Immature vocalizations simplify the speech of Tseltal Mayan and US caregivers

What is the function of immature vocalizing in early learning environments? Previous work on infants in the US indicates that prelinguistic vocalizations elicit caregiver speech which is simplified in its linguistic structure. However, there is strong cross-cultural variation in the extent to which children’s vocalizations elicit responses from caregivers. While reports indicate that children in several non-Western communities may hear less adult speech which is tailored for their learning, the extent to which children’s vocalizations elicit changes in their immediate caregivers’ speech structure is presently unknown. Here we compare Tseltal Mayan and US caregivers’ verbal responses to their children’s vocalizations. Similar to findings from US dyads, we found that children in a subsistence farming community regulate the statistical structure of caregivers’ speech simply by vocalizing. Following the _interaction burst hypothesis_, where clusters of child-adult contingent response alternations facilitate learning from limited input, we reveal a stable source of information facilitating language learning within ongoing interaction.