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When and how do infants learn to talk?

Introduction

The miracle of spontaneous acquisition of language and speech is almost exclusive to infancy and early childhood, and unlikely to reoccur at any other stage of the child’s or adult’s life. From the youngest age, the infant is drawn to the sound of the maternal voice, soothing him into calmness. More recent arguments suggest that the child learns to recognise the tone of his mother’s voice as early as in the womb, and once born, he will then be drawn to her voice. The infant takes joy in the rhythm of those talking around him, he will watch attentively to the movement of the mouth and he learns to love language before he is able to use it. It is this inherent attraction to language and sound that impels the young child to experiment with sounds and master the use of language. The following paper provides a description of how a child learns to talk.

The Process of Learning to Talk

Despite being a spontaneous processes of learning, language and speech acquisition requires attention, practice, exposure and cognitive functioning. For a child to learn to talk he must first be able to produce specific sounds and word related syllables. Furthermore, he must have the motor ability to negotiate the required movements of the mouth and lips, which enable him to produce the desired sounds. Also, the child must have the mental capacity to learn and make associations between sounds and symbols.

Until the age of 4 months, the infant is drawn to the sounds around him; he notices the source of these sounds to be the mouth (Montessori, 2002:110). The co-ordinated movement of the lips gives way to this music that holds his attention. Suddenly there is an awakening in his consciousness that encourages him to make attempts. These are expressed as gurgles and babbling trials, and he takes delight in the sounds he makes. After a couple of months of practice, the gurgles become refined into syllables such as ‘ma’ and ‘ba’. Although simple, these purposeful sounds have taken months of concentrated practice and attentive listening. This typically occurs around six months. The use and practice of these syllables lay the foundation for speech, encourages the child to communicate with others and makes him feel included in a social group. It is not until 12 to 15 months that the child will make his first purposeful word (Berk, 2003:364). At this stage the child becomes aware that the sounds he makes help him control his environment and deliver a desired response.

The child’s curiosity is now awakened as he begins to experiment with words and communicating his needs. However, now that the child has learned to produce the sounds, he must now learn to attach meaning to them. To begin with, a child will learn the meaning of words that are of greatest importance to him. These may include words such as ‘no’ and ‘juice’, which allows him increased control of his environment when spoken as commands or expressions of his will. He may also learn ‘early’ words that he associates with engaging in fun activities, such as ‘ball’. Acquisition of these and other ‘early’ words is often achieved through object association. At this stage the child will very often begin by pointing to an object that he has noticed, the carer will then name that object and the child will then retain it in his memory. Children will also learn through imitation. This is seen in the child copying the gestures and related expressions of their primary carer. A mother may, for example, ask a child, ‘what happened?’ following an accident. The child will then notice that this expression is spoken following similarly specific events. Gradually, he will begin to imitate this expression when situationally triggered.

Once the child has mastered the ability to produce the sounds and words, as well as attaching meaning to them, he must now build on his vocabulary and learn to form sentences. According to Berk (2003:370), children aged 18 to 24 months have reached a stage of rapid word acquisition and are typically found to learn 10 to 20 new words every week. The author refers to this stage as ‘fast-mapping’, where the child is found to, ‘connect a new word with an underlying concept after only a brief encounter’ (Berk, 2003:371). The child will now discover, not only new words, but that a word may hold more than one meaning, thus building on his vocabulary.

Simultaneously to the afore-mentioned stage, the young child learns to string words together to form sentences. This is the most complex phase of learning to talk. Children aged 18 to 24 months typically use one word sentences such as ‘no’ or ‘look’. With increased practice and building of vocabulary the child will then begin to string words together to form two or three words sentences, such as ‘no bed’ or ‘go car’. This stage is the marking a ‘talking child’. From age 2 onwards, the child explodes into excited speech where he is actively engaging in reciprocal conversation and is seen to continue developing his vocabulary and begins to master and absorb the grammatical constructs of his native language.

Conclusion

The absorption of language in the early years of childhood is truly a miraculous event and gives us insight into the motivational forces operating in the child. This driving force is possibly an instinctive knowing put in place to encourage the child to engage socially as a means of survival. Through the mastery of a series of skills, the young child is able to make sense of seemingly meaningless sounds, construct sentences and explode into vibrant speech. The now talking child is able to negotiate his environment, build relationships and gain a richer understanding of the world around him. However, this period of spontaneous absorption is so specific and limited to these early years, that if the window of sensitivity is missed, a child will then need to struggle to master a language.

Reference:

Berk, L. 2003. Child Development. 6th ed. Pearson Education: USA.
Montessori, M. 2002. The absorbent mind. Clio Press: Oxford.