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Norwegian parents do not modulate infant-directed speech based on their infants' attributed word knowledge
Audun Rosslund1, Julien Mayor1, Natalia Kartushina2
1Department of Psychology, University of Oslo.
Developmental Psychology
|November 3, 2025
Summary
Caregivers do not change infant-directed speech (IDS) for unknown words, suggesting it may not be a strategy for teaching individual words. Alternative motivations for IDS likely exist.
Area of Science:
- Child language acquisition
- Developmental psychology
- Speech and hearing sciences
Background:
- Infant-directed speech (IDS) is a register used by caregivers, hypothesized to aid language learning.
- Previous research suggests IDS may play a didactic role in early vocabulary development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate acoustic modifications in IDS based on infants' attributed word knowledge.
- To determine if parents emphasize unknown words in IDS compared to known words.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of recorded Norwegian IDS from 132 infants and 182 parents (8-18 months).
- Speech samples collected during shared-reading with infants and a control register with an experimenter.
- Matched speech content across infant- and experimenter-directed registers.
Main Results:
- No evidence found that parents emphasized IDS for words attributed as unknown.
- Bayesian analyses indicated no modulation of IDS based on infants' attributed word knowledge.
- Findings contradict the hypothesis of IDS as a word-specific teaching strategy.
Conclusions:
- Parents do not appear to use IDS as a didactic strategy for teaching individual words.
- Alternative explanations for the use of IDS should be considered.
- The function of IDS may extend beyond direct vocabulary instruction.
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