Babbling and early speech: continuity and individual differences

Abstract

One of the recognized precursors to speaking is babbling. The relatedness of these activities is suggested, in the typical case, by the developmentally continuous manner in which babbling flows into and coexists with speaking, the shared morphology of babble and speech, and the socially similar ways that children display (and presumably use) babbling and speaking. Nevertheless, the developmental significance of babbling is unknown. In this paper, I sample findings on normally developing children as well as special populations, including hearingimpaired, retarded, and tracheostomized children, and experimental work on song birds. Attention is given to the question of whether individual differences in babbling are carried over into speaking. I also ask whether it is or should be possible to anticipate deviant or delayed speech from analyses of prelinguistic vocalization and, if so, what that would tell us about the theoretical significance of babbling.Over the past 20 or 30 years there has been increasing curiosity over the possible relatedness of children's early speech and many of the ostensibly 'prelinguistic' vocal behaviours which occur previously. With recent growth of this interest, there have been several attempts to see if it might be possible to predict children's speech or language development from analyses of infants' vocal patterns. This concern with prediction may have developed partly because babbling and speech seemed to be related, therefore that prediction ought to be possible, and partly because predictability of one from the other seemed to be a good way of determining if babbling and speech are, in fact, related.And, indeed, there are good theoretical and practical reasons for seeking to know whether prelexical vocal behaviour allows accurate predictions of later speech and language development. On the theoretical side, accurate

‘Frame Dominance’ and the SerialOrganization of Babbling, and First Words in Korean-Learning Infants

“…In contrast, there is general acceptance that the structure of early speech is very similar to the structure of babbling [e.g. Vihman et al, 1985;Locke, 1989]. This similarity has been widely observed in studies of the three CV co-occurrence patterns, and it is observed to some degree in the present study.…”

Beyond ba-ba and gu-gu: Challenges and strategies in coding infant vocalizations

“…This increased interest has occurred primarily because, contrary to previous beliefs (Jakobson, 1941), a host of studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s across Europe and the United States (e.g., Holmgren, Lindblom, Aurelius, Jalling, & Zetterstrom, 1986;Koopmans-van Beinum & van der Stelt, 1986;Locke, 1989;Oller, 1980;Stark, 1980;Stoel-Gammon & Cooper, 1984;Zlatin Laufer, 1980) convincingly established that prelinguistic vocal development is related to later speech and language development (see "Brief History" section below for details). There are, however, a number of enormously complex problems that arise when one attempts to achieve an appropriate and reliable system of coding of infant vocalizations, because vocal behaviors are remarkably complex, even in the first half year of life (Oller, 2000;Oller & Lynch, 1992).…”

Babbling and first words in children with slow expressive development

“…It has often been hypothesized that the first speech-like articulation and the babbling phase, which occur at approximately 10 months of age, allow infants to develop a link between articulatory settings and the resulting auditory consequences, thus laying down the basis for the development of the phonetic inventory and adaptation to the ambient language (Westermann and Miranda, 2004). Several longitudinal studies, conducted on different populations and using different modes of analysis, indicated a continuity between prelinguistic production (babbling) and first words both in typically developing children (Bates, Benigni, Bretherton, Camaioni and Volterra, 1979;Leonard and Bortolini, 1998;Locke, 1989;Oller, Eilers, Neal and Schwartz, 1999;Vihman and McCune, 1994) and in children with language delay (D'Odorico, Bortolini, De Gasperi and Assanelli, 1999;Oller, Eilers, Neal and Cobo-Lewis, 1998;Rescorla, Dahlsgaard and Roberts, 2000;Stoel-Gammon, 1989).…”

“…Paul, 1991;Rescorla, Roberts and Dahlsgaard, 1997) indicated that approximately 50% of toddlers with slow expressive speech development at age 3 two have good vocal output at age three, only a few have attempted to make a distinction between delayed and deviant phonological development. As Locke (1989) reported, there are both theoretical and practical reasons for investigating whether prelexical vocal behaviour is an accurate predictor of later speech and language development. On the theoretical side, the ability to predict with accuracy would contribute to making a more precise characterization of infant vocalization with regards the child's motor, perceptual, social and linguistic development.…”