Parentese is characterized by a high-pitched tone and a singsongy voice with stretched-out vowels. Though parents don’t always realize they do it, this kind of speech helps a baby’s brain learn language. Why? A speaker who has slowed down is much easier to understand, for one. Parentese also makes the sound of each vowel more distinct; this exaggeration allows your baby to hear words as distinct entities and discriminate better between them. The melodic tone helps infants separate sounds into contrasting categories. And the high pitch may assist infants in imitating the characteristics of
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