Baby-talk actually helps babies' speech development, study says

NEW YORK -- It's almost automatic: You see a baby and you just go into baby-talk mode.

Hearing the sound of a human voice may get a baby's brain working, new research suggests - helping them practice speech long before they actually say their first word

Now, a new study shows that babies may benefit from baby talk. Even if they're too young to talk back, researchers at the University of Washington found it may actually improve a baby's speech development.

"We're seeing the brain working on it, well before they've got the true capabilities," said Dr. Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at University of Washington in Seattle.

Using a non-invasive brain scanner, the researchers monitored the brains of nearly 60 babies as young as 7 months. As they listened to a series of syllables such as "da" and "ta," the parts of the brain that coordinate speech production lit up

Previous research found that babies whose parents speak to them in the exaggerated "baby talk" manner knew twice as many words by their second birthdays.

Mom Dawn Baker said she tries to speak to her 2-year-old son, Pierre, in sentences and it's working

"Mostly, I speak to him like he's another member of the family," said Baker.

This study shows that it's worth it to speak to babies early on in that slow sing-song way, even if they're not speaking yet.