• Search Research Projects
  • Search Researchers
  • How to Use
  1. Back to previous page

Adults' use of infant-directed special vocabulary and its relation to children's language development

Research Project

Project/Area Number 16K13468
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Research Field Educational psychology
Research InstitutionThe University of Tokyo

Principal Investigator

Haryu Etsuko  東京大学, 大学院教育学研究科(教育学部), 教授 (70276004)

Research Collaborator SAITO Yuka  
Project Period (FY) 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
Budget Amount *help
¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords乳児 / 言語 / 育児語 / 発達 / 養育 / 言語発達 / 言語入力 / 縦断研究 / 発達的変化 / 乳児期 / 語彙獲得 / 対乳児発話
Outline of Final Research Achievements

Japanese adults use ikujigo, infant-directed special vocabulary, only when they talk to infants. In ikujigo, onomatopoetic words (e.g., wanwan ‘bowwow’ for inu ‘dog’) or reduplications (e.g., kuQku for kutsu ‘shoe’) are frequently used instead of regular adult forms.
We conducted a cross-sectional and two longitudinal studies to investigate whether mothers fine-tune the use of ikujigo according to their children's development, as well as whether their use of ikujigo contributes to children's word learning. The results showed that mothers increase the number of ikujigo they use after their children's first birthday and decrease it by their children's second birthday. Additionally, not mean but range of the number of ikujigo a mother used across the child's development positively correlated with the child's vocabulary at 24 months, suggesting that not ikujigo-use per se but mothers’ sensitivity to their children’s developmental level may foster children’s word learning.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

大人は、乳児向けに話しかける時には、犬のことをワンワンと呼ぶなど、大人どうしの会話では使わないような単語、つまり育児語を使用する場合がある。これについては、本来、”犬”に対して覚えるべきラベルである「イヌ」の学習を妨げるのではないか、あるいは、いったん「ワンワン」と覚えても、結局はそれを別の単語「イヌ」に置き換えなければならないため、かえって負担ではないか、という声も聞かれる。
しかし、実情としては、親は子どもの発達レベルに合わせて、このような単語の使用量を変化させており、育児語の使用は子どもの言語発達に害を及ぼしていないことが明らかになった。

Report

(4 results)
  • 2018 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2017 Research-status Report
  • 2016 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (6 results)

All 2019 2017

All Presentation (6 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 3 results)

  • [Presentation] Mothers’ use of infant-directed vocabulary and its relation to children’s early language development.2019

    • Author(s)
      Haryu, E.
    • Organizer
      Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development
    • Related Report
      2018 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] 母親の育児語使用と子どもの初期語彙獲得:18か月と24か月における2時点における縦断調査2019

    • Author(s)
      針生悦子
    • Organizer
      日本発達心理学会第30回大会
    • Related Report
      2018 Annual Research Report
  • [Presentation] 養育者による育児語の使用:子どもが生後6~18か月の時期に焦点をあてた横断調査より2017

    • Author(s)
      針生悦子・齋藤友香
    • Organizer
      日本発達心理学会第28回大会
    • Place of Presentation
      広島
    • Year and Date
      2017-03-25
    • Related Report
      2016 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Japanese mothers’ use of infant-directed special vocabulary ikujigo: Its age- related change and role in children’s word learning.2017

    • Author(s)
      Haryu, E., & Saito, Y.
    • Organizer
      Society for Research in Child Development
    • Related Report
      2017 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Use of infant-directed special vocabulary fosters word learning.2017

    • Author(s)
      Haryu, E.
    • Organizer
      Workshop on Infant Language Development
    • Related Report
      2017 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] 母親の育児語使用:月齢変化と子の初期語彙獲得への影響2017

    • Author(s)
      針生悦子
    • Organizer
      日本心理学会第81回大会 自主シンポジウム「育児語を考える」
    • Related Report
      2017 Research-status Report

URL: 

Published: 2016-04-21   Modified: 2020-03-30  

Information User Guide FAQ News Terms of Use Attribution of KAKENHI

Powered by NII kakenhi