Phonological Development

What are the main components of language?

Phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and communicative development.

What is phonology?

The sound system of a language.

What can newborn babies recognize about speech?

Their mother's voice, stories or songs heard in the womb, and native-language prosody.

What is prosody?

The rhythm, stress, and intonation patterns of speech.

What is the High Amplitude Sucking Technique?

A method using changes in infant sucking to study speech perception.

What is categorical speech perception?

Perceiving speech sounds as distinct categories rather than a continuous range.

What is an example of categorical speech perception?

Perceiving /b/ and /p/ as different categories despite gradual acoustic differences.

What does VOT stand for?

Voice Onset Time: the interval between articulatory release and the onset of voicing.

What is a universal listener?

An infant who can initially distinguish phonemic contrasts across many languages.

What is perceptual tuning?

The process through which infants become specialized in the sound contrasts of their native language.

When does perceptual tuning become especially noticeable?

Around 10–12 months of age.

How does native-language exposure affect speech perception?

Infants improve at native-language contrasts and often become less sensitive to nonnative contrasts.

What happens to infants' ability to distinguish /r/ and /l/?

American and Japanese infants are similar at 6–8 months, but by 10–12 months American infants improve while Japanese infants decline.

Can children regain sensitivity to nonnative speech sounds?

Starting a new language before about age 5 can allow these skills to develop naturally.

How is early perceptual tuning related to later language development?

Faster tuning in infancy has been associated with faster language development from 11–30 months.

What are phones?

The individual speech sounds used in a language.

Approximately how many speech sounds does English use?

About 45 of the approximately 200 known human speech sounds.

What is a phoneme?

A speech sound category that distinguishes word meaning in a language.

What is an allophone?

A variation in pronunciation that does not distinguish word meaning in a language.

How can aspiration function differently across languages?

It does not distinguish meaning in English in the same way it does in Thai.

What is aspiration?

A burst of air released when producing a speech sound.

What are phonotactics?

The rules governing which sound combinations are permitted in a language.

What is an example of a phonotactic restriction in English?

The sound combination /kp/ is not permitted in English words.

Why can a sound sequence be possible in one language but not another?

Languages have different phonotactic rules.

What are reflexive crying and vegetative sounds?

Early vocal behaviors occurring from birth to about 6–8 weeks.

When does cooing and laughter typically occur?

About 6–16 weeks.

When does vocal play typically occur?

About 16–36 weeks.

What is canonical or reduplicated babbling?

Babbling with repeated syllables, typically emerging around 6–9 months.

What is non-reduplicated babbling?

Babbling with varied syllable combinations, typically emerging around 9–12 months.

Does the emergence of a new vocal stage mean earlier behaviors disappear?

No. Earlier behaviors can continue as new behaviors emerge.

How is babbling related to later language development?

Frequent canonical babbling is associated with earlier words, larger productive vocabularies, and more accurate word production.

What is babbling drift?

The tendency for infants' babbling to become more similar to the sound patterns of their native language.

What did research on French, Arabic, and Mandarin infants demonstrate?

Babbling reflected native-language differences as early as around 6 months.

What is jargon in infant speech development?

Babbling combined with prosody and sentence-like intonation.

What are protowords?

Word-like vocalizations used during the transition from babbling to conventional words.

How are protowords often used?

In conjunction with gestures.

Around what age do first words typically emerge?

Around 12 months.

What is reduplication as a phonological error?

Repeating a syllable, such as "baba" for "bottle."

What is final consonant deletion?

Omitting the final consonant, such as "bu" for "bug."

What is unstressed syllable deletion?

Omitting an unstressed syllable, such as "bana" for "banana."

What is consonant cluster reduction?

Deleting a consonant from a cluster, such as "pider" for "spider."

What is consonant harmony or assimilation?

One sound influences another sound in the word, such as "bub" for "tub."

What is gliding?

Replacing /l/ or /r/ with another sound, often /w/ or /j/, such as "wabbit" for "rabbit."

What is stopping?

Replacing a fricative with a stop consonant, such as "tea" for "sea."

Why can children's phonological errors be difficult to assess?

Language experience and perception may make a child's actual pronunciation difficult to distinguish.

What is lexical selection in phonological development?

Choosing words with sounds the child can already produce comfortably.

What did Leonard, Schwartz, Morris, and Chapman (1981) investigate?

Whether children select words based on the sounds they can produce.

What did the lexical selection study find about comprehension?

Children learned to comprehend nonsense words equally well, whether or not they contained familiar producible sounds.

How do conservative pronunciation strategies work?

Children avoid words containing sounds they are not comfortable producing.

How do less conservative pronunciation strategies work?

Children attempt a variety of words, even when they cannot pronounce them accurately.

What is a phonological template?

A preferred sound pattern that children use to shape new words.

What is an example of a phonological template?

A child may fit words into a consonant-vowel-/j/-vowel-consonant pattern.

What is the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA)?

A test used to assess children's speech sound production.

What factors influence how easily a child produces a sound?

Word position, neighboring sounds, motor difficulty, frequency, and semantic contrasts.

How does sound frequency influence phonological development?

Sounds heard more frequently are more likely to be acquired earlier.

How does functional importance influence sound acquisition?

Sounds that distinguish many words may be acquired earlier.

Why might /v/ be acquired earlier in Swedish than English?

It occurs more frequently and distinguishes more word pairs in Swedish than in English.

What is infant-directed speech (IDS)?

The modified speech adults use when speaking to young children.

How can parents support phonological development through speech?

They modify their speech and exaggerate differences between similar sounds.

What did Soderstrom (2007) find about mothers' speech?

Mothers spoke more precisely to children in the one-word stage than to children in later stages.

What is phonological awareness?

Awareness of the sounds and sound structures of language.

What are examples of phonological awareness?

Rhyming, segmenting syllables and sounds, and recognizing alliteration.

Why is phonological awareness important?

It supports literacy and spelling development.

What biological factors contribute to phonological development?

Growth of the vocal tract, facial skeleton, brain, and neurological structures.

How is babbling related to brain development?

Babbling coincides with maturation of the motor cortex.

What experiences support phonological development?

Hearing language input, hearing one's own vocal output, and receiving social feedback.

What are the three major influences on children's pronunciation strategies?

Language experience, physiological and perceptual-motor systems, and lexical selection.