Effects of Adult Speech Style on Face-Scanning Behavior in Infants: Focus on Infant-Directed Singing

Abstract

This study examines the effect of adult speech style on face-scanning behavior in Japanese infants at six and 12 months of age. The adult speech style included three conditions: 1) Adult-directed speech (ADS) condition, 2) Infant-directed speech (IDS) condition, and 3) infant-directed singing (singing) condition. To record the infants' gaze behavior, we used an eye-tracker. Our results showed that infants in both age groups observed the mouth for a longer duration in the singing condition than in the other conditions. This main finding suggests that singing by adults may promote audio-visual speech perception and language acquisition in infants.