First Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is the process whereby children acquire their first languages. All humans
(without exceptional physical or mental disabilities) have an innate capability to acquire
language. Children may acquire one or more first languages. For example, children who grow up
in an environment in which only English is spoken and heard will acquire only English as their first
language. However, children who grow up in an environment in which both German and English
are spoken and heard equally will acquire both German and English as their first languages.
Acquisition occurs passively and unconsciously through implicit learning. In other words, children
do not need explicit instruction to learn their first languages but rather seem to just "pick up"
language in the same way they learn to roll over, crawl, and walk. Language acquisition in
children just seems to happen.
Acquisition (as opposed to learning) depends on children receiving linguistic input during the
critical period. The critical period is defined as the window of time, up to about the age of twelve
or puberty, in which humans can acquire first languages. Children must receive adequate
linguistic input including phonology (speech sounds), semantics (vocabulary and meaning),
grammar (syntax or word order and morphology or grammatical markers), and pragmatics (use
and context) and prosody (intonation, rhythm, stress) before the end of the critical period in
order to acquire their first languages. If linguistic input is not adequate, children will never fully
acquire language (as is the case of Genie, an abused and neglected girl who was discovered by
authorities in 1970). Language acquisition cannot normally occur after the critical period because
the brain becomes "hardwired" to the first language.

Babbling is the stage of language development during which children produce speech sounds
arranged in nonsensical combinations, such as “bababa,” “deedeedee,” or “badegubu.” All
normally developing children babble. Parents and family members may view babbling as an
endearing but trivial behavior produced by infants; however, babbling represents a stage of
language development during which the child is laying the foundation for future adult-like
language production.

The Sounds Of Babbling

The first vocalizations produced by infants include crying, laughing, and cooing. When infants are
between 2 and 3 months old, they begin to coo. Cooing infants produce sounds that most closely
resemble the vowels a, e, and o. Cooing may be an extended single vowel as in “oooo” or “aaaa”
or a complex series of vowels, “aaaeeeooo.” Babbling typically begins by the 6th month. Table 1
provides a summary of the types of utterances produced by the child in the first year.

Between the 6th and 7th months, infants gain greater control of jaw movements, enabling them
to produce the vowels i and u and the consonants g and k.
Over time, infants begin producing the consonants m, n, p, b, and d. During this time, infants
engage in vocal play. They may produce nonspeech sounds such as squealing, yelling, and
growling. They may also produce raspberries, which are created when the tongue is extended
through rounded lips and air is forced through the mouth.

Between 6 and 9 months, infants begin to combine a single consonant and vowel together in a
long repetitive sequence, such as “bababababa” or
“deedeedeedee.” Such sequences are characteristic of canonical babbling. Over time, infants’
babbling becomes more complex. Productions typically involve different syllables produced in the
same utterance, as in “badegubu” or “deekidobu.” Such sequences are characteristic
of variegated babbling. Between the ages of 12 and 14 months, infants’ babbling is likely to
contain intonational contours or prosody. Infants may produce streams of speech sounds that
have the melody of adult speech. It may sound as though the infant is making a statement or
asking a question, even though they are not saying anything meaningful.

Development Of Babbling

Table 1 Types of
Utterances Produced by a Child in the First Year

There are physical changes that occur in the young infant that make babbling possible. At birth,
infants’ vocal structure closely resembles that of nonhuman primates, with a shorter vocal tract
and a much higher larynx than adults. Before babbling can occur, the vocal tract must mature, and
the infant’s larynx must descend from high in the nasal passage to a lower position in the throat.
During the 3 months of life before the larynx descends, infants can eat and breathe
simultaneously. Before the larynx descends, infants are incapable of producing complex speech
sounds, such as syllables composed of consonant-vowel combinations. Infants are capable of
producing cries, clicks, groans, and sighs. After the larynx descends, infants can produce cooing
sounds, such as “ooo” and “aaa.” By the age of 4 months, the vocal tract more closely resembles
that of adults, and babbling generally emerges. In the months following the descent of the larynx,
infants’ vocalizations become more and more complex.

Research has shown that 95% of infants’ babbled vocalizations involve the 12 speech sounds that
are most common across the world’s languages: m, d, j, p, h, b, w, t, n, k, g, and y. The vocalizations
babbled by all infants are strikingly similar across the world, regardless of the infants’ native
language. It is common for infants to produce speech sounds that are not among the speech
sounds of their native language. For example, infants reared in English-speaking environments
may produce

non-English speech sounds, such as the click sounds that occur in certain African languages.
Likewise, infants reared in Japanese-speaking environments may produce speech sounds not
occurring in Japanese, such as [r]. As infants mature, more of the speech sounds produced are
those speech sounds heard in the environment in the language or languages of the home, and
fewer of them are speech sounds from other languages. This phenomenon has been referred to
as babbling drift.

When Babbling Is Delayed Or Does Not Occur

An absence or substantial delay of babbling may occur in infants born with certain medical
conditions or infants with developmental disorders. For example, infants who have had a
tracheotomy typically do not babble and show persistent abnormalities in their vocal patterns
if their normal breathing is not restored by the second year of life.

Some infants may be unable to produce speech due to a disorder affecting the motor control
system. This disorder is called apraxia. Infants with severe apraxia may not coo or babble and may
fail to produce a first word. They may attempt to communicate by pointing and grunting. Less
severe forms of apraxia may be characterized by a delay in the production of the first word. When
words are produced, speech sounds that are difficult to articulate may be consistently
replaced with speech sounds that are easier to articulate.

Babbling may also be delayed or completely absent in infants affected by autism. Autism is a
disorder characterized by abnormal social development. Autism is typically accompanied by delays
in language development and may be accompanied by mental retardation. Those with the
severest forms of autism may not speak at all. Those with mild forms of autism may produce some
speech, but the amount of speech that is produced is far less than that of the typical infant.
Babbling may be delayed in infants born with Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality that
causes mental retardation. Approximately 1 in 800 infants is born with Down syndrome each year.
Down syndrome children typically experience delays in language development. Down syndrome
infants start the canonical babbling stage 2 months later than other infants do. However, when
babbling does occur, it is similar to the babbling produced by normally developing infants. Due to
abnormalities in the development of the vocal tracts, palates, and tongues of Down syndrome
children, speech production is likely to be challenging for the Down syndrome child.

Babbling occurs without a delay in infants born with hearing impairments. Each year,
approximately 1 in 1,000 children is born with a severe hearing loss. The early vocalizations made
by profoundly deaf infants cannot be easily distinguished from those made by hearing infants.
Deaf infants will cry, coo, and begin to babble. However, deaf infants are unlikely to produce
repeated consonant–vowel syllables characteristic of the canonical babbling stage. The amount of
babbling and the quality of the babbling produced by deaf infants may be less than that produced
by hearing infants. Deaf infants who are exposed to sign language from birth develop sign language
skills in the same stages as hearing infants develop speech and listening skills. Signed
languages such as American Sign Language (ASL)
are unique languages, each having its own rules of grammatical structure. Deaf infants who
are exposed to a signed language will produce manual babbling—sequences of gestures that can
be viewed as language practice. Manual babbling typically emerges around 10 months. In contrast,
hearing infants who are exposed to a signed language during the first year of life produce very
little manual babbling.

Summary

Babbling is a routine stage of language development, observed in all normally developing infants.
Starting at the 6th month, infants practice the speech sounds that will later be used to form
syllables, words, and sentences. Over time, the sequences that are babbled become more
complex. By the end of the first year, infants have produced their first words. For infants with
certain developmental disorders, babbling may be delayed or absent.

https://psychology.iresearchnet.com/developmental-psychology/language-
development/babbling/

WHAT SOUNDS SHOULD YOUR CHILD BE ABLE TO SAY?

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Kids First • 0 Comments

The development of speech sounds in children usually takes time. When a child is
learning, it’s natural for them to make mistakes, and every child makes predictable
 pronunciation errors when they are learning to talk (when you stop to think about
it, these are not really ‘errors’ at all, but rather, part of a child’s natural speech and
language ‘learning curve’).
Some children are slower than others when learning to make some speech sounds, so
it is wise to monitor the development of your child’s speech closely. Download the
free fact sheet below which will help you to to do this.

At what age should my child be able to pronounce sounds

properly?
The following list shows the age at which most children can say different speech sounds:

By age: Your child should be able to say:

2 p, b, m, d, h, n
3
all of the above and f, g, k, t, w
4 all of the above and kw (as in queen)
all of the above and ch, j, l, s, sh, y, bl
5 all of the above and r, v, br, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, kl, kr, pl, st and tr
6
all of the above and z, sl, sp, sw, th
7

When should my child stop making sound errors?

Children’s speech sound errors should disappear as they get older.
When your child is aged 2-6, he or she may use one sound instead of another, leave
out sounds, add extra sounds, or say the sound differently to the way you might expect
as they are learning to talk. These “errors” are called phonological processes.
Here are some typical developing phonological processes, or speech sound errors, that you may hear
your child pronouncing and the approximate age by which your child should stop making that
mistake.

Sounds you may hear your child say Approximate age at

which sound error should
 /gar/ for car- your child may replace a voiceless sound
stop
(such as k, t, p) preceding a vowel by a voiced sound
 /ret/ for red – your child may be replacing a voiced 3 years
consonant (such as b, d, g) at the end of a word with a 3 years
voiceless consonant (such as k, t, p) 3 years 3 months
 /boa/ for boat – your child may be omitting or deleting
the last voiced consonant (such as p, t, k, b, d, g, f) of a 3 years 9 months
word
 /tar/ for car or /mime/ for mine – your child may be 3 years 9 months
replacing a back sound (such as k, g) by a front sound 3 years 9 months
 /sip/ for ship – your child may be replacing his /sh/ as in
‘shame’ or his /zh/ as in ‘measure’ with /y/, /s/ or /z/ 4 years
 /pup/ for cup – your child might pronounce a word that 4 years
is influenced by one of the sounds in the words
 /teffone/ for telephone – your child may be deleting a 5 years
syllable from words of more than one syllable
 /ty/ for try, /swy/ for sky /, /sake/ for snake – your child Between
may be deleting or replacing a cluster element 3 and 5 years
 /wadder/ for ladder and wabbit for rabbit – your child
may replace his liquids (such as r, l) with glides (w,y)
 /tip/ for ship – your child may use a stopped consonant
such as a p, t, b or d to replace fricative or affricates such
as f,v,sh and zh)

It’s important to remember that every child acquires the pronunciation of sounds at
their own pace.

However, if your child is aged between 3 and 5 and some of the errors mentioned
above are still present when they are meant to be gone, it is recommended that
you seek the advice of a speech and language pathologist.
A speech pathologist can help your child learn the appropriate motor planning required for producing
speech sounds properly. This will have a big impact on your child’s later ability to learn to read and
spell, so seeking help early is important for all young children who struggle with articulation.

Syntactic Development in Children

AMANDA HERMES

Although babies learn how to speak at different rates, almost all little ones learn how to form words and
sentences in a similar order, beginning with single syllables and graduating to more complex ideas like
tense. In just a few short years, a child goes from no language at all to forming cohesive sentences
following grammatical rules. This process is called syntactic development.
General Information

Syntax refers to the rules used to combine words to make sentences; syntactic development is the way
children learn these rules. Syntactic development is measured using MLU, or mean length of utterance,
which is basically the average length of a child's sentence; this increases as a child gets older. According
to Jean Berko Gleason's book, "The Development of Language," kids go through five stages of syntactic
development which were identified by Roger Brown in 1973. Children automatically develop syntactic
rules without explicit instruction; they learn it simply by listening to others speak around them.

Stage I

Between the ages of 12 and 18 months, babies usually begin to use words to communicate, beginning
with one-word utterances, such as "more," "go" or "dog." Within a few months of uttering their first
words, they move into Stage I of syntactic development, two word combinations. According to Gleason,
these primitive sentences mostly consist of nouns, verbs and adjectives with a lack of important
grammatical elements.

Stage II

As children move through the five stages of syntactic development, their sentences grow in length.
According to speech language pathologist Caroline Bowen, kids begin to learn grammatical elements in
Stage II, usually between 28 and 36 months. Most toddlers acquire these elements in the same order,
beginning with the present progressive -ing, then the prepositions in and on.

Stage III

Bowen writes that Stage III includes the acquisition of irregular past tense words, such as "fell," followed
by adding "s" to possessives, then proper use of "to be" verbs, such as "are" vs. "is." This stage usually
occurs between 36 and 42 months.

Stage IV

Stage IV, which comes between 40 and 46 months, includes understanding of articles, the regular past
tense (adding -ed), and third person regular present tense, such as "He laughs." Toddlers usually apply
general rules to all words before learning irregularities. For example, a toddler will often say "goed" or
"foots" before he says, "went" or "feet." But this shows understanding of the rules; it's another
automatically learned phenomenon.

Stage V
From 42 months on, children reach Stage V, which includes using contractions, such as "I'm" and
"you're." They use third person irregular present tense, such as "she has," and more complicated uses of
"to be" verbs, such as combining them with other verbs and forming contractions with them. According
to Bowen, kids have usually mastered all of these stages by 52 months and should be able to form four
to five word sentences around age 4.

How Well Should a 2-Year-Old Talk?

MATTHEW GIOBBI, PH.D. UPDATED ON JUNE 14, 2017

From a child's earliest cooing to fully formed words such as "Momma" and "Dada," the first 12 months
of verbal development is accelerated. In the second year, this rapid pace of linguistic and cognitive
development continues until a leveling off after middle childhood. The early years are the most critical in
the development of speech, communication and cognition. Keep in mind though, no two 2 year old's are
alike and your little one will develop at his own pace.

At the Beginning of the Second Year

At the beginning of the second year, most children are speaking a few words such as "Momma," "Dada"
or "uh oh." Your little one should be able to put two words together and ask two word questions,
according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. By age 2, your child should be able to
correctly pronounce the sounds "P," "M," "H," "W," "N" and "B." She now is entering a time in which
voluntary motor control and concentration is forming. One word that is understood, if not uttered yet, is
"no."

In the Middle of the Second Year

By 18 months, your child should be able to identify themselves in a mirror. With this newly discovered
sense of self and others, he will begin to recognize people by their names. Your child's vocabulary will
likely include nouns, some pronouns, descriptive words and some words, notes the website PBS Parents.
He should know about 200 or more words and is able to point out objects when hearing their names.

By the End of the Second Year

By the end of the second year, most children have developed a vocabulary of over 200 words and can
follow simple directions from others, according to the website, PBS Parents. Basic phrase structure, such
as "want cookie" and "go bye?" begins to appear. Your child now has a definite sense of self, which is
reflected in his use of the word "mine" as well as personal pronouns such as "me" and "you."

Speech Abnormalities

Although children in their second year make frequent mispronunciations of newly acquired words, there
are a few signs that speech pathologists warn parents to be aware of. Avoiding the pronunciation of
vowel sounds by saying "dg" for "dog" or uttering only the vowels of a word with "aw" for "dog" might
indicate a speech development problem. Although most children lisp, stutter and fumble with
pronunciation or sentence structure, these difficulties often disappear after the seventh year. It is
always best to consult your child's pediatrician if you are concerned with his speech or communication
development. Early identification of an impairment is critical, so that you can get your child treatment
right away before it interferes with his learning, according to HealthyChildren.org.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/523981-how-well-should-my-2-year-old-child-be-talking/