ArticlePLoS biology2022
The function and evolution of child-directed communication.
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Call combination order and iterations may shift meaning in sooty mangabey vocal sequences.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Child-Directed Speech Facilitates Semantic Role Learning: A Machine Learning Approach.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Child-Directed Speech Is Semantically Constrained: Evidence From Metaphoricity and Concreteness.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- The evolution of infant-directed communication: Comparing vocal input across all great apes.Science advances · 2025Article
- Temporal patterns in the complexity of child-directed song lyrics reflect their functions.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Social and individual factors mediate chimpanzee vocal ontogeny.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Social Brain Perspectives on the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience of Human Language.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Bottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calves.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Meaning in Music Is Intentional, but in Soundscape It Is Not-A Naturalistic Approach to the Qualia of Sounds.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans communicate with small children in unusual and highly conspicuous ways (child-directed communication (CDC)), which enhance social bonding and facilitate language acquisition. CDC-like inputs are also reported for some vocally learning animals, suggesting similar functions in facilitating communicative competence. However, adult great apes, our closest living relatives, rarely signal to their infants, implicating communication surrounding the infant as the main input for infant great apes and early humans. Given cross-cultural variation in the amount and structure of CDC, we suggest that child-surrounding communication (CSC) provides essential compensatory input when CDC is less prevalent-a paramount topic for future studies.
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