The Language Development in Children

Phonological Development in Infants

Early Speech Perception

Even before they can speak, babies can recognize speech sounds. Infants as young as 1 month
can distinguish between different sounds, such as the difference between the “ma” and “pa”
sounds. This ability to recognize speech sounds is considered innate, meaning babies are
born with the ability to hear and distinguish phonetic differences. However, as they grow,
their ability to recognize sounds specific to their language becomes stronger.

Babies also show an interest in their mother’s voice and can tell different languages apart, as
long as the languages sound different enough. As babies get older, they start picking up on other
aspects of language, like where important pauses in speech occur, which helps them understand
the structure of sentences.

A major challenge for infants is figuring out where one word ends and another begins because
speech is continuous and words don’t have clear boundaries. However, babies use clues in the
speech they hear, such as the patterns in how sounds co-occur. For example, some sound
combinations are more likely to happen together than others, like the sounds “m” and “a” in
“mother.” This information helps babies break up speech into smaller chunks, like words. Over
time, this ability improves as they become familiar with the language they are exposed to.

Babbling

Between the ages of 6 to 10 months, babies start babbling. This is when they produce repeated
sounds like “ba-ba-ba” or “ga-ga-ga.” Babbling is important because it helps babies practice the
sounds and rhythms of their language.

There are two types of babbling:

i. reduplicated babbling - where the same sound is repeated. Like, babababa

ii. non-reduplicated babbling - where the sounds are varied. Like, babawamabawa

Even though babbling might seem random, it is connected to the language a baby is hearing.
Babies can produce a wide variety of sounds, but as they grow older, they start to focus more on
the sounds that are important in their language. Some theories suggest that babbling helps babies
control the muscles needed for speaking, while others believe that it helps them practice the
rhythm and pitch (prosody) of their language.
Babbling and Later Speech Development

There are two main theories about how babbling connects to later speech.

i. The continuity hypothesis says that babbling directly leads to speech, as babies
gradually refine the sounds they produce based on the language they hear.
ii. The discontinuity hypothesis suggests that babbling and later speech are separate
stages.

Some researchers believe that babbling might have more to do with practicing motor
skills and controlling the mouth and throat muscles for speaking. Whatever the case,
babbling plays an important role in helping babies get ready to speak.

In conclusion, phonological development is a complex process where babies start by hearing and
recognizing sounds, then begin to break speech into words, and finally move on to producing
their own sounds through babbling, which prepares them for later language development.

The later stages of phonological development

As children move beyond the early stages of babbling, their speech begins to include more
complex sounds, including consonant clusters, but still exhibits simplifications. These changes
can be seen as a form of hypothesis testing, where children modify their pronunciation of
words as they refine their rules. This ongoing process of modification often leads to more
accurate pronunciations as children experiment with different phonological rules.

Jakobson’s Hypothesis:

Jakobson (1968) suggested that when babies are learning language, they
first grasp the simplest and most common sound differences that are found
in many languages. These sound differences are called "phonological
contrasts." For example, the difference between the sounds /p/ and /b/,
which is the difference between "p" as in "pat" and "b" as in "bat." This
difference is important because it's found in almost every language.

So, according to Jakobson, babies first learn these easy-to-hear contrasts,

because they’re very common across languages.

However, even though children may easily learn to tell the difference between /p/ and /b/, they
might face a bigger challenge when it comes to more complex sounds or sound combinations.
For example, in Urdu, there’s a sound /g/ (as in "‫ – "گالب‬gulab, meaning rose). This sound is
more complicated to produce and understand than /p/ and /b/ because it requires not only a
change in how the sound is produced (it’s voiced and involves the back of the mouth) but also
more practice to combine it with other sounds.

When babies first start speaking, they often simplify words because they haven't fully developed
the ability to pronounce all the complex sounds in adult speech. This happens because their
mouths and tongues are still learning how to form these sounds.

For example:

 The word “tomato” might become “mado”.

 Or “banana” might turn into “nana”.

They drop difficult sounds, like final consonants or extra syllables, to make the word
easier to say. This is a normal part of their development as they slowly get better at using
the full range of sounds in their language. So, it’s not that they can’t say the word right
away—they’re just simplifying it to a version that matches their current speech abilities!

Why Simplification Occurs

Various explanations exist for why children simplify their speech.

i. One explanation is that the child has not yet fully learned the phonological contrasts
required to produce more complex forms. Jakobson’s theory suggests that
simplifications occur because the child has not yet mastered certain contrasts (like
between /s/ and /ʃ/).
ii. Another possibility is that children apply phonological rules to simplify speech into
forms they can more easily produce.
iii. A third explanation is that simplification is a natural consequence of the development
of the speech production system itself, as children’s articulatory abilities gradually
improve.

In sum, phonological development is characterized by a combination of simplification and

gradual refinement as children experiment with and refine their phonological rules. These
changes provide insight into the complexity of early language development and the factors that
influence how children learn to speak.
Lexical and Semantic Development

Children typically begin producing words around 1 year of age, and their vocabulary grows
gradually during the first year, with a notable increase between 18 to 24 months. By the time
children reach this stage, they typically have around 50 words. This period marks the onset of
the “vocabulary explosion,” where vocabulary expansion accelerates significantly. Nelson
(1973) analyzed the first 10 words produced by children and found that they most commonly
referred to important person names, animals, food, and toys. However, children show
considerable variation in the types of words they produce early on.

Nelson categorized children into two broad groups based on their early word usage:

1. Expressive style: Children in this group focus on social interaction, emphasizing people and
feelings.

Child: “Mama, happy? Mama play baby!”

2. Referential style: Children in this group focus more on objects, seeing language as a tool for
labeling.

Child: “Ball. Red ball. Throw ball.”

The differences between these two groups likely stem from both individual perspectives on
language use and differences in parental language input. Children who hear more object labels
tend to adopt a referential style, while those exposed to more social language tend to use an
expressive style. However, studies have shown that both styles reach the 50-word milestone at
the same age, and there are no significant differences in the subsequent pace of language
development (Bates et al., 1994; Hoff-Ginsberg, 1997).

Early Words and Roles:

Semantic Errors and Word Learning:

Given the complexity of the task, it’s expected that young children do not always get word
meanings right. For instance, a child may initially extend the word “bow-wow” for dogs to cats,
cows, and horses. Clark and Clark (1977) suggested that children begin with two core
assumptions about language:

1. Language is for communication: They understand that words are used to convey meaning to
others.

2. Language makes sense in context: They use context to interpret words and their meanings.
These early assumptions help children form hypotheses about the meanings of words and refine
them over time.

The Challenge of Word Mapping

One big challenge for children when learning language is figuring out what
a word means. This is called the mapping problem.

Example:

A mother points to the sky and says,

"Look! The moon is pretty!"

Now the child has to figure out:

What does the word “moon” mean?

 Does “moon” mean the round shape?

 Does it mean the white color?
 Or does it mean the thing in the sky?

The child needs to learn that “moon” means the object itself—even if it
changes shape (like from a crescent to full moon) or looks a bit different at
night

Cognitive and Conceptual Development

Children’s semantic development (learning word meanings) is closely connected to their

conceptual development (understanding ideas and categories). As children grow, they form new
concepts in their minds, and only then can they learn the words that go with those concepts. For
example, a child cannot learn a word like “yesterday” unless they understand the idea of time.
This shows that cognitive development comes first—children must understand something before
they can learn the word for it.

Research by Bloom (2001) found that children often use more names for objects than they
actually hear from adults. This suggests that children have a natural bias or preference for
learning object labels. Even when adults don’t use many object words, children still pick them up
quickly.
One reason why children learn words so quickly is that they are born with a natural ability to
group things. For example, even without being taught, a child can tell that a cat, a dog, and a
cow are all animals. Or they might see that a ball, a car, and a doll are all toys. This natural skill
—called categorization—helps them learn words faster. When they hear a word like “dog,” they
don’t just connect it to one animal, but to the whole group of similar animals. This built-in ability
makes it easier for children to understand and remember new words, especially in the early
stages of learning language.

Five key principles children use to learn names for things during language development:

The constraints on learning names for things during language acquisition suggest that children
use specific cognitive strategies to map words to objects or concepts. The main principles
guiding this process include:

1. Whole-object assumption: Children tend to assume that new words refer to whole objects,
not parts or properties. This bias helps simplify the task of associating words with objects. For
instance, if a parent says “dog” while pointing at an animal, the child assumes the word refers to
the entire animal, not just a part of it (e.g., its tail or ears).

2. Taxonomic constraint: When learning a new word, children tend to categorize objects
based on similarities. For example, if they hear “cat,” they will initially categorize other
animals that share similar traits (e.g., other cats) under the same term, rather than considering
things related to cats like litter boxes.

3. Mutual exclusivity assumption: This principle suggests that children usually assume that
each object has one label. They tend not to accept multiple names for the same object unless it’s
clear that the words refer to different aspects of it.

4. Novel name-nameless category (N3C) principle: This principle suggests that children are
likely to assign new words to objects or concepts they don’t already have a label for. This bias
helps children fill gaps in their vocabulary.

5. Syntactic bootstrapping: Children use the way a word is used in a sentence to

guess what it means. If someone says, “She is daxing the bear,” the child might guess that
“daxing” is an action (a verb), like hugging or pushing, because of how the word fits into the
sentence.

In addition to these cognitive constraints, social and pragmatic factors play a significant role in
word learning. Joint attention between the child and adult—where both focus on the same object
or event—helps children figure out what a new word refers to. For example, a child might learn
the word “dog” by looking at the dog while the adult points it out.

How Children Relate Words to Things

Some theories suggest that children have built-in rules (constraints) to help them link words to
the world. But it’s still unclear where these rules come from—are they natural or learned from
experience? Some researchers, like Nelson, believe that language development is more about
social interaction between adults and children, rather than following strict rules.

Children’s Early Mistakes

When kids first start speaking, they often make mistakes in how they use words. Sometimes they
use words in ways that match adult meanings, and other times they use them incorrectly. For
example:

i. Correct overlap: A child calling a dog “dog” (same as adults).

ii. Broader meaning: Calling all four-legged animals “dog” (over-extension).
iii. Narrower meaning: Calling only their own dog “dog” and not other dogs (under-extension).
iv. No overlap: Using a word incorrectly, like calling a banana “car,” which doesn’t make sense
at all.

Over-extensions (Using Words Too Broadly)

Over-extensions happen when a child uses a word for things that are similar but not exactly
the same. For example, a child might call any round object, like a moon, a “ball” (because they
both have a round shape). Or they might call a cow a “horse” because both are big, four-legged
animals.

These mistakes are normal and happen because children focus on noticeable features like shape
or size. They usually happen in the early stages of learning to talk and are common in many
languages.

Under-extensions (Using Words Too Narrowly)

Under-extension happens when a child uses a word for only one specific thing, even though it
can be used for many similar things. A child learns the word “round” for their toy ball.
But when they see the moon or a plate, they don’t call those things “round”—even though they
are! So the word “round” is used too narrowly or specifically.

How Children Learn Words

Three main theories explain how kids learn the meanings of words:

Semantic Features: Children learn the smaller details (features) of things. For example, a child
might first call all round things “balls,” but later they learn that a ball isn’t just round, it’s for
playing with.
Functional Core: This theory says children focus on what objects do. For example, a child
might call a rolling toy car a “ball” because both roll.

Prototype Theory : Children learn what the “average” example of something is and then extend
that word to other similar things. For example, a child may call a small dog “dog” but might not
call a big dog the same thing because the small one is more “typical” in their mind.

Contrastive Hypothesis

This theory suggests that children learn the meaning of a word by figuring out how it’s different
from other words. For example, they learn that “dog” is different from “cat” because dogs bark
and cats meow. But, sometimes children don’t mind using the same word for different things.
For example, a child might call both a ball and a moon “round,” which shows that they don’t
always follow the contrast rule right away.

Syntactic Development in Children

Syntactic development refers to how children learn to understand and use sentence structures.

1. Stages of Speech Development :

Holophrastic speech : This is when children use a single word to express a whole thought
(e.g., “water” meaning “I want water”).

Two-word stage : Children begin combining two words to form simple sentences like
“want water.”

Telegraphic speech : Children start using sentences with basic words but often leave out
small grammatical elements (e.g., “Mommy go store”).

2. Continuous vs. Discontinuous Theories :

Continuous theories : Some believe that children have an early understanding of

grammatical rules. For example, a child might know that “dog” is a noun and “run” is a verb
from the start, and their goal is to match words to the right categories and rules.

Discontinuous theories : Others believe that early multi-word sentences don’t follow adult
grammar rules. Instead, they think children learn rules gradually as they interact with
language.
3. How Do Children Learn Syntactic Categories (e.g., noun, verb)?

Understanding how children figure out which words are nouns, verbs, or adjectives is crucial.
Some theories suggest that this knowledge is innate (inborn). For example, children might
instinctively know that nouns are things (like “dog” or “ball”) and verbs are actions (like “run”
or “jump”).

4. Innate Knowledge (Nature) :

Semantic Bootstrapping : Pinker’s theory suggests that children are born with an
understanding of basic categories like nouns and verbs. They can use these to figure out sentence
structures. For example, if a child hears “Alex talked to Kim,” they know that “Alex” is the agent
(the one doing the action) and “Kim” is the patient (the one receiving the action). This helps
them understand sentence structure.