. M.Hirsh-PasekK.GolinkoffR. M.HennonE. A. (2006). The birth of words: Ten-month-olds learn words through perceptual salience. Child Development, 77, 266–280.
35.
ReillyJ. S.BellugiU. (1996). Competition on the face: Affect and language in ASL motherese. Journal of Child Language, 23, 219–239.
36.
RoseberryS.Hirsh-PasekK.GolinkoffR. M. (2014). Skype me: Socially contingent interactions help toddlers learn language. Child Development, 85, 956–970.
37.
RoweC. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of the role of quantity and quality of child-directed speech in vocabulary development. Child Development, 83, 1762–1774.
38.
RoweM. L.Goldin-MeadowS. (2009). Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental Science, 12, 182–187.
39.
Saint-GeorgesC.ChetouaniM.CasselR.ApicellaF.MahdhaouiA.MuratoriF.. . . CohenD. (2013). Motherese in interaction: At the cross-road of emotion and cognition? A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 8(10), Article e78103. Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078103
40.
SaitoY.AoyamaS.KondoT.FukumotoR.KonishiN.NakamuraK.. . . ToshimaT. (2007). Frontal cerebral blood flow change associated with infant-directed speech (IDS). Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 92, F113–F116.
41.
SchieffelinB.OchsE. (1983). A cultural perspective on the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication. In GolinkoffR. M. (Ed.), The transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication (pp. 115–132). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
SinghL.NestorS.ParikhC.YullA. (2009). Influences of infant-directed speech on early word recognition. Infancy, 14, 654–666.
44.
SnowC. E. (1977). The development of conversation between mothers and babies. Journal of Child Language, 4, 1–22.
45.
SoderstromM. (2007). Beyond babytalk: Re-evaluating the nature and content of speech input to preverbal infants. Developmental Review, 27, 501–532.
46.
SoderstromM.BlossomM.FoygelI.MorganJ. L. (2008). Acoustical cues and grammatical units in speech to two preverbal infants. Journal of Child Language, 35, 869–902.
47.
SongJ. Y.DemuthK.MorganJ. L. (2010). Effects of the acoustic properties of infant-directed speech on infant word recognition. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128, 389–400.
48.
Tamis-LeMondaC.KuchirkoY.SongL. (2014). Why is infant language learning facilitated by parental responsiveness?Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 121–126.
49.
ThiessenE. D.HillE. A.SaffranJ. R. (2005). Infant-directed speech facilitates word segmentation. Infancy, 7, 53–71.
50.
WarlaumontA. S.RichardsJ. A.GilkersonJ.OllerD. K. (2014). A social feedback loop for speech development and its reduction in autism. Psychological Science, 25, 1314–1324.
51.
WeislederA.FernaldA. (2013). Talking to children matters: Early language experience strengthens processing and builds vocabulary. Psychological Science, 24, 2143–2152.
52.
ZanglR.MillsD. L. (2007). Increased brain activity to infant-directed speech in 6- and 13-month-old infants. Infancy, 11, 31–62.
