Baby-Talking Adults Boost Infant Word Production

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Allie Wilkinson. Got a minute?
(Baby talking)
It's hard to resist.
One look at those chubby cheeks, and the next you're cooing: "Who's a cute little baby?"
Now research finds that by using this style of speech to talk to babies, you may be helping their early language development.
Adults using so-called baby talk provide particularly good phonetic examples,
producing sounds that are clearer, longer and more distinct from each other.
Researchers used small digital recorders hidden in the vests of 11- and 14-month old babies to record the infants' auditory environment.
Thirty-second snippets were then analyzed to identify whether the parents used baby talk or regular speech,
and whether speech occurred in one-on-one or group settings.
The more parents engaged in one-on-one baby talk, the more the baby babbled,
which is a precursor to word production and the more words they produced at age two.
The study will appear in the journal Developmental Science.
So parents, looks like if you chat regularly with your child, you'll soon be saying, "look who's talking."
Thanks for the minute, for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Allie Wilkinson.