baby talk

baby talk

1 the speech patterns and sounds of young children learning to talk, characterized by mispronunciation, imperfect syntax, repetition, and phonetic modifications, such as lisping or stuttering. See also lallation.

2 the intentionally oversimplified manner of speech, imitative of young children learning to talk, used by adults in addressing children or pets.

3 the speech patterns characteristic of regressive stages of various mental disorders, especially schizophrenia.

The acquisition of language skills by a baby, which occurs in 5 overlapping stages
(1) phonation—humming with the mouth closed (up to 2 months)
(2) primitive articulation—use of tongue and jaw to form new sounds (1 to 4 months)
(3) expansion—squeals, screeches, whispers, seemingly exploring the range of sounds, pitch, and amplitude—e.g., growls, ‘raspberries’ (3 to 8 months)

(4) babbling—the formation of Baby’s first syllables—da-da-da-da, ma-ma-ma-ma, etc. (5 to 10 months)

(5) sophisticated babbling—the stringing together of various syllables and meaningless sounds which have the rhythm and pacing of real sentences (9 to 18 months)