This paper is an analysis of the use of features of motherese and other baby talk speech registers with adult non-native English speakers at a migrant-focused adult English literacy program in North Carolina. The ethnographic and linguistic data was gathered through attending 3-hour classes across the offered 4 levels of literacy education over a 9-week period at the Rural County Literacy Council. The data suggests that through the use of language and physical signs, the instructors, staff, and program director at the Rural County Literacy Council both directly and indirectly linguistically indexed their adult students as children. The findings are significant because, across the existing adult SLA literature, the use of motherese and baby talk registers is not being suggested as best practice for adult language instruction. Therefore, such uses of language likely function to mark these non-native English-speaking adults as lacking the same capabilities, level of understanding, and intelligence as native English-speaking adults.