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. 2025 Sep;52(5):984-1009.
doi: 10.1017/S0305000924000254. Epub 2024 Oct 18.

Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study

Melanie Soderstrom  1 , Joscelin Rocha-Hidalgo  2 , Luis E Muñoz  3 , Agata Bochynska  3 , Janet F Werker  4 , Barbora Skarabela  5 , Amanda Seidl  6 , Yana Ryjova  7 , Jennifer L Rennels  7 , Christine E Potter  8 , Markus Paulus  9 , Mitsuhiko Ota  5 , Nonah M Olesen  10 , Karli M Nave  7 , Julien Mayor  3 , Alia Martin  11 , Lauren C Machon  12 , Casey Lew-Williams  13 , Eon-Suk Ko  14 , Hyunji Kim  14 , Natalia Kartushina  3 , Marina Kammermeier  9 , Andrew Jessop  15 , Jessica F Hay  16 , Naomi Havron  17   18 , Erin E Hannon  7 , J Kiley Hamlin  4 , Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez  19 , Anja Gampe  20 , Tom Fritzsche  21 , Michael C Frank  22 , Samantha Durrant  23 , Catherine Davies  12 , Cara Cashon  10 , Krista Byers-Heinlein  24 , Veronica Boyce  22 , Alexis K Black  4 , Christina Bergmann  25 , Laura Anderson  11 , Mohammed K Alshakhori  26 , Ali H Al-Hoorie  27 , Angeline S M Tsui  22
Affiliations

Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study

Melanie Soderstrom et al. J Child Lang. 2025 Sep.

Abstract

From early on, infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and exposure to IDS has been correlated with language outcome measures such as vocabulary. The present multi-laboratory study explores this issue by investigating whether there is a link between early preference for IDS and later vocabulary size. Infants' preference for IDS was tested as part of the ManyBabies 1 project, and follow-up CDI data were collected from a subsample of this dataset at 18 and 24 months. A total of 341 (18 months) and 327 (24 months) infants were tested across 21 laboratories. In neither preregistered analyses with North American and UK English, nor exploratory analyses with a larger sample did we find evidence for a relation between IDS preference and later vocabulary. We discuss implications of this finding in light of recent work suggesting that IDS preference measured in the laboratory has low test-retest reliability.

Keywords: infant-directed speech; vocabulary development.

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