Speaking to young children in a high-pitched and exaggerated voice helps them develop their language skills. Parents may feel self-conscious, but talking to a baby in a silly voice really could help them learn.

A study of 71 families looked at ‘parentese’ — the slow, high-pitched, happy-sounding voice which many parents use to communicate with their babies. ‘Parentese’ is really just another term for ‘baby talk’, although the two definitions are slightly different. For instance, ‘baby talk’ tends to be ungrammatical and include made-up nonsense words.

‘Parentese’, on the other hand, uses only accurate words and grammar, but delivered in a voice nearly an octave higher. Like baby talk, parentese employs exaggerated facial expressions and long vowels which make phonetic sounds of letters easier to understand.

Children spoken to this way the most knew more proper words like ‘banana’ and ‘dog’ at 18 months old. It was once thought that this way of speaking to made it more difficult for them to learn language. But recent evidence has shown that speaking to a child slowly and cheerfully grabs their attention, which makes them engage more with their parents and try to imitate their speech. This is how language is passed from one generation to the next.