Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:29:26.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Speech-like vocalizations in infancy: an evaluation of potential risk factors[*]

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

D. Kimbrough Oller ,
Rebecca E. Eilers ,
Michele L. Steffens ,
Michael P. Lynch  and
Richard Urbano
D. Kimbrough Oller*
Affiliation:
University of Miami
Rebecca E. Eilers
Affiliation:
University of Miami
Michele L. Steffens
Affiliation:
University of Miami
Michael P. Lynch
Affiliation:
Purdue University
Richard Urbano
Affiliation:
University of Miami
*
Address for correspondence: Mailman Center for Child Development, P.O. Box 016820, Miami, FL 33101USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This work reports longitudinal evaluation of the speech-like vocal development of infants born at risk due to prematurity or low socio-economic status (SES) and infants not subject to such risk. Twenty infants were preterm (10 of low SES) and 33 were full term (16 of low SES), and all were studied from 0;4 through 1;6. The study provides the indication that at-risk infants are not generally delayed in the ability to produce well-formed speech-like sounds as indicated in taperecorded vocal samples. At the same time, premature infants show a tendency to produce well-formed syllables less consistently than full terms after the point at which parents and laboratory personnel note the onset of the canonical babbling stage (the point after which well-formed syllables are well established in the infant vocal repertoires). Further, even though low SES infants produce well-formed speech-like structures on schedule, they show a reliably lower tendency to vocalize in general, as reflected by fewer utterances per minute in recorded samples.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 33 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This work was supported by NIH/NIDCD grant No. R01 RC00484 to D. Kimbrough Oller.

References

REFERENCES

Bakeman, R. & Brown, J. W. (1980). Early interaction: consequences for social and mental development at three years. Child Development 51, 437–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnard, K. E. & Bee, H. L. (1982). Developmental changes in maternal interactions with term and pre-term infants. Paper presented at the International Conference of Infant Studies, Austin, TX.Google Scholar
Bleile, K. M., Stark, R. & McGowan, J. S. (1992). Evidence for the relationship between babbling and later speech development. Paper presented at International Clinical Phonetics and Language Association 2nd Symposium, London.Google Scholar
Bloom, K. (1977). Patterning of infant vocal behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 23, 367–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, A. E. (1991) Vocal development in hearing-impaired infants. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Houston, TX.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Boysson-Bardies, B., Hallé, P., Sagart, L. & Durand, C. (1989). A cross-linguistic investigation of vowel formants in babbling. Journal of Child Language 16, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiPietro, J. A. & Allen, M. C. (1991). Estimation of gestational age: implications for developmental research. Child Development 62, 1184–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eilers, R. E., Gavin, W. J. & Oller, D. K. (1982). Cross-linguistic perception in infancy: early effects of linguistic experience. Journal of Child Language 9, 289–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eilers, R. E., Gavin, W. J. & Wilson, W. R. (1979). Linguistic experience and phonemic perception in infancy: a cross-linguistic study. Child Development 50, 14–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eilers, R. E., Oller, D. K., Levine, S., Basinger, D., Lynch, M. P. & Urbano, R. (1993). The role of prematurity and socioeconomic status in the onset of canonical babbling in infants. Infant Behavior and Development 16, 297–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foreman, N. & Altaha, M. (1991). The development of exploration and spontaneous alternation in hooded rat pups: effects of unusually early eyelid opening. Developmental Psychobiology 24, 521–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friedman, S., Jacobs, B. & Werthman, M. (1982). Preterms of low medical risk: spontaneous behaviors and soothability at expected date of birth. Infant Behavior and Development 5, 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, S. (1978). Prematurity: effects on parent-infant interaction. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 3, 137–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, M. T. & Crnic, K. S. (1988). Longitudinal predictors of development status and social interaction in premature and full-term infants at age two. Child Development 59, 554–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, B. & Risley, T. R. (1981). Grammatical and conceptual growth in the language of psychosocially disadvantaged children. In Begab, M. J., Garber, H. & Haywood, H. C. (eds), Prevention of retarded development in psychosocially disadvantaged children. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Hart, B. & Risley, T. R. (1989). The longitudinal study of interactive systems. Education and Treatment of Children 12, 347–58.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. (1978). Two factor index of social status. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kent, R. D., Osberger, M. J., Netsell, R. & Hustedde, C. G. (1987). Phonetic development in identical twins who differ in auditory function. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 52, 64–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klatt, D. H. (1980). Software for a cascade/parallel formant synthesizer. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 67, 971–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans-van Beinum, F. J. & van der Stelt, J. M. (1986). Early stages in the development of speech movements. In Lindblom, B. & Zetterstrom, R. (eds), Precursors of early speech. New York: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological foundations of language. New York: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenneberg, E. H., Rebelsky, G. F. & Nichols, I. A. (1965). The vocalizations of infants born to deaf and hearing parents. Human Development 8, 23–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lickliter, R. (1990). Premature visual stimulation accelerates intersensory functioning in bobwhite quail neonates. Infant Behavior and Development 13, 487–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, J. & Pearson, D. (1990). Linguistic significance of babbling: evidence from a tracheostomized infant. Journal of Child Language 17, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynch, M. P., Oller, D. K., Eilers, R. E. & Basinger, D. (1990). Vocal development of infants with Down Syndrome. Paper presented at the University of Wisconsin 11th Annual Symposium for Research on Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Lynch, M. P., Oller, D. K. & Steffens, M. (1989). Development of speech-like vocalizations in a child with congenital absence of cochleas: the case of total deafness. Applied Psycholinguistics 10, 315–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nam, C. V. & Powers, N. G. (1983). Socioeconomic approach to status measurement. Houston: Cap & Gown Press.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. (1986). Metaphonology and infant vocalizations. In Lindblom, B. & Zetterstrom, R. (eds), Precursors of early speech. New York: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. (in press). Development of vocalizations in infancy. In H. Winitz (ed.), Human communication and its disorders.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. & Eilers, R. E. (1982). Similarities of babbling of Spanish and English learning babies. Journal of Child Language 9, 565–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oller, D. K. & Eilers, R. E. (1988). The role of audition in infant babbling. Child Development 59, 441–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oller, D. K., Eilers, R. E., Bull, D. H. & Carney, A. E. (1985). Prespeech vocalizations of a deaf infant: a comparison with normal metaphonological development. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 28, 47–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oller, D. K., Lewedag, V., Umbel, V. & Basinger, D. L. (1992). The onset of rhythmic babbling in infants exposed to bilingual and monolingual environments. Paper presented at Symposium on rhythmic vocal development at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Miami Beach, FL.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. & Lynch, M. P. (1992). Infant vocalizations and innovations in infraphonology: toward a broader theory of development and disorders. In Ferguson, C., Menn, L. & Stoel-Gammon, C. (eds), Phonological development. Parkton, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Papoušek, H. & Papoušek, M. (1982). Vocal imitations in mother-infant dialogues. Infant Behavior and Development 5, 176.Google Scholar
Papoušek, M., Papoušek, H. & Bornstein, M. H. (1984). The naturalistic vocal environment of young infants: on the significance of homogeneity and variability in parental speech. In Field, T. M. & Fox, N. (eds), Social perception in infants. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Poulson, C. L. (1983). Differential reinforcement of other-than-vocalization as a control procedure in the conditioning of infant vocalization rate. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 36, 471–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roug, L., Landberg, I. & Lundberg, L. J. (1989). Phonetic development in early infancy: a study of four Swedish children during the first 18 months of life. Journal of Child Language 16, 19–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, B. L. & Oller, D. K. (1981). A comparative study of pre-meaningful vocalizations produced by normally developing and Down's syndrome infants. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 46, 46–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steffens, M. L., Oller, D. K., Lynch, M. P. & Urbano, R. C. (1992). Vocal development in infants with Down syndrome and infants who are developing normally. American Journal of Mental Retardation 97, 235–46.Google ScholarPubMed
Stern, M. & Hildebrandt, K. A. (1986). Prematurity stereotyping: effects on mother-infant interaction. Child Development 57, 308–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoel-Gammon, C. & Otomo, K. (1986). Babbling development of hearing-impaired and normally hearing subjects. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 51, 33–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, J. F., Gilbert, J. H. V., Humphrey, K. & Tees, R. C. (1981). Developmental aspects of cross-language speech perception. Child Development 52, 340–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (1983). Developmental changes across childhood in the perception of non-native speech sounds. Canadian Journal of Psychology 37, 278–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zlatin, M. (1975). Explorative mapping of the vocal tract and primitive syllabification in infancy: the first six months. Paper presented at the American Speech and Hearing Association Convention, Washington, DC.Google Scholar