Discussion

This type of speech that is intended for children or infants is called infant-directed speech. In it, we tend to see a rise of the pitch in our voices when speaking to an infant or child. We would also see shorter, less complex sentences. I think we see the difference of speaking, in tone and sentence length, generally to not overwhelm the child at an early stage in their development and for them to comprehend sentences better. An implication of speaking to a child using infant-directed speech as opposed to using our everyday adult voices would be that it helps infants with their use of words. In other words, it can be beneficial to infants and their verbal ability and could develop the use of words t an earlier age. Comparing boys to girls, we see different tones and consequences. What I have noticed is how infant girls develop faster than boys. So, perhaps infant girls can handle more on their plate at a time than infant boys, which could also change the perception and treatment by parents/caregivers. There is no perfect formula for infant treatment, there are far too many risk factors that can influence the infants attitude and behavior at a later stage. When it comes to the variation of tones and speech treatment, this can definitely have an impact on the speech, attitude, and behavior of a young boy or girl.