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Irish Wedding News

13/10/2017

Mums' Alter Voice When Talking To Babies

New research has found that mothers do alter their voice when they speak to babies or infants.

Following experiments at the Princeton Baby Laboratory in the US, it was revealed that women use different timbres when talking to babies and adults.

Often referred to as 'baby talk', differences in speed and pitch are believed to help infants develop language skills. This is the first time a shift in timbre has been discovered. Timbre is the character or quality of a musical sound – or voice – as distinct from its pitch and intensity.

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For the study, the mums were recorded while they interacted with their child, aged between seven and 12 months, and to the adult researchers. The team took "vocal fingerprints" by measuring the spectrum of sounds within the recordings.

The results on 12 English-speaking mums showed a unique speech pattern was directed at infants. A computer programme was trained to spot the difference. It could subsequently find it in mums speaking other languages as well.

In fact, it is understood the difference was found in 12 non-English speakers communicating in languages including Cantonese, Hebrew and Mandarin.

The findings have been published in the journal Current Biology.

(JP/MH)

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"New research has found that mothers do alter their voice when they speak to babies or infants."