Thursday, August 2, 2012

Baby Talk

Baby Talk....

Not just the title of my blog anymore. Baby talk is something that I seem to use all the time now. You know the weird change-your-voice-to-unusually-high-pitch-because- that's- the- only-way-I-think- this -baby- will -understand- me tone? Baby talk used to make me gag a little before I had Samantha. I used to think "Ummm why is that person talking to that baby in a completely different voice?! Just talk normal, dude." However, now I find myself on a daily basis being guilty of baby talk...

And that's okay. Because you know what? I find that Samantha smiles and coo's more when I talk in a silly voice. And I am willing to work hard for those smiles and coo's! Sometimes I catch myself though, after saying something ridiculous in a completely ridiculous way...

Example 1:  (Me talking to Samantha) "You got go poops?" I mean really....REALLY??!! What is that? 

Example 2: (Me putting Samantha in the bathtub and soaping up her belly and trying to hype up bath time for her) "Ah  thass zo nosssssss!" Translation..."Oh, that's so nice!" For some reason, I'm from another country and have a strange accent when I give her a bath.

Example 3: When I'm talking to her most things get an "e" added to the end of it. Diap-e (diaper). Tub-e (tub). Swing-e (swing). Crib-e (crib). Kiss-e (kiss). Hug-e (hug). I could go on and on....

She's been quite chatty lately. Making lots of sounds and I love it! Everyday I say to her with a big smile "Sayyyy Hiiii Mommy!" and I swear she makes this sound back that sounds like "Hiii!." I'll take it. 

Watch, when she really starts talking someday she'll end up with my "bath time accent" for the rest of her life. Yikes. 

"Hey Sarah, why does your daughter have an accent?!" 

Blame it on the baby talk. 

10 comments:

Liz said...

There's a reason you talk that way:

Babies learn to speak by listening. And all of us all over the world help them, modulating the sounds of the quicksilver flow of speech in fundamentally the same way. Put simply, when we speak to infants we speak in a very funny style. When confronted with a baby, adults produce a signal that is raised about an octave in pitch and slows down very carefully and creates these swooping contours. It's not a job interview voice. It's a very distinct voice that's fetching to a baby. Why would every person on the planet do it if it's not important?

Doctors and scientists have analyzed it every which way, and learned that adults make an unconscious effort to stretch the signals, exaggerate the acoustic components that are exactly the dimensions that the baby needs to pay attention to in order to form the maps for speech.

From: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode2/babytalk/

Stephanie said...

I think it's so hard not to baby talk to your baby! We have some of our own made up words that we use with her too, and now that she's a bit older we do try and talk and say words as normal as possible, but the inflection in our voices definitely gets a rise out of her, where as talking normally doesn't usually. More than anything I'm afraid she's not gonna know what her name is...because we have so many nicknames for her! :)

Faith said...

lol, it's called "mother-ese" and is research proven to support speech and cognitive development:). The first commenter is right on! So, speak on, momma, lol!

Faith said...

lol, it's called "mother-ese" and is research proven to support speech and cognitive development:). The first commenter is right on! So, speak on, momma, lol!

Rebecca said...

I think its cute how you talk to your daughter.

Jill Dorsey || Made with Moxie said...

Wow. Thank goodness. I'm totally passing this on to my husband so laughs at my talking to our son.

Jill Dorsey || Made with Moxie said...

I do it too. I hear myself and I think, wow, I sound like a whacko. Even better when my husband catches me. I was singing to Jimmy in the shower the other day while I thought he was downstairs.

Candice said...

Hahaha I think we are all guilty of this!!!
I was so anti-baby talk...until I started nannying a three month old until her turned one.
It was just him and I hanging out all day, so I would chat away to him and catch myself saying all sorts of crazy talk!!! Ay ay ay!

Kristen said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA love it!

Good Timing said...

Love this post! Totally made me smile! :)