How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers

The passage “How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains a Boost” is an actual IELTS Reading test that has appeared in past exams. Practicing such real test samples helps you understand question types, improve time management, and sharpen your reading strategies. By taking the ‘How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers, you can acquaint yourself with the types of questions that you will be asked in this IELTS Academic Reading passage and the level of difficulty that you can expect.  The question types in this Reading Passage include:

• IELTS Reading Matching Features (Q. 1-4)
• IELTS Reading Summary Completion (Q. 5 - 10)
• IELTS Reading Matching Paragraphs (Q. 11 - 13)

Practice the reading passage, How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers, below, and for more, try IELTS reading practice tests. But, before you take the test, learn some tips from this video to get that perfect IELTS reading score!

How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost

A The typical way of talking to a baby – high-pitched, exaggerated and repetitious – is a source of fascination for linguists who hope to understand how ‘baby talk’ impacts on learning. Most babies start developing their hearing while still in the womb, prompting some hopeful parents to play classical music to their pregnant bellies. Some research even suggests that infants are listening to adult speech as early as 10 weeks before being born, gathering the basic building blocks of their family’s native tongue.

B Early language exposure seems to have benefits to the brain – for instance, studies suggest that babies raised in bilingual homes are better at learning how to mentally prioritize information. So how does the sweet if sometimes absurd sound of infant-directed speech influence a baby’s development? Here are some recent studies that explore the science behind baby talk.

C Fathers don’t use baby talk as often or in the same ways as mothers – and that’s perfectly OK, according to a new study. Mark VanDam of Washington State University at Spokane and colleagues equipped parents with recording devices and speech-recognition software to study the way they interacted with their youngsters during a normal day. ‘We found that moms do exactly what you’d expect and what’s been described many times over,’ VanDam explains. ‘But we found that dads aren’t doing the same thing. Dads didn’t raise their pitch or fundamental frequency when they talked to kids.’ Their role may be rooted in what is called the bridge hypothesis, which dates back to 1975. It suggests that fathers use less familial language to provide their children with a bridge to the kind of speech they’ll hear in public. ‘The idea is that a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad, so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice,’ says VanDam.

D Scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut collected thousands of 30-second conversations between parents and their babies, fitting 26 children with audio-recording vests that captured language and sound during a typical eight-hour day. The study found that the more baby talk parents used, the more their youngsters began to babble. And when researchers saw the same babies at age two, they found that frequent baby talk had dramatically boosted vocabulary, regardless of socioeconomic status. ‘Those children who listened to a lot of baby talk were talking more than the babies that listened to more adult talk or standard speech,’ says Nairán Ramirez-Esparza of the University of Connecticut. ‘We also found that it really matters whether you use baby talk in a one-on-one context,’ she adds. ‘The more parents use baby talk one-on-one, the more babies babble, and the more they babble, the more words they produce later in life.’

E Another study suggests that parents might want to pair their youngsters up so they can babble more with their own kind. Researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec à Montréal found that babies seem to like listening to each other rather than to adults – which may be why baby talk is such a universal tool among parents. They played repeating vowel sounds made by a special synthesising device that mimicked sounds made by either an adult woman or another baby. This way, only the impact of the auditory cues was observed. The team then measured how long each type of sound held the infants’ attention. They found that the ‘infant’ sounds held babies’ attention nearly 40 percent longer. The baby noises also induced more reactions in the listening infants, like smiling or lip moving, which approximates sound making. The team theorizes that this attraction to other infant sounds could help launch the learning process that leads to speech. ‘It may be some property of the sound that is just drawing their attention,’ says study co-author Linda Polka. ‘Or maybe they are really interested in that particular type of sound because they are starting to focus on their own ability to make sounds. We are speculating here but it might catch their attention because they recognize it as a sound they could possibly make.’

F In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a total of 57 babies from two slightly different age groups – seven months and eleven and a half months – were played with a number of syllables from both their native language (English) and a non-native tongue (Spanish). The infants were placed in a brain-activation scanner that recorded activity in a brain region known to guide the motor movements that produce speech. The results suggest that listening to baby talk prompts infant brains to start practising their language skills. ‘Finding activation in motor areas the baby brain is engaged in trying to talk back right from the start, and suggests that seven-month-olds’ brains are already trying to figure out how to make interesting finding was that while the seven-month-olds responded to all speech sounds regardless of language, the brains of the older infants worked harder at the motor activations of non-native sounds compared to native sounds. The study may have also uncovered a process by which babies recognize differences between their native language and other tongues.

How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Questions

Questions 1-4

• Look at the following ideas and the list of researchers below.
• Match each idea with the correct researcher, A, B or C.
• Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in the boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
• NB You may use any letter more than once.

1. The importance of adults giving babies individual attention when talking to them.

2. The connection between what babies hear and their own efforts to create speech.

3. The advantage for the baby of having two parents each speaking in a different way.

4. The connection between the amount of baby talk babies hear and how much vocalising they do themselves.

LIST OF RESEARCHERS:

1. Mark VanDam
2. Nairan Ramirez-Esparza
3. Patricia Khul

Questions 5-10  

• Complete the summary below.
• Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
• Write your answers in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet.

Research into how parents talk to babies

Researchers at Washington State University used 5._____ together with specialised computer programs, to analyse how parents interacted with their babies during a normal day. The study revealed that 6._____ tended not to modify their ordinary speech patterns when interacting with their babies. According to an idea know as the 7._____ they may use a more adult type of speech to prepare infants for the language they will hear outside the family home. According to the researchers, hearing baby talk from one parent and ‘normal’ language from the other expands the baby’s 8._____ of types of speech which they can practise.

Meanwhile, another study carried out by scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut recorded speech and sout using special 9._____ that the babies were equipped with. When they studies the babies again at age two, the found that those who had heard a lot of baby talk in infancy=ncy had a much larger 10.______ than those who had not. 

Questions 11-13

• Reading passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
• Which paragraph contains the following information?
• Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11. A reference to a change which occurs in babies’ brain activity before the end of their first year.

12. An example of what some parents do for their baby’s benefit before birth.

13. A mention of babies’ preference for the sounds that other babies make.

How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers

Let’s now review the answers to the questions from the passage in the reading section, How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers, and assess your improvement for a high IELTS Reading band score.

Tips for Answering the Question Types in How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers

Let us check out some quick IELTS Exam Preparation Tips for Band Score of 8+ to answer the three types of questions in the Reading Answers.

IELTS Reading Matching Features (Q. 1–4)

In the Reading Matching features task, you need to match given features (e.g., names, events, theories) with statements. It tests your ability to identify relationships and spot specific details in the passage.

1. Read the Features First – Familiarize yourself with the list before reading the passage so you know what to look for.
2. Scan for Names/Keywords – Quickly locate where the features (e.g., people, years, theories) appear in the passage.
3. Focus on Meaning, Not Just Words – Paraphrasing is common; don’t just match exact words, match ideas.
4. Eliminate Wrong Options – Cross out features that clearly don’t match to narrow down choices.
5. Watch for Multiple Matches – Some features may match more than one statement, so check carefully.

IELTS Reading Summary Completion (Q. 5–10)

In the Reading Summary Completion, you fill in the blanks of a summary using words from the passage. It checks your ability to understand main ideas and find accurate words.

1. Identify Word Limit – Always check instructions (e.g., “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS”) before answering.
2. Read the Summary First – This gives you an overview of what information you need to find.
3. Look for Paraphrased Sentences – The summary won’t copy text word-for-word; expect rephrasing.
4. Predict the Missing Word – Think about grammar and meaning before searching the passage.
5. Verify with Passage – Double-check that your chosen word exactly fits the context.

IELTS Reading Matching Paragraphs (Q. 11–13)

In this question type, you must match headings, ideas, or information to specific paragraphs. It tests your skill in identifying the main idea of a paragraph.

1. Skim Each Paragraph First – Focus on the first and last sentences, as they often carry the main idea.
2. Understand Headings/Statements – Carefully analyze the given options before matching.
3. Look for Keywords & Synonyms – Match ideas, not just identical words.
4. Be Aware of Traps – Some paragraphs may contain details from multiple options but only match one.
5. Use Elimination – Remove options you’re sure don’t match, leaving fewer choices to compare.

Mastering passages like “How Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains A Boost IELTS Reading Answers” can significantly boost your Reading IELTS band score. Regular practice with real exam-style questions not only improves speed and accuracy but also builds your confidence. Keep exploring different IELTS Reading passages and refine your techniques to ensure success on test day.

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