Question: how do children learn to speak

Tim Fosker answered on 21 Jun 2011:

Hi @rose23

Great question, but it would take me a long-time to go through all the ways children learn to speak, so I will just describe the beginning of speech here but I have given you some links to related questions I have answered as well.

The process of learning to speak begins with ‘reflexive’ (not consciously controlled) noises that newborn babies make like crying. At between 2 and 4 months infants will start cooing and laughing, these noises are fun to listen to and they encourage parents talk and play with their babies. Anywhere between 4-6 months old infants will normally start attempting to make speech sounds (babbling) like ‘ba ba ba’ or ‘da da da’, this is called ‘reduplicated babbling’ as the same syllables are repeated over and over again. Infants then move on to producing ‘variegated babbling’ where different syllables are strung together to sound like made-up words ‘bada kadu’. Real words are produced at around 12 months.

I hope that answers your question.

As you can see, developing speech is all about playing. Infants need to play making shapes with their mouths, using their tongues and trying to copy the sounds that they hear adults make. Infants listen to themselves so that they can get better and better at making the right sounds.

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