How Babies learn to speak

Can`t stop them now!!!!

Labelling,Packaging& network building

• Labelling is the first stage and it involves the link between the sounds of particular words and the objects to which they refer eg. mummy.
• Packaging entails understanding a words range of meaning.
• Network building involves grasping the connections between words (understanding that some words have opposite meanings)

Under and Overextention

• Underextension is a common semantic error made by children .It occurs when a word is given narrower meaning than it has in adult language.
• Overextension occurs when a word is given a broader, more general meaning than it should have.

How fast do children acquire vocabulary?

• At the age of 18 months the child has a vocabulary of about 50 words.
• By the age of 2 it uses about 200.
• After that an average child uses around 2000 words by the age of 5.

Understanding and Intonation

How Babies learn to speak

• Comprehension of phonological patterns and the meanings they represent develops more quickly than the child's ability to reproduce them.
• A range of messages is conveyed this way for example greetings or demands.
• As they grow older a wider range of meanings is expressed through intonation
• Understanding of the meanings of intonation is apparently still developed in their teens (Cruttenden 1974)

Babies and their pronunciation

• The Phonological development can vary from child to child so don´t worry! By the age of 2 1/2 the average child ha mastered all the vowels and around 2/3 of their consonants.They are first used correctly at the beginning of words "push" and "bush"
• Children will often simplify pronunciation by deletion.Final consonants may be dropped, unstressed syllables are often deleted and consonant clusters are reduced.
• Another form of simplification involves substitution. For example r (as in "rock" or "story") becomes a "w"

Understanding the first word

• Although the child cannot yet speak it does not mean that they do not understand the meaning of certain words.
• A child is usually 1 year old when it starts to speak its first recognizable word.
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by Joelle

Stages of Development

• Even before birth a baby has started to become acclimatized to the sounds of its native language.
• During the first weeks of life the child expresses itself vocally through crying.
• Cooing is another universal development and generally occurs when babies are around 6-8 weeks old.
• Babbling is the most important stage during the first year of a child`s life.It usually ´begins between the age of 6-9 months old.
• Phonemic expansion and contraction occurs which either increases or decreases the phonemes of a child.
• Intonation and gesture causes a rising tone at the end of utterances or they start to learn the emphasis of rhythm "Whats that?" (shown with pointing and facial expression)