Speech and Language Development Overview

Prosodic Features/Suprasegmentals

• Stress and intonation are suprasegmental features
• Prelinguistic stage is from 0-1 years old
• First words in speech emerge between 12-18 months.

What is Speech?

• Speech is a system linking meaning to sound
• Primary and first learned communication modality
• Language is an arbitrary sign system, with rules governing meaning conveyance within a linguistic community.
• Phonemes are smallest units of sound distinguishing meanings.

Morpheme Errors

• A child who never uses pluralizations ("s") is an example.

Syntax

• Ordering of words in sentences

Semantics

• Meaning of words

Articulation

• Affected by syntactic, semantic, and phonological factors.

Organs/Speech Production

• Respiratory System: Lungs, airways, ribcage, diaphragm; crucial for generating sound.
• Phonatory System (Larynx): "Voice box"; cartilage and muscles; produces voiced sounds.

Types of Phonetics

• Experimental Phonetics: development of scientific methods for studying speech sounds
• Articulatory/Physiological Phonetics: Focuses on how speakers produce sounds
• Acoustic Phonetics: Study of sound waves traveling from speaker to listener
• Perceptual Phonetics: Focuses on how listeners perceive speech sounds.
• Applied Phonetics: Practical application in various fields.

Phonetics of Speech Sounds

• Speech sounds' production and acoustic properties studied
• Written symbols represent speech sounds

Consonants

• Place of articulation (location of airflow constriction); manners (degree of closure)
• Voicing (vocal fold vibration); e.g., voiced /b/, voiceless /p/.

Distinctive Features of Vowels

• Articulatory characteristics present (or absent) to differentiate vowels.

Coarticulation

• Influence of sounds on each other in connected speech: anticipatory and retentive
• Assimilation- sounds take on features of surrounding sounds (e.g., key = lips retracted)
• Morphophonemics: a child's language error explained

Phonological Patterns

• Systematic sound changes simplifying speech production(e.g. Deletion, Substitution, Assimilation)
• Hodson describes "disordered phonology".

Articulation vs. Phonology

• Articulation: motor components of speech production.
• Phonology: broader concept including rules and patterns for sound use.

Suprasegmental Features

• Stress, intonation, and loudness add meaning to utterances.

General Stages of Phonological Development

• Stages from prelinguistic to stabilized/ mature phonological systems

Protowords:

• Phonetically consistent forms used by children that don't match adult words. These usually develop between 12-18 months.

First Words

• True words are stable, based on the language community, and progressive. There are regressive forms as well. These should develop beyond the "prelinguistic" phase.

Phonetic Development

• Researchers study phonetic development, observing children's sound productions over time or in cross-sectional studies.

Phonological Awareness

• Spoken recognition, rhythm, and syllable generation are components of phonological awareness. This typically starts developing during kindergarten.

Explore the fundamental aspects of speech and language development, focusing on prosodic features, morpheme errors, and articulation. This quiz covers key concepts such as syntax, semantics, and the anatomy involved in speech production, making it essential for understanding communication in early childhood.