Author: Dr. Susan EasterbrooksGeorgia State University

Date submitted to deafed.net – March 24, 2006

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Georgia State University Series:

Motherese/Fatherese“Food For Baby’s Thought”

Part 2, Presentation 5

July 2001

Motherese/Fatherese:

Food for Baby’s Thought

What is Motherese?

The natural way that a

parent communicates with

a baby or young child.

The interactions between a mother and infant

or child will differ depending on the hearing

status of both the parent and the child.

A hearing parent and a hearing child

A deaf parent and a deaf child

A hearing parent and a deaf child

The dyads:

Hearing mothers of hearing children:

Raise the pitch of their voice.

Exaggerate their intonation.

Use simple language with short, repetitive words.

Speak more slowly.

The Hearing Parent and a Hearing Child

Use parallel talk.

Repeat what the child says.

Pause between words.

Use many comments or commands.

Hearing mothers, con’t

The Deaf Parent and the Deaf Child

Deaf mothers of deaf children:

Respond intuitively to their child’s affective needs. cuddle their baby use touch to console or comfort the child,

and respond to the child’s needs. Use strategies to support the learning

of a visual language. sign near an object with which the child is

playing wave a hand to draw the child’s attention

towards them.

Use exaggerated facial expressions when communicating with their baby.

Communicate visually. they use visual motherese to facilitate

language growth. Use modifications to hold and maintain

attention span, allowing for greater time to process language input. sit and wait for their infants to look at them

before beginning to sign talk about something before directing the child

to look at it

Deaf mothers, con’t

Modify their signs. use signs that are larger, slower, and have

more exaggerated movements signs have strong rhythmicality with frequent

repetitions

Sign in a fluent, rich manner. communication occurs naturally and results in

frequent interactions

Deaf mothers, con’t

Hearing Mother/Deaf Child Dyad

For Hearing Mothers Communication is Challenging

Hearing mothers are unsure about communicating with their deaf child.

They are extremely anxious and often continue to speak to the child as if it could hear.

They use intuitive parenting based on what they know about hearing children.

After age three, hearing mothers’ communication attempts tend to decrease.

Challenges ContinuedHearing mothers use inconsistent

accommodations for their baby’s visual needs.

Their attempts to communicate are brief and contain few signs.

Although early use of natural gestures were limited, hearing mothers do increase their use of gestures as their children get older.

Challenges ContinuedHearing mothers tend to be more

dominant in their interactions.More utterances functioned to control or to

direct behavior.They appeared to be didactic and intrusive. They were less likely to use expansion or

to give verbal praise.

The Hearing Parent and the Deaf Child: Habits to change

Hearing mothers of deaf children have a tendency to:

use insufficient visual accommodations for language to develop.

When attempting to sign, use few facial expressions with their baby. This is one of the most crucial elements of visual communication.

Use speech predominately to communicate with their infant regardless of the communication approach chosen.

Hearing mothers, con’t

Simplify their speech and use simple patterns of syntax. Use less prosodic (sing-song) and intonational changes to

their speech. Sign in a stilted, impoverished manner.

They often make errors and experience communication breakdowns resulting in fewer interactions.

Because the infant cannot hear the mother’s voice, attention is most often on an object or event instead of what is being communicated.

This lack of communication disrupts the child’s development.

Hearing mothers, con’t

Linguistic Impoverishment

Hearing mother/deaf child dyads result in a linguistic mismatch between the mother and child.

Lack of a shared communication system results in deficient interactions.

Deficient interactions contribute to language delay.

Learning Sign Language

Most hearing mothers have not been taught ASL. When mothers begin signing they tend to use a signed English system, speaking and signing at the same time.

They sign in a stilted, impoverished manner lacking the naturalness of deaf mothers.

They often misarticulate signs and omit grammatical morphemes.

It appears that hearing adults, both parents

and teachers, face a tremendous challenge

in trying to unlearn habitual communication

patterns and to replace them with patterns

more appropriate to the visual mode.

http://www.deafchildren.org/ is an organization for parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. ASDC provides support to hearing parents facing the challenge of educating a deaf child. ASDC supports the use of sign language and maintains a positive view of Deaf culture.

The American Society for Deaf Children

You can do it!

The whole family must be committed to working together.

Glossary of Professional Terms Frequently Used

Affective Tone: The emotional tone of the parent and overall mood of communication exchanges.

 Auditory: The sense of hearing. Communication: The active process individuals use to exchange information,

ideas, needs and desires with and to one another.  Deictic Gaze: The infant’s gaze is directed at objects. Echoing: Repeating what the child says.

Entrainment: Small, synchronous movements an infant makes in response to the adults speech at the phoneme, syllable, phrase, and sentence levels.

Glossary, con’tExpansion: To restate what a child has said in a more linguistically correct way. Expatiation: Expanding on a word a child says by offering more information.

Gesture: Nonverbal form of communication (i.e. pointing). Intonation: The linguistic use of pitch. Imitation: An infant matches or repeats what an adult or other person does. Joint Action: Routine actions shared between the adult and infant. Joint Attention/Reference: When two or more participants share a common focus

on one thing. 

Glossary, con’t

Kinesthetic: An awareness of one’s body as it moves through space.  

Labeling: Attaching a name to an object. Language: A socially shared code or conventional system

for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols.

 Linguists: Specialists who work to determine the language

rules that individual people use to communicate. Motherese/Fatherese/Parentese: The natural tendency of

a parent or caregiver to modify their communication skills to convey meaning to a child.

Glossary, con’t

 Modeling: A natural strategy that takes place during motherese/parentese. Providing a correct example for the infant to imitate and follow.

Mutual Gaze: When the parent or caregiver and child are looking at one another.

 Nonlinguistic Cues: Gestures, body posture, facial expression,

eye contact, head and body movement, and proxemics used while communicating.

 Overarticulating: Stretching out sounds in words to be more

precise. Parallel Talk: Describing a child’s actions while he or she is

doing them. Pitch: The variation in ones vocal sound (i.e. low to high). 

Glossary, con’tProsody: The natural rise and fall of pitch during conversation.

Proxemics: The physical distance between communicative partners (i.e. between the adult and infant) used in communication.

Rate: The speed at which one uses language in communicating. Recasting: To phrase a sentence in various ways. Reinforcement: Anything that increases a behavior. Referencing: Noting the presence of a single object, action, or event for one’s communication partner. Responsitivity: The adult’s tendency to recognize an infant’s signal and meet that signal with an

appropriate and consistent response. 

 

Glossary, con’t

Stress: The emphasis placed on speech by varying ones pitch or sound of voice.

 Suprasegmentals: Stress, rate, pause, and intonation used to

signal attitude or emotion in speech. Tactile: Perception achieved through the sense of touch. Turn Taking: Turn taking is taught through game playing

routines. Visual: Anything that can be seen.

Resources

Easterbrooks, S. R. & Baker, S. (2002). Language Learning in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Multiple Pathways. Boston, MA. Allyn and Bacon in Press, Ch 2.

 Owens, R, Jr. (1996.) Language Development/ an Introduction. 4th ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Snow, C. & Kuhl, P. (2000). Motherese – parentese or strategies we employ to

facilitate language learning. Auditory Verbal Training – Workshops- Consultants – Mentoring. [Online], pp.1- 3. Available:http://www.auditoryverbaltraining.com/motherese.htm.

 http://rampages.onramp.net/~world/bletter3.html