Child-directed Speech in a Norwegian Kindergarten Setting

This paper presents a natural experiment using a play situation with specific toys to examine and compare the characteristics of 33 Norwegian-speaking female pedagogical employees’ child-directed speech (CDS) and adult-directed speech (ADS). Vowel pitch, duration, format frequency, and vowel space area of the vowels /a:/, /i:/, and /u:/ as well as their short counterparts /a/, /i/, and /u/ were analyzed. One-way repeated-measures ANOVAs show that the pedagogical employees spoke with a higher vowel pitch, had greater variation in their vowel pitch, and had smaller vowel space areas in CDS compared with ADS. In addition, the vowels in CDS were hypoarticulated compared with ADS. Therefore, the pedagogical employees enhanced CDS characteristics associated with attaining children’s attention and promoting social interaction between child and caregiver