If you’re anything like us, your voice goes high-pitched and squeaky when you speak to any baby. “Oh hello you little cutie,” you coo at them – your tone going wildly up and down.
But not if you’re this dad. An adorable video has been doing the rounds on Twitter, of a man and his son sitting on the sofa watching TV together.
While what the baby says can’t strictly be described as “words”, their conversation has all the cadence and back-and-forth of a proper chat.
If you didn’t speak English, you could absolutely believe this was the most intelligent baby in the world. There’s the inflections and mannerisms of a real meeting of minds – two dudes hanging out, watching TV and heckling.
Making googly noises and baby-talk might be fun – and gurgling back and forth with a tiny person is massively rewarding in its own way – but in terms of a little one picking up how to talk, the more adult speech they’re exposed to, the better.
[Read More: This is why talking to your newborn matters]
There’s research to prove it, too. A recent study from York University showed that the more adult conversation an infant heard, the better their cognitive abilities – not just in their speech, but right across the board, with skills like drawing also positively affected.
So here’s to chatting to our teeny-weeny kids as if they’re adults. Turn yourself into a narrator. Talk about everything you’re doing as you’re doing it, pointing out everything you walk past, providing a minute-by-minute commentary on your life like it’s the longest, most mundane football match imaginable.
Ponder questions out loud. Why is some money made of metal, but some of paper? Why don’t we ever eat chicken for breakfast? Isn’t pet ownership, where you’re friends with a member of a different species, kind of odd?
So yeah. Talking to little kids. It’s great!