4.4
Language
Learning Objectives
When do infants first hear and make speech sounds? Most children speak their first
words soon after their first birthday, this mark the beginning of a child’s ability to
communicate orally with others. The Road to Speech, when a baby is upset, a concerned
mother tries to console her baby. By one of the few means of communication available
to it-crying, when a baby is crying, a mother trying to do her part by using verbal and
non-verbal measures to cheer her baby to send the message. Perceiving Speech can
babies distinguish speech sounds? The basic building blocks of language are phonemes,
which are unique sounds that can be joined to create words. Phonemes include consonant
sounds such as the sound of “t” in toe and tap. The impact of language exposure not all
language uses the same set of Phonemes; newborns apparently are biologically capable of
hearing the entire range of phonemes in all languages world wide range of Phonemes.
Identifying words, hearing individual Phonemes is only the first step in perceiving
speech. Parents and other adults often help infants master language sounds by talking in
a distinctive style. Infant directed speech; adults speak slowly and with exaggerated
change in pitch and loudness. Infant directed speech may attract infants’ attention more
than adult directed speech, because it’s slower pace and accentuated change provide
infants with more and more salient language clues. Steps to Speech, as any new parent
can testify, newborns and young babies makes many sounds. They cry, burp and sneeze.
First words and many more, a few months later, most youngsters utter their first words.
Typically, these words have a structure borrowed from their advanced babbling
consisting of a consonant vowel pair that may be repeated. The grand insight: word as
symbols to make the transition from babbling to real speech,...