Caregivers of adolescents living with Down syndrome use infant-directed speech during a rule-based joint game (Juan Pablo Robledo del Canto, University of Lorraine)

Abstract

Members of virtually all known societies intuitively change the quality of their interaction when addressing infants, a phenomenon known as Infant-Directed Speech (a.k.a. “motherese”, “babytalk”). Infant-Directed Speech is used beyond infancy, directed at friends, romantic partners, older adults, and people with disabilities. By this token, it can also convey a depreciatory message signaling the powerlessness of the addressee, becoming a form of infantilizing speech. The present project sought to replicate two canonical studies: a field study collecting speech samples addressed at adolescents (13-17 years old) with Down syndrome by their caregivers (n = 39 dyads) with which to conduct a second, confirmatory judgment study (n = 60). Results robustly revealed that, 11% of the times they addressed the adolescents, caregivers used infant-directed speech – literally, in both acoustic (f0 mean, variance, min and max) and perceptual (subjective) terms. Results also link Infant-Directed Speech use rate and level of prosodic exaggeration to the adolescents’ health history, as well as to caregivers’ beliefs concerning the adolescents’ potential. Concrete hypotheses are presented to explore to which extent said use of IDS comprises an appropriate accommodation to the addressee or a form of infantilizing communication.

Biography

Juan-Pablo Robledo undertook both piano and psychology studies at Pontificia Universidad Católica in his natal Chile. In 2015 he obtained an MPhil at the Centre for Music and Science and his PhD in 2019, both under the guidance of professor Ian Cross. He’s currently an associate professor at Université de Lorraine, France, and a Young Researcher at the Millenium Institute for Care Research, Chile.