Children Love Ms. Rachel Because of Speech Science
“Parent-ese” lights up the brain for language learning, and Ms. Rachel is the master.
What’s the deal with Ms. Rachel?
As a non-parent I am not seeped in the world of Ms. Rachel and other children’s YouTube content (Jealous?, sorry!). But I am an obsessed auntie, and an observant SLP who has heard enough to know exactly why Ms. Rachel is so magnetic. Putting aside her great production value, apparent connections to broadway, and a fire signature look (👚👖) we are left with the way she talks to her little viewers.
Her speaking style has a name, and it is called “parent-ese”. In speech-language literature, this was originally referred to as “mother-ese”, but we’ve progressed, bless.
What is Parent-ese?
I am going to start with the best part about Parent-ese: It is universal and serves an evolutionary purpose. It is a way of communicating that exists in all cultures and languages around the world, and has for as long as we have record. Its universality suggests that it plays an important role in the evolution of complex spoken language. And you know what it is? Baby-talk.
Many a human will instinctually change their voice and speech when they encounter a young baby or child. Our pitch goes up, our words become longer and more song-like and we repeat ourselves. We talk like fools, but it is important! Our instincts lead us to this manner of speaking because it enables the communication centers of children’s brains to latch on to what we are saying and pay better attention to it.
Can you hear Ms. Rachel doing this? She also has a good singing voice, which…helps.
No, You Should Not Talk to Young Children as if They Are Adults
This is a thing. I’ve heard people say: “Oh, we don’t dumb things down”... “I talk to them like they’re a grown up”... “We don’t really do baby-talk”.
As educated, worldly adults it is an easy assumption to make: If we avoid sounding like babies, our kids will have superior, adult-like communication skills. But this is just not true. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers possess an almost magical ability to acquire speech and language that does not last. They will have plenty of time to engage with adult-like speech and higher level concepts, but their window to build up their speech and language foundations narrows significantly as they get older. Using a speaking style that helps them maximize their learning during this time is important.
Caveat:
You are not ruining your child if you aren’t using parent-ese constantly. That is unrealistic, and would be kind of weird. But when your child is learning to talk, and especially if they are working against delays, it is important to not *avoid* singing your words, sounding a bit like elmo, and repeating things so that they get the chance to hear them multiple times in a row.
Ms. Rachel, Speech Therapist?
A parent I work with told me that Ms. Rachel started doing her shtick because her son was struggling with speech and language development. I can assume that as preschool teacher, she had these parent-ese instincts and leaned-in. I hope her son is doing well, and is super proud of his mom.
If you have ever been a part of a speech therapy session, you know that the elements of parent-ese are foundational to how we support late talkers. I recently began working with a two year old who is a Ms. Rachel superfan. He is transfixed by her, and has the Ms. Rachel doll. During our first session, his dad shouted from the kitchen: “It’s like Ms. Rachel is in our house!” How flattering!