Dynamic interactions between perception and production: An integrated experimental and observational study

<p>Abstract copyright data collection owner.</p>How do children develop the basic knowledge and skills needed to begin to learn to talk? We know little about the ongoing relationship between emergent abilities to perceive speech and produce vocalisations (babble), and we also lack clear evidence regarding the relationship of those abilities to the concomitant onset of word learning and use. This study is designed to explore those relationships in a large sample of children, building on the known individual differences in the development of word recognition, consistent consonant production, and word production to test a model of the interactions needed to learn language. We will record 60 infants weekly, at home, from 9 months to about 12 months to track consonant mastery, then bimonthly until 16 months to record early word use. In addition, we will test the infants in the laboratory at 10.5 and 12 months on their ability to first recognise, and later segment from a short passage, familiar words (mummy, cuddle) in contrast to similar unknown words (balmy, nettle). Quantitative analysis of both production and perception data will provide a basis for developing and testing a dynamic model of first word learning that reflects the individually variable interaction of perceptual and production skills