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English Language paper 1 - CLA (Babbling (6 months old., They start to…
English Language paper 1 - CLA
Language development begins in the womb
DeCasper ans Spence found that babies sucked on their dummies more when their mothers read them the same stories they had been reading in the last 6 months of pregnancy.
Mehler et al found 4 day old French babies increased sucking on their dummies when they heard French (opposed to other languages).
Fitzpatrick found the heart rate if an unborn baby slowed when it heard its mothers voice.
Even in the womb babies become familiar with sounds, rhythm and intonation.
Babies use their vocal chords straight away
Between birth and the first word is the pre-language stage.
Crying is the first main vocal expression a baby makes, it makes the caregiver aware that the baby wants something.
It is not conscious, it's an instinctive response the baby makes.
Cooing stage
Starts at 6-8 weeks old.
Babies start making a small range of sounds, getting used to moving their lips and mouths.
It starts with vowels (such as/u/and/a/) - they start to link those to produce extended vowel combinations such as "oooh" and "ahhh".
They start to use velar consonants, like /k/and/g/, to form sounds like coo and gaa.
This is vocal play and the is the start of babbling.
These sounds do not carry any meaning.
Babbling
6 months old.
They start to produce repeated consonant/vowel combinations: ma-ma-ma-ma or, ba-ba-ba-ba.
This babbling is known as reduplicated or canonical babbling.
If the sounds are not repeated, such as goo-gi-goo-ga, this is called variegated babbling.
Research has shown deaf babies that are exposed to sign language will babble with their hands, this suggests babbling is an innate activity.
Some people argue babbling is just another stage of vocal play, the sounds do not carry meaning.
But some people argue it is the beginning of speech.
Petitto and Holowka video recorded infants and noted that most of the babbling came from the right side of the mouth - which is controlled by the left side of the brain. This side of the brain is responsible for speech production. This suggests babbling is a form of preliminary speech.
When they babble, the number of phonemes increases - phonemic expansion. But later in the stage they reduce this - phonemic contraction. This is because they start to concentrate on reproducing the phonemes it hears in its native language. At 10 months is when children from different nationalities start to sound different. Phonemic contraction was found to happen less if the baby is exposed to more than 1 language.
A child may say "mmmm" to indicate they want more food. It is not a word but functions like one. These are called proto-words and are sometimes accompanied by gestures. Around 9 months, children begin to sound like they are speaking their own made up language - jargon. By the time the baby is 10 months old, babbling may develop some meaning.
Phonological and pragmatic development