Studying Child-Directed Speech

In this chapter we summarize the different questions asked by studies of child-directed speech (CDS) and the methodological approaches taken to answer them. We aim to show what the available evidence can and cannot tell us about the mechanisms that drive production and effects of CDS and its role in language transmission and suggest directions for future research that place CDS in the context of the cultural diversity of children’s complex multi-modal socio-cultural environments within which language transmission takes place.