Childrens Speech Development essays

Children's Speech Development essays Characteristics of childrens speech * Research has shown that human speech develops in a similar pattern regardless of the language the child hears around it. *Characteristics of childrens speech develop in the same order, although the age at which they develop varies from child to child. This pattern of development is categorized into four general areas; Pre-linguistic stage- babbling (from birth) From birth an infant produces sounds which gradually become more varied. This stage is sub catogorised further; *Crying (from birth) - This is recognized as instinctive communication because there is no real intention to communicate. However cries soon become differentiated and parents can often tell a cry of huger form one of boredom. *Cooing (from six weeks) - This is often produced by a satisfied baby and helps to strengthen vocal apparatus. This cooing sound begins to be broken up into consonants. *Babbling (from six months) - the pattern of consonants and vowels become linked together: la la la mamama etc. Babbling appears to be intuitive because it occurs about the same age in all infants. *Studies show that babies are more likely to babble when an adult responds with sounds. One word utterances- the holophrase stage (from one year) *Amongst the babbling, babies begin to use one syllable words. *A word in this stage is classified as any sound used to seek an active response. *First recognizable words are usually those derived form babbling: baby or daddy. * More than half of the early words are nouns (names of objects and people) and these are often used for a number of meanings. For example ga may be used for anything a child wants, however combined with an appropriate gesture, such as a point towards a cookie jar; clearly means give me a cookie. *Such a gesture is known as a ho ...