Baby talk gets the word out, scientists find

WASHINGTON All that baby talk adults use with infants isn't justsilly cooing - scientists say it appears to be vital in helpingbabies' brains absorb key building blocks of language.

And this high-pitched, drawn-out speech is universal, whetherparents are speaking in English, Swedish or Russian.

University of Washington neuroscientist Patricia Kuhl saysparents unconsciously exaggerate the vowel sounds that every infant -no matter what language he or she ultimately will speak - needs tomaster the phonetic elements of speech.

Kuhl's tape-recordings show mothers speaking in a singsong thatstresses and stretches the vowels. Take the word "bead." People cansay …