Is it true that licking with children is harmful to their development?

The belief is widespread that the luster is harmful to the speech and emotional development of the child. June 1, on the International Children's Day, we decided to check if this is really so.

Many Forumsdedicated parental, sites children's educational institutions and Media They write about the dangers of lingering. They note: such a manner leads to the fact that the child begins to speak later and is worse mastering speech. In particular, Zabota.pro portal with reference to an unnamed pediatrician Writesthat “the distorted pronunciation is fixed in the memory of children for a long time, and as a result it becomes the norm. Retraining later oh how difficult it is. ” A similar point of view can be found on sitededicated to speech therapy and defectology. They explain that the child "forms a wrong idea of ​​his native language, the wrong pronunciation becomes the norm for him, and not because he has any problems with diction, but because he simply does not know how to speak." Sites about raising children also warn: “The child will experience difficulties with mastering the letter, since the basis of this skill is a well -developed phonemic hearing.” Turn Attention also on the psychological aspect: supposedly such a speech can harm the emotional state of the child, form complexes, make it infantile for life.

Susyukanya, or Baby Talk, “Infantry Speech”-English), is a special type Speech used to communicate an adult with a child, which is characterized by a simplified or distorted pronunciation of words, as well as the use of lightweight grammatical constructions. In everyday life, Baby-Tok can be addressed not only to babies, sometimes domestic animals also resort to it. Examples of Baby-Toka Curses Professor, doctor of philological sciences Maxim Krongauz: “Look, what a Lyalya”, “Who is this idle with us?”, “Let's go for a walk with Gafa.”

A special type of speech addressed to children exists in almost all languages. Exception - Exotic cultures of small peoples, for example, the language of the pyrahan natives of the Amazon. In English -speaking terminology Baby-Tok is called speech addressed to children, as well as maternal or parental language. In addition to distortion of sounds and the use of simpler grammatical constructions, it is characterized by a special structure suggestions, more height and the ranging range of the voice, less fast pace and additional rhythm of pronunciation, in contrast to the speech facing an adult. Analyzing the records of conversations of volunteers with young children, scientists IdentifiedWhat also changes the pronunciation of the majority of vowels, while consonants sound almost the same. Patricia Kul, co -director of the Institute of Education and Cognitive Sciences of the University of Washington, Summarizes: “Such a speech has three main characteristics: it is almost on the octave higher, the intonations are more pronounced; The bottoms are lower, and the top is higher in the timbre; Her pace is slower, with longer pauses. ” That is, Baby-Tok is a special type of speech with its phonetic, grammatical and stylistic features. 

The study of speech addressed to children is interesting Linguists, psychologists And specialists for children's development. One of the most significant research In this area, it was held at the University of Edinburgh. Linguists analyzed the samples of speech addressed to the babies, and identified those in which parents often used:

-diminutive forms of words ending on Y (characteristic feature of an English-speaking Baby-Toka), such as tummy (“tummy”), mummy (“mommy”) and Doggy (“dog”);

-repeated sounds, for example, Choo-Choo (“Chuh-Chuh”) and Night-Night (“Spoki-Loki”);

- onomatopoeic words - WOOF (“GAF”) and Splash (“Clup” / “Chavk” / “Schlep”).

Scientists evaluated the vocabulary of these children aged 9, 15 and 21 months and compared it to the average indicators. It turned out that children who often hear diminutive-abominable constructions and words with repeating sounds had a greater vocabulary, and it consisted mainly of full-fledged words, and not their children's counterparts. The speech of those whose loved ones used only onomatopoeia did not differ in the number of mastered words from the speech of children, in communication with which there were no options for the Baby-Tok.

In 2018, a similar design began study with the participation of the control group. 77 families with babies take part in it, who were six months at the beginning of the experiment. Parents were provided with sound recordings that record everything that the child hears and says. Scientists monitor the communicative strategies of families and give individual recommendations to those who have fallen into the group of intervention. The control group does not receive any feedback. As intermediate results, the researchers noted that by the age of 14 months, infants from the intervention group were babbling 13% more actively, and also knew more words than children from the control group (100 words versus 60). Study continues And now. At the age of three years, children scanned the brain using the MRI apparatus to find out what constant changes occurred in white and gray substances. The results of this stage have not yet been published. 

Another group of scientists from the University of Connecticut Analyzed Thousands of 30-second fragments of parents' conversations with their babies, and then measured the vocabulary of these children aged two years. It turned out that those with whom the parents were more fuel, they knew an average of 433 words, while those whose families almost did not use Baby-Tok used only 169 words on average. “Children who listened to a lot of conversations addressed to the child spoke more than children who listened to more adult speech,” says Nayran Ramirez-Espar, co-author of the study. 

According to data The American Council on Science and Health, the babies themselves are more susceptible, that is, they show more interest, it is for this type of speech. Moreover, listening to Baby-Tok, the baby longer concentrates And on other incentives, in particular visual. The most vivid preferences of the babies themselves are demonstrated by the experiment of the middle of the 20th century with a boy named Paul. A seven-month-old baby sits on his mother’s knees in a closed space and hears either Baby-Tok, facing him on the one hand, then an adult speech on the other. The child turns his head in the direction of each of the voices, until finally gives preference to Baby-Toku. 

Later Experiments According to the analysis of how the babies themselves perceive Baby-Tok, were held at the University of Washington. Scientists have found that during the listening of such a speech, children are active not only the brain of the brain, which is responsible for the hearing, but also those areas that are subsequently responsible for speech. “A speech -oriented speech is a social catalyst for the language. It makes the children not only listen, but also speak, ” - Supplies The result is the leading specialist of the study Patricia Kul. 

Confirms this hypothesis also study 2015, comparing the reactions of infants to artificially generated sounds that imitate speech addressed to adults and to the child. In addition to the fact that infant speech held the attention of children 40% longer, it also more often caused the observed smile and lip movements characteristic of the subsequent pronunciation of sounds. Researchers suggested that listening to Baby-Toka helps to launch the learning process that leads to the development of speech. “It can be some kind of sound that simply attracts their attention,” speaks The co -author of the study of the Linda of the regiment, or maybe they are really interested in this particular type of sound, because they begin to focus on their own ability to make sounds, that is, they evaluate it as a sound that they could make themselves. ”

Another is interesting Observation Scientists: Mothers, communicating with their children, less clearly pronounce sounds. At the same time, their study did not demonstrate that such children learn speech worse, but quite the opposite. “The fact that babies are able to learn to speak on an example less clear speech is notable in itself. This can be called special genius in learning the language ” - speaks Co -author of the study Andrew Martin.

And although a significant part of the studies was conducted in English-speaking countries, that is, only English Baby-Tok was studied, there is data about other languages. For example, scientists noted The similarity between the change in the pronunciation of syllables when using a speech addressed to the babies, among the bearers of the French, Italian, German, Japanese, British and American version of the English language. In addition, the experiment showedthat children at the age of seven months react equally to Baby-Tok both in their native language and foreign.

Baby-Tok is characteristic not only for a person. Birds also Change their sound reproduction for teaching chicks singing. In turn, this skill is faster Musted Those chicks who listened to simplified singing from adult birds than those who listened to the correct singing in the recording. That is, Baby-Tok can be considered a mechanism laid down by nature.

From a psychological point of view, Baby-Tok is also useful. It helps to form an emotionally warm and comfortable environment for a child. “This is what we establish contact with the child, soothe it. So we report that everything is fine, he is happy here and it is safe here ” - sure Perinatal psychologist Elena Patrikeeva.

Thus, licking with children, using children's words, as well as simplifying speech, making it more adapted for the child, is not only harmful, but also useful for the development of the baby. The use of adults of the Baby-Toka helps children to master the language faster and gain a greater vocabulary, and also improves emotional contact between parents and children. 

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. “Chenic Gogurt”: Repeating the speech mistakes of children, do we harm their development?
2. "Who is it so idle with us." Linguist Maxim Krongauz - about why we are licking with children