1) Language and speech development is a complex process that almost every human child succeeds in learning. It involves the development of language, communication of thoughts and feelings through symbols, and speech, the act of expressing thoughts through words. 2) Children progress through different stages in their first few years, starting with babbling, then their first words around 12 months, word combinations around 2 years, and simple sentences by 3-4 years old. Their ability to produce sounds also develops over time as they learn the phonetic patterns of their native language. 3) The development involves both biological and learned aspects. It provides insights into the human mind as children figure out the rules and structures of their ambient language through social interaction

1. Language and
Speech
development
Presented by: Maie Hilmy
Specialist of Psychiatry - Cairo University

2. Definitions:
 Language: Communication of thoughts
and feelings through a system of signals,
such as voice sounds, gestures, or
written symbols.
 Speech:
Speech The act of expressing or
describing thoughts, feelings, or
perceptions by the articulation of words

3. Almost every human child succeeds in
learning language
We tend to take the
process of language learning for granted,
language seems like a basic instinct as
simple as
breathing or blinking
In fact, it is the most
complex ability that a human
being will ever master.

4. Linguists in the Chomskyan tradition
Universal
core
A particular configuration of optional features
‘parameters’

5. Language is an
Instinct
Driven by specifically human
Evolutionary adaptations.

6. Many psychologists disagree
Language does not emerge from a unique instinct
But
Operation of general processes of
Evolution,
Cognition,
Social processes,
Facts about the human body
Language development is a window on the
operation of the human mind.

7. Developmental course of language acquisition
u Early auditory development:
Beyond the basic level of auditory processing,
infants appear to have a remarkable capacity
to record and store sequences of auditory
events.
Records input sounds
Replays them
Accustoms the ear to their patterns
Well before learning the actual
meanings of these words

8. Evidence
 Ifthe perceptual class of the stimulus suddenly
changes, the baby will brighten up and turn to look
at the new stimulus.
 Infants prefer the language that resembles the
speech of their mothers.
 Prefer their own mother’s voice, as opposed to that
of other women.
Suggests that, during the first eight months,
The child is remarkably attentive to language.
Although not yet learning words, but
acquiring the basic auditory patterns of his native
language

9. 1) Early articulation Exploration of
the
coordinated
Deaf use of the
D infants mouth,
I babble Lungs, and
H S much like larynx.
U T Hearing
Y
N R P children OR K
A DIT AC
G E AU DB
E S I FEE
R S N
BABBLING
Consonant Drift in the
-Vowel direction of the
CRIES COOING (CV) native
syllables language
0 3 6 9 12 Months

10. 1) The first words
Based on three earlier developments:
• Infant’s growing ability to record the sounds of
words.
• Ability to control vocal productions that occur
in the late stages of babbling.
• General growth of the symbolic function, as
represented in play and imitation.

11. The forms of early words often deviate radically
from the adult standard. Children tend to:
•Drop unstressed syllables, producing
hippopotamus as poma.
•Repeat consonants, producing water as wawa.
•Simplify and reduce consonant clusters,
producing tree as pee.
PROBLE
M IS
So many simplifications occur at once
Making so many words difficult to recognize

12. Throughout the second year,
child struggles with perfecting the
sounds and meanings of the
first words
For several months, the child produces
only isolated single words

13. 1) Word combinations
Child soon realizes the importance of
combining
Predicates (e.g. want, more, go)
Arguments (e.g. cookie or Mommy)
First step in syntactic
development

14. Child has to figure out how
This is also guided by earlier
developments in comprehension.

15. Example:
MILK MORE
More Milk
Child
gradually ARGUMENT VERB: Want
builds up
longer
sentences
Want More Milk
and more
complex
grammar
ARGUMENT I

16. 1) The child’s first sentences
 Allincomplete and ungrammatical.
 Include only the most important words, without
any of the relational glue.
?
Have not yet Know the ‘glue words’ but find it
learned the difficult to coordinate their
missing words production in the correct order
Children tend to be conservative and unsure about
how to use verbs productively until about age 5

17. SPEECH DEVELOPMENT
Begins to use two word phrases
Initial emergence of past tenses
Begins to learn the social uses of language
Begins to form subject–verb–object sentences
Begins to tell narratives
Development of ‘ed’ endings
20
2 yrs 3 4 5 yrs
months

18. TO SUM UP

19. Speech and language development (1).
AGE PERIOD DEVELOPMENTAL ADVANCE
Prenatal Functional maturation of hearing at about 5
months gestational age
Birth Ability to discriminate sounds.
Transition to breathing .
Vocalization begins.
Birth to 1 month Reflexive stage of phonetic development
(cries, hiccups, belches)
2 to 3 months Cooing stage
4 to 5 months Expansion stage (Remodeling of vocal
cords)
6 to 10 months Babbling stage. Vocalizations begin to
reflect the ambient language.
11 to 18 months Auditory discrimination of speech is tuned to
the ambient language

20. Speech and language development (2).
AGE PERIOD DEVELOPMENTAL ADVANCE
19 to 24 months Possess 10 to 20 consonants + sufficient
phonetic ability to learn many new words.
25 to 36 months Continued growth in phonetic inventory,
along with vocabulary and syntax.
Stuttering is often first noticed at
about this age
3 to 4 years Almost all vowels are mastered by this age,
along with a number of consonants.
4 to 6 years Closing in on phonemic mastery, with the
exception of fricative (noise) sounds.
Teeth fall.
6 to 9 years Phonemic mastery typically completed, but
refinements in speech production continue.
9+ years Speech development is complete, but
developmental changes can be observed
(E.G., Voice change in adolescence)

21. Language In
te
acquisition
us
ra
ct
t
ra
io
pa
n
be
ap
tw
l
ee
ca
vo n
ch
ith
ild
w
an
e
d
tic
pa
ac
re
nt
Pr
DEVELOPMENTAL s
PROCESS
+ opportunities for learning
Individual lexical items

22. DISORDERS
Language disorders:
 Expressive
language disorder
 Mixed receptive-expressive language
disorder
Speech disorders:
 Phonological disorder
 Stuttering