Research Problems Crib talk is difficult to transcribe because such young children typically have poor pronunciation, and because there may be little context to infer the likely meaning of a child's words, even with the help of a parent. This has limited the number of children studied and the length of time over which the development of crib talk monologues have been researched.[1]
The children studied are also atypical in that they are the offspring of researchers or their close colleagues, and so are from highly educated backgrounds. The child studied by Katherine Nelson, for example, was highly precocious in her language abilities, which raises questions about the generality of findings on that one child.[1]
Studies Crib talk was first studied by Ruth Hirsch Weir on her son Anthony and published in 1962.[2] Two other studies have been carried out by Stan Kuczaj on 14 children between 15–30 months - published in 1983[3] - and Katherine Nelson on Emily in 1989.[4]