Sunday 19 February 2012

How Do Humans Learn Language?


‘How do humans learn language?’


Babies start learning language at very early stage. The first sign of vocalisation is when they are 1 month old when they will make humming sound ‘ahh & oh’. At 2 months they will respond to cues and coo. Then at 6 to 8 months a baby will babble and makes vowel noises and imitate the sounds they hear such as ‘da, ma, ba, gaga and yaya’. Around the age of 11 to 14 months old they will start to say their very first words. By age 2 they will have starting building their own dictionary and say more than 10 different words. This will vary from child to child because the stages they learn will be different and it will depend on the amount of exposure they have to language.  

Initial baby talk is made up of single syllables, sometimes repeated twice e.g. ‘da da’. By 9 months they are using basic words like ‘no and bye-bye’ and starting to say a wider range of consonant sounds and tone of voice. By 18 months they can say 10 simple words and repeat words or sounds said to them they often leave off endings or beginnings of words like ‘noo-noo’ for noodles. By about 2 years of age they can string together a couple or words like ‘me milk’.







Love the Lingo - Book

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