Motherese Or Adult-Directed Speech

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Motherese is known as the use of higher pitch and exaggerated intonation to communicate with children, most specifically infants. It involves characteristics such as short sentences, repeated words and questions. It is also referred to as parentese or infant-directed speech and much different than adult-directed speech. In adult-directed speech, people use lower pitches and speak must faster. If an adult were to use adult-directed speech towards an infant, the infant would take longer to understand what the adult was saying. Fernald (1985) conducted an experiment to observe whether or not 4-month-old infants preferred motherese or adult-directed speech. The infants listened to recordings of women who were not their mothers. Fernald observed if the child would turn its head towards motherese or adult-directed speech. Also, depending on which side the woman was sitting on (right or left) and the order in which they heard the woman speak (motherese first or last), Fernald would observe in which direction the infant would turn it’s head. Fernald found that there was no significant main effect for which side the motherese was presented. There was an interaction between the …show more content…

It is a great way to interact with them and it makes them smile. I would always enjoy reading their picture books to them because they were able to recognize when something exciting, funny, or happy was happening because they would always smile and laugh or clap their hands. Just by the sounds of my voice, whether it was high pitched or low pitched, they were able to understand if I was saying something good or bad. If they were being rewarded for something, I would speak to them in a higher pitched voice and they would become excited. If I was getting on to them for doing something they should not have done, I would speak to them in a lower pitched voice, still at a slow pace, and they would become sad and know not to do it

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