Child Language Acquisition and Motherese

Motherese

Speech style using pitch variations and short sentences

Parentese

Gender neutral term for motherese or baby talk

Caretaker speech

Language used by caregivers to engage infants

Feral children

Children raised without human contact affecting language

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

System for transcribing sounds of spoken language

Places of articulation

Location in the vocal tract where sounds are produced

Halliday’s functions of speech

Theories on how language serves various communicative purposes

Structure of speech

Organisation of language elements for effective communication

Audience awareness

Understanding the listener’s perspective in communication

Purpose of speech

Intent behind spoken communication, such as to inform

Lexical features

Vocabulary characteristics of spoken communication

Grammatical features

Rules governing sentence structure in spoken language

Phonological features

Sound patterns and systems in spoken communication

Cooing pattern

Early infant vocalisation characterised by soft sounds

Sing song voice

Musical intonation used in motherese to engage infants

Repetition in speech

Repeated words or phrases to reinforce language learning

Made up words

Invented terms like ‘boo boo’ used in baby talk

Third person speech

Referring to oneself as ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’ in conversation

Vocab development

Growth of a child’s word knowledge through exposure

Harvard’s Music Lab Study

Research analysing speech and song from 400 voices