It’s proven! ‘Baby talk’ has some major benefits for your little one

We can't help it!

The minute a baby is put in our arms, we can't help but resort to 'baby talk'. We all do it; the 'ooohs' and 'ahhs' and turning your voice that little bit softer as to gain the baby's attention. We all think it's a little bit silly, but it's a reflex... and now scientists have found that 'baby talk' is actually quite beneficial for your little one. Researchers from Princeton University asked mothers to record themselves interacting with their child, and then interacting with other adults. They found that what we know as ‘baby talk’ is actually a universal type of ‘motherese’ that helps our babies recognise us. Not only that, but it's also helpful in developing their language skills. Elise Piazza, one of the researchers said: “We found that mothers alter this basic quality of their voices when speaking to infants, and they do so in a highly consistent way across many diverse languages.” So, it's not only English-speaking countries that do it, they also found it happens with Cantonese, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Mandarin, Polish, Russian and Spanish. You learn something new everyday, huh?