LLS Colloquium: A Cross-cultural approach to Infant-Directed Speech

On Wednesday 16th March 2022, Katie Slocombe (Department of Psychology, University of York) will be presenting on infant-directed speech produced by mothers in the UK and Uganda.

A Cross-cultural approach to Infant-Directed Speech

When adults talk to infants they adopt a special speech register, which is characterised by elevated pitch, exaggerated pitch modulation, elevated affect and hyperarticulation of vowel sounds, when compared to speech directed at adults. Most research conducted to date on Infant Directed Speech has focussed on samples from Western Educated Industrial Rich Democratic (WEIRD) populations, and the degree to which there is variation in the acoustic structure or frequency with which this speech register is produced in non-WEIRD populations is largely unexplored. I will present our ongoing longitudinal research project with infants and mothers from an urban UK population and a rural Ugandan population. First I will outline how infant early life experience and maternal socialisation goals and parenting practices vary between these populations. I will then present data on the frequency with which mothers produce infant directed speech in free play with their infant and the acoustic characteristics of infant and adult directed speech in the two populations. Finally I will outline our plans to examine variation in infant directed speech across the three different languages spoken by our Ugandan participants.

The talk will take place at 4pm on Zoom, and there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end - you can join using this link. 

Event poster: LLS Colloquium: A Cross-cultural approach to Infant-Directed Speech (PDF)