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0 Parenthese
Parenthese is bound to happen whenever there is a parent and a young baby around. One
would probably have heard conversations such as Heellooo, sweeetiee! Youre sooo cuteeee!
Parenthese can be defined as a form of speech that tunes into and adjusts to a young childs
language. It provides dialogue with the child and ushers them to their next level of competence
(British Council, 2008). In other words, parenthese is used to aid the child in the early stages of
his or her development of speech.
Parenthese is universal in every language and it can be identified by several prominent
characteristics. To begin with, parenthese is usually done in a higher pitch compared to normal
speech (Talaris Institute, 2008). When parents use voices which are at most an octave higher,
they are able to successfully gain the childs attention. Parenthese makes use of short and simple
sentences. The sentences are often repeated over and over again to enable babies to figure out
certain words and assist them in acquiring grammar (Talaris Institute, 2008). This helps to
reinforce and imprint the words into the babys mind. For instance, Whos a pretty baby? Are
you pretty baby? Yes, you pretty, pretty baby. Besides that, parenthese, which is often
accompanied by exaggerated facial expressions, displays elongated consonants and vowels. This
means that parents tend to drag and stress the sounds of the words they say (British Council,
2008). When infants hear parenthese, their brains are actually mapping the sounds which they
hear and this eventually leads to the development of coherent speech (PBS, 2009).
Parenthese is a strongly recommended method of helping babies in their speech
production. By implementing parenthese, babies are able to learn the pronunciation, meaning and
the grammatical structures of certain words. However, there are also arguments claiming that
parenthese will complicate a childs speech development process. For instance, another
characteristic of parenthese which includes special reduplicated words like choo-choo for train
can cause confusion for children. This is because as a childs speech develops into more complex
stages, he or she will be forced to learn the proper word train instead of using choo-choo.
Thus, a child may become confused as to which word to use to describe the long vehicle that
runs on railway tracks.
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