Unit V: Speech Sound Development

Early speech development:

• Prenatal development

• Early infancy (0-3 months)

• Mid infancy (4-6 months)

• Late infancy (7-9 months)

• Early talker (10-14 months)

Prenatal development of speech sounds:

• Fetuses hear and respond to sound by the third trimester

• Gestational parent’s voice is the most intelligible

• Newborns show preference for gestational parent’s voice

Early Infancy:

• Crying as a way of communication

• Expectation that the baby can adjust the environment

  • Niche construction

• Can differentiate sounds in all languages

• Respond to familiar voices

Mid Infancy:

• Better at distinguishing sounds between their own language and others

• Produce vowel-like sounds

  • Ahhhh, eh!

• Participate in “conversations”

Late Infancy:

• Produce canonical babbling (CV, CVCV sequences)

• Vocalize communicative intent, but not using real words

  • Requests

  • Refusal

  • Play

Early Talker:

• Produce “variegated babbling”

• Jargon production

• Respond to simple requests

• Understand some words

• Produce their first words (~12-13 months)

• Imitate sounds

Child-directed Speech: exaggerated speech sounds for children to understand