Speech Sound Aquisition in Young Children

» speechteacher - Intelligibility

What are the characteristics for "babytalk?"

-- posted by speechteacher

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» schatze - the characteristics of babytalk

Hi speechteacher!!

Where to start!!!! Um, first I want to say babytalk is very important. Some speech therapists feel that one should not engage in babytalk back and forth with young babies, however, I disagree.... If it is playful in nature and does not last more than a few months after a child is first born, I see nothing wrong with it. They coo- I coo back. I think most therapists get concerned however, when this "goo goo gah gah", "whad a widdle baby wanna doosy woosy" stuff continues when a child should be learning to make real sounds and then how to make those sounds in words.

Professionally and as a mom myself, there are many things infants do and listen for during "babytalk" (I usually refer to babytalk as "babbling" which is an ESSENTIAL developmental milestone for all children to pass through). Babbling is how children learn to make sounds, understand volume and tone of voice, etc. Without it, they will not learn to speak well.

First of all, infants and young babies look at the movements of the lips and tongue and jaw even thought you might not even expect it. They notice how sounds are paired with the movement of the parts of your mouth as they move. I exaggerate sounds once in awhile for playfulness with my twelve month old and he imitates it for example. We do single sounds or short words, for example, like /V/ or "dog". Even if he imitates them and they are not exactly precise, each attempt brings him closer to the real thing.

They also check out your facial expression, tone of voice, loudness of your voice, the prosody or sing-songiness in your voice, the speed or rate of your voice and that they can get a response from you when they use their voice and vice versa.

It is through them actually vocalizing and "playing" with their voices and interacting playfully with others that they learn all about communicating. It is a known fact that children who are not interacted with vocally do not learn to speak well-- practice is needed just like with a piano. This is why my own personal concern in picking daycare providers/babysitters for my own children is that they interact with my children. Others say the same.

Vowel sounds are the easiest to produce so frequently you will hear these first- the cooing and ahhing. Then the simple consonants. Try getting them to begin imitating them-- usually this begins around 6 months of age or so, depending on the child. Then as the sounds begin to just spontaneously appear reiterate that you hear these by imitating them. You may not hear them make some of these sounds again for awile, but don't worry- it's like anything else with a child- it will reappear in a week or so.

Neurologically the infants brain is building itself at an exponential (spelling is right I hope) rate up to six months then it slows a bit, but if you keep interacting with the child, introducing new sounds yourself here and there, imitating sounds they produce here or there and then forming them into words, pretty soon by age two you are going "what have I created?". And that was a huge run-on sentence--- sorry!! Babbling is very, very important.

The only time I don't say this is when I see the preschooler and his mother in the grocery store doing babytalk and I want to scream "no, this is no longer appropriate for a kid your age" but usually I just keep pushing my cart past them. Parents need to know when it is no longer for them or their child to use babytalk and when real words and sounds are appropriate. And sometimes, kids just seem to keep the babytalk and it never improves DESPITE a parents best effort to be good models for their children. It is at this point that speech therapy may be warranted.

I hope I answered your question for you! Thank you so much for posting and please let me know if I can help you with anything else!

Thanks, Schatze Rasmussen, MS/SLP

-- posted by schatze

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» mykidzmom - great information!

Thanks for the helpful information on babytalk! Also, thanks for this article. One thing that made me feel a little better was your mention that children may not say the "y" sound properly until they are pretty old. My daughter is four and she doesn't say "yes" right: the "y" sounds quite odd. . . a cross between two different letters, I think. Anyway, thanks again!

-- posted by mykidzmom

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