Babies bring people together. As a mom of a 1 and 3 year old, I rarely go into a store without someone smiling at, talking to, or commenting on my children. "They're so cute; how old are they?" and to my 1 year old, "What a big smile you have! You are a great clapper and you're so happy!" It's hard to resist a baby, isn't it?
Scientifically speaking, even more fascinating than a baby is the way that people, universally, talk to a baby. We've all heard it. We've all done it. That high-pitch, soft sound with exaggerated rhythm and intonation. It's called "motherese" (also known as "parentese") and it is the term used to refer to how adults speak to and interact with babies.
I have a degree in early childhood, so these kinds of things really interest me. The other day, my 1 year old son crawled over to one of my daughter's dolls, picked it up, and instantly started speaking in "babyese" to it! His sounds of "dah" that were sharp and abrupt had been replaced with sweet, tender, high-pitched coos with variation. It was AMAZING to me.
This wasn't just something "cute" that he did. This was a fascinating observance. At his ripe young age of 1, he knew that this baby was just that - a baby - and that babies are talked to in a certain way (through motherse). A 1 year old does not cognitively know that babies are typically spoken to with this kind of tone. He was simply doing what had been done to him in his first year of life. He was speaking to a baby the way he had been spoken to. That is truly fascinating!
All cultures engage in one form or another of motherese, and some scientists have observed monkeys using a form of motherese when talking to their young. While our cultures are all different with a variety of customs and social mores, we are connected by one simple thing: the way we speak to a baby.