It's not just a nice- sounding melody. In an experiment, this baby can trigger baby talk or adult talk by turning his head in a certain direction. After learning that he has a choice, he consistently chooses baby talk. You may feel silly doing it, but baby talk actually helps children learn how to speak.
Nothing transforms a perfectly mature adult into a babbling, cooing fool faster than a baby.
The next time it happens to you, don't be embarrassed. You're doing the kid a favor. In a study published in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Science , a team of researchers writes that moms have the same sing-song pattern to their speech no matter whether they speak English, Russian or Swedish. When talking to babies, the speech specialists found, grown-ups instinctively exaggerate their vocalizations as a way of reinforcing what language sounds like. But when grown-ups speak to each other, their speech moves at a faster pace and those same sounds get a bit muddy.