Sunday Times 2
Want your child’s attention? Speak with a British accent
It can be a struggle to get children to listen to instructions with so many distractions around, but speaking with a British accent might help.
A new study claims that children respond better to an English accent than an American one – even in the US. A trial involving 600 families found that children as young as 18 months old listened more attentively and for longer when playing an app with an English voice, compared with other accents.
The research also found a northern lilt commanded more authority than clearly pronounced words said in a non-regional English accent.
The makers of Little Clever – an app aimed at helping pre-school children develop reading, counting and recognition skills – tested its puzzles app on 300 families in the UK and 300 in the US. The children’s ages ranged from 18 months to six years old.
The company asked the families to try out several different voice overs for a week, including Northern English, ‘received pronunciation’ which is a clear English accent without much regional bias, Scottish and American.
Parents were also asked to experiment with male and female voices.
The study found that 95 per cent of the children in the UK responded better to an English accent and surprisingly, 70 per cent of children in the US did too.
Kevin Croombs, chief executive of Little Clever, said: ‘We made sure any words which are pronounced differently in the US were correct, but even the parents in America preferred the English accent, believing it sounded more authoritative.
‘UK parents felt their children are already over-exposed to American accents thanks to the likes of Disney and video games, so our app made a welcome change.’
The trial also found that most of the children responded better to a female voice.
© Daily Mail, London