Temporal patterns in the complexity of child-directed song lyrics reflect their functions

• DOI: 10.1038/s44271-025-00219-4
• Publication Date: 2025-03-24T22:28:51Z
• Authors: Pierre Labendzki; Louise Goupil; Sam Wass
• Keywords: Lyrics

Content produced for young audiences is structured to present opportunities learning and social interactions. This research examines multi-scale temporal changes in predictability Child-directed songs. We developed a technique based on Kolmogorov complexity quantify the rate of change textual information content over time. method was applied corpus 922 English, Spanish, French publicly available child adult-directed texts. song lyrics (CDSongs) showed overall lower compared Adult-directed songs (ADsongs), associated with higher number YouTube views. CDSongs relatively at beginning end ADSongs. ADSongs non-uniform rate, but these periodic oscillatory patterns were more predictable These findings suggest that optimal balance between expressivity differs child- content, also timescales potentially support multiple children's needs. In multilingual child-directed songs, an analysis cumulative-compressibility reveals multiscale could different relevant fuctions, e.g. attention, bonding.