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LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
Perception and Comprehension
Infants are active learners of language from before birth. While
still in the womb, the infant becomes familiar with the melody and
rhythm of the mother’s voice.
At birth, infants can discriminate speech sounds found in any of the
world’s languages.
By 6 months of age, babies show that they are learning which
vowel sounds are important in the language(s) used by their
caretakers (for example “e” of “bed” in English, or “oi”
in “moi” in French).
Babies begin to comprehend their first words around 9 months of
age.
By 10 months of age, infants show that they are learning which
consonant sounds are important in the language(s) used by their
caretakers (for example “th” in English, or trilled “r” in
Spanish). They also learn which sequences of sounds are allowed (for
example, “str” in English, and “vl” in Dutch).
By 12 months of age, babies are becoming familiar with basic
patterns of grammar, such as the word order of the language.
Babbling and Word Production
Newborn babies cannot make adult-like consonant and vowel sounds
because their breathing mechanism is higher in the throat so that
they can’t choke (It is set-up like a chimpanzee!). The noises you
hear a newborn make are primarily associated with feeding (for
example, burping and sucking), and crying.
Around 2 months of age, the wind pipe (trachea) drops. The sounds
infants make are often called cooing or gooing. Most of these sounds
are somewhat resonant (like singing). Squeals, giggles, and shrieks
are gradually added up to 4 months of age.
At 4 the infant begins making sounds that are like simple adult
syllables (for example [ba] or [ga].
By 6 months the infant has begun reduplicating these sylables ([baba],
[didi]).
Around 8 months of age the infant begins producing a variety of
syllable types (for example ([badi] [goki]), with lots of
intonational variation.
Between 10 and 12 months of age, infants will often produce their
first words. These words are usually unlike the adult form (for
example, [ba] for bottle). We call them words because the infant
consistently produces the form in appropriate contexts (asking for
the bottle, pointing at the bottle, dropping the bottle).
More adult-like word forms develop between 2 and 3 years of age.
Brain Development
At birth the infant brain is still quite immature. This
immaturity appears to be important for learning how to cope with the
surrounding world. Some brain areas (for example those dealing with
vision or audition), need exposure to the appropriate information
(for example, environmental sounds and speech sounds for audition)
to develop properly. This is why it is so important to get your
child’s hearing screened during infancy. If you notice any
apparent problems with your child’s hearing, then contact (add ASHA
link). Talking to your child, playing music, and allowing them
to listen to the typical sounds of your environment will allow
proper development of the auditory regions.
The sensory brain regions develop earlier than regions involved
in higher level cognitive processing (for example, memory regions in
the frontal brain regions). Thus, what a child can learn at a
particular age is constrained by brain development. You will not be
able to teach your baby difficult memory tasks when they are infants
because their brains are not yet ready.
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