Is baby talk ridiculous or evolutionary?

The definition of infant directed speech (IDS), aka baby talk, is the slow, high-pitched (some might say dumbed down) voice we use to talk to babies. From an outside perspective this sometimes sounds a little ridiculous and overdone. But you might be shocked that this is an evolutionary feature.

It’s because of the stated characteristics of IDS that children are better able to dissect our language. By talking in a high-pitched voice baby is able to notice where the phonetic notation is. By talking slower and using shorter sentences baby is able to differentiate between different words. The more words they learn the greater their vocabulary and ultimately the better they’ll talk. Additionally there is the Phenomenon of Motionese. Which are slow gestures to accompany or underline IDS. Eventually this results in even better understanding for the little ones. But how long is IDS effective? Research (Ma, Golinkoff, Houston, Hirsh-Pasek, 2011) has shown that 27 months old children react more to adult directed speech.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Let me know in the comments!