Why does talking to a child loudly, as though they have a hearing problem, when they don't, seem to go hand in hand with baby talk?

I have never noticed raised voices with infants or toddlers, and I know that when I spoke to my own kids when they were under two years of age, I actually softened my tone and volume.

I spoke baby talk to my kids when I was holding them to calm them for bed or nap time, or trying to soothe them, and also when feeding them, but only up to the age of about eighteen months.

My experience has been virtually identical to @zenvelo.‘s Softer voices, baby talk to soothe. It was very effective and I saw nothing wrong with it. They’re babies, baby talk isn’t inappropriate.

Never heard baby talk spoken in a louder volume.

“Baby talk” also has a function.

I’m a vote for nope, never heard it either – and I would have if they were speaking louder! :-)

They may be raising their voice, because of their own excitement… Some people really love kids, or pets even. And talk to them in certain ways. I guess I haven’t thought about it before. But I guess I have certainly witnessed people being loud, when baby talking babies. Loud “peekaboos,” come to mind.

I know baby talk has a function. Especially in infants. And without perusing your link yet, @thisismyusername, it’s useful for infants. Seek shared a TED talk on FB about how babies acquire language. By about 6 months they can recognize, and respond to, things said in their language, involving their language cadence, sound, pronunciation and tonality. We impart all of those basics with baby talk.
However, we are friends with my daughter’s friend and we sometimes babysit her kids for her. The mom is all worried because her son isn’t talking much yet and he’s almost 3. However, she also talks a lot of baby talk to him, and yesterday I couldn’t help but notice that when she was giving instructions to him to do something, she spoke really loudly, like he was deaf! I was like…what? Why are you doing that? Just talk conversationally to him! I didn’t say anything, of course. But it’s kind of the same thing some people do to old people, even if they don’t know them. Speak loudly on the assumption that…IDK. They’re deaf. Or stupid. IDK.
I just wonder why some people do that.

When my mother developed dementia my sister used to do that to her. She’d speak slowly and clearly, like she was talking to a retarded person. And I guess that’s OK, but it seemed condescending to me. But she also talked LOUDER, and there was nothing wrong with Mom’s hearing.

When I talk to my grandchild while holding him I use full sentences and speak quietly. “The car is driving on your leg. Now it is on your belly. Now it is going up your arm. Now it’s on your head.” There is no yelling.

Um… @LuckyGuy, I think it’s contraindicated to run over the child when you talk to them. The distraction factor would be very high. ~

The sound and heat of 350 hp gets his attention. :-)
He has a small car with a face on it. Sometimes I play “Where’s Tommy?” by putting a cloth over his head. He pulls it off and laughs. Then I do it to myself and he laughs. He laughs if I do it to the car with the face. While I am doing this I am speaking quietly.

LOL! I think running over your grandkid while describing it to him is a Bad Thing! LOL!!

It’s just an odd situation. He some how got ahold of a plastic spatula and a potato masher and for some reason Mom felt she had to take them away from him. “NOW MIKEY MIKEY, WE NEED TO PUT MY SPATULA AWAY SO THAT I HAVE IT WHEN I NEED IT TO MAKE A CAKE! CAN MIKEY PUT MY SPATULA BACK WHERE HE FOUND IT?” Of course Mikey got all side tracked at the word “cake,” and started crying when there was no cake.

My boss did that to me when I got back to work after being hospitalized. She had this idea that I’d completely lost my brains (thanks to my gossipy husband) and that she needed to reteach me my job (she didn’t.) She’d stand behind me and speaking very slowly, enunciating and speaking loudly she’d explain to me what I was actually doing at the moment, all by myself, BECAUSE I HADN’T FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO MY JOB! She talked at me like I was a retarded kindergartner. It was all bad.