From the mouths of babes: Toddlers' speech is far more advanced than previously thought

From the mouths of babes: Toddlers' speech is far more advanced than previously thought

June 14, 2013 — The sound of small children chattering away as they learn to talk has always been considered cute -- but not particularly sophisticated. However, research by a Newcastle University expert has shown that toddlers' speech is far more advanced than previously understood.

Dr Cristina Dye, a lecturer in child language development, found that two to three- year-olds are using grammar far sooner than expected.

She studied fifty French speaking youngsters aged between 23 and 37 months, capturing tens of thousands of their utterances.

Dr Dye, who carried out the research while at Cornell University in the United States, found that the children were using 'little words' which form the skeleton of sentences such as a, an, can, is, an, far sooner than previously thought.

Dr Dye and her team used advanced recording technology including highly sensitive hidden microphones placed close to the children, to capture the precise sounds the children voiced. They spent years painstakingly analysing every minute sound made by the toddlers and the context in which it was produced.

They found a clear, yet previously undetected, pattern of sounds and puffs of air, which consistently replaced grammatical words in many of the children's utterances.

Dr Dye said: "Many of the toddlers we studied made a small sound, a soft breath, or a pause, at exactly the place that a grammatical word would normally be uttered."

"The fact that this sound was always produced in the correct place in the sentence leads us to believe that young children are knowledgeable of grammatical words. They are far more sophisticated in their grammatical competence than we ever understood.

"Despite the fact the toddlers we studied were acquiring French, our findings are expected to extend to other languages. I believe we should give toddlers more credit -- they're much more amazing than we realised."

For decades the prevailing view among developmental specialists has been that children's early word combinations are devoid of any grammatical words. On this view, Cchildren then undergo a 'tadpole to frog' transformation where due to an unknown mechanism; , they start to develop grammar in their speech. Dye's results now challenge the old view.

Dr Dye said: "The research sheds light on a really important part of a child's development. Language is one of the things that makes us human and understanding how we acquire it shows just how amazing children are.

"There are also implications for understanding language delay in children. When children don't learn to speak normally it can lead to serious issues later in life. For example, those who have it are more likely to suffer from mental illness or be unemployed later in life. If we can understand what is 'normal' as early as possible then we can intervene sooner to help those children."

Welcome to SUV System Ltd!

SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences.

We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our years of professional service.

SUV System Ltd is Electronic Components Distributor Supplies,Find Quality Electronic Components Supplies Products IC(Integrated Circuits),Connectors,Capacitor,Resistors,Diodes,Transistors,LED at Suvsystem.com. Sourcing Other Energy, Environment, Excess Inventory Products from Manufacturers and Suppliers at Suvsystem.com

Electronic Components distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com

Connectors Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Connectors-1.html

IC Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/IC(Integrated-Circuits)-1.html

LED Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/LED-1.html

Capacitor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Capacitor-1.html

Transistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Transistors-1.html

Resistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Resistors-1.html

Diode Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Diodes-1.html

SUV System Ltd insists on the managing faith ofsincereness,speciality,foresight, win-win,so we build up stable-relationship customers located all over the world, including the States, Europe, Argentina, UAE, Malaysia, Australia,and India etc

we are focus on the following fields,and hope we can help you.

C1210F105K1RAC C1210F104M5RACTU C1210F104M5RAC C1210F104M4RACTU C1210F104M3RACTU C1210F104M3RAC C1210F104M2RACTU C1210F104M1RACTU C1210F104K5RACTU C1210F104K5RAC C1210F104K4RACTU C1210F104K3RACTU C1210F104K2RACTU C1210F104K2RAC C1210F104K1RACTU C1210F104K1RAC C1210F104J1RAC C1210E823K5XAL C1210E823K5XAH C1210E823K5XAG C1210E823K5XAC C1210E822K1XAL C1210E822K1XAH C1210E821K2GAH C1210E683K5XAL C1210E683K5XAH C1210E683K1XAL C1210E683K1XAH C1210E682K2XAH C1210E682K1XAL C1210E682K1XAH C1210E681J5GAL C1210E681J5GAH C1210E681F5GAH C1210E621G5GAG C1210E563K5XAL C1210F184M1RACTU C1210F184K5RACTU C1210F184K4RACTU C1210F184K3RACTU
http://www.suvsystem.com/a/2704.aspx