A new study observed that babies hear their mothers' voices more often than their fathers' voices. Findings of the study implied that babies learned "baby talk" from mothers.
Betty Vohr from Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, initiated the study to determine the link between early language exposure of babies and their speech development. An earlier study showed that early exposure to words improves aptitude that leads to better school performance. The study also found that children from well-heeled families hear more words by age 3 compared to those from low-income families.
Vohr's study involved 33 families that were monitored for three days. Researchers used computers to record the words heard by the babies after birth, a few weeks later and at seven months.
The recordings showed that most of the words heard by the babies came from their mothers. This makes sense as most of the mothers are hands-on in taking care of their children. The fathers, on the other hand, are often out working during the day.
Further analysis explained that only 25 percent of the verbal communications of babies were responded by their parents. About 70 percent of those replies were from their mothers, 18 to 23 percent were from both parents, while 6 to 12 percent came from fathers. The study also inferred a possible gender inequity on parent-baby communication as mothers point to talk to their daughters more often than their sons.
"We have our work to do in getting dads into this loop and telling them how important they are in terms of infant development," Vohr said to USA Today.
Researchers admitted that further research is needed to ascertain a cause-and-effect. The sample involved was also too small to get actual results. But, the study was able to present new insights on the babies' natural language environment.
"Talking with your child is such a cost-effective growing intervention that any parent can do," Vohr told Medical Daily. "Why wait until you need the speech language pathologist and start doing therapy?"
Further details of the study were published in the Nov.3 issue of Pediatrics.