Child Directed Speech

Catherine Snow - "motherese" - the parents' role

Speech patterns they use when communicating with young children. They use simple vocabulary, melodic pitch, repetitive questioning and a slow, deliberate tempo.

Features of child directed speech:

Expansion - the development of a child's utterance into a more meaningful form. According to Saxton, children learn from expansion by adults because they're given immediate feedback, like a conflict between what they thought they knew and what the adult says. Farrar found that they're more likely to repeat an adult expansion that any other adult utterance.

Recasting - commenting on, extending or rephrasing a child's utterance.

Repetition

A higher pitch

Use of the child's…