week three

6

Developmental Milestones

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to accomplish the following objectives:

• Describe the major developmental milestones in the first 6 months of an infant’s life, and explain the importance of early vocalizations to language development.

• Describe how the major developmental milestones of the 6-month to 1-year-old infant relate to language development.

• Describe the linguistic growth that occurs in the second year, especially the expansion of vocabu- lary, and explain the difference between speech delay and language delay.

• Explain how cognitive and physical changes influence language development in the third year as children leave infancy behind and become toddlers.

• Describe development between 3 and 4 in terms of what preschool teachers can expect children to be able to do.

• Explain the developmental changes that characterize children’s transition from toddlers to pre- schoolers during the year between age 4 and 5, and describe the linguistic foundation that has been established.

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CHAPTER 6Pre-Test

Introduction

On his first day of kindergarten, Kai is afraid. He hasn’t been to preschool, and he’s lived in the United States for only a year. He doesn’t know what will be expected of him, and he is nervous about being able to speak well enough to get by. Even though many children in the school he will attend speak his language, Mandarin, Kai doesn’t yet know this. His parents are worried that they have not prepared him for his new life in an American school. His language skills are good; he can read and write his own name and those of his family members in both his languages, and he has already picked up a lot of English in the community. Still, they worry. What will the school expect of him? Will he understand? Will he succeed?

As long as Kai has had a relatively normal environment, there is no cause for concern. We learned in Chapter 5 that much of cognitive development occurs before children are able to use language. Once they begin to acquire language, that growth is accelerated because language and cognition are intricately linked. Although most of the academic skills chil- dren need to succeed in school are acquired during the school years, about a third of those skills are acquired before the age of 6. Understanding the course of that development is necessary so teachers can create appropriate learning activities based on children’s devel- opmental stages. Every child is unique, yet in the development of language, there are more similarities than differences between children. In infancy, most children babble by the time they are 6 months old (Chapter 3). The first identifiable words usually appear before the first birthday (Chapter 5). Continued development generally follows a predictable course as well, although it would be a mistake to assume any child will follow an exact schedule. It is important to note, however, that although children reach different stages at different times, the order in which they progress through the stages varies very little. This consistency is due to the biological “equipment” that children bring to the task of learn- ing language and to the interrelationship between language and cognitive development.

In this chapter, we will look at developmental milestones in a child’s life from birth until 5 years. With examples from Kai and other children, we look broadly at physical, cog- nitive, and language development during this period. The exact age for any particular developmental achievement is somewhat arbitrary. The ages used here represent general tendencies across all children rather than a calendar or schedule for development. In each period, we begin with a general overview of physical, cognitive, and linguistic develop- ment before examining linguistic development in more detail.

Pre-Test

1. An absence of language precursors suggests

a. that the child cries too much. b. a lack of exposure to language in utero. c. auditory or cognitive problems. d. typical developmental markers.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.1 From Birth to 6 Months

2. The “dress rehearsal” for language is

a. cooing. b. crying. c. gestures. d. babbling.

3. Which of the following does NOT typically occur between 12–18 months?

a. Children’s speech becomes more recognizable. b. Children refine the meanings of the words they use. c. Children overgeneralize word use less. d. Children utilize full sentences in speech.

4. One linguistic difference between 2 year olds and adults is that 2 year olds

a. get the order wrong. b. are more self-focused. c. fail to include verbs in sentences. d. use fewer words in sentences.

5. Children are considered preschoolers at/between age(s)

a. 1–2 years. b. 3–4 years. c. 5–6 years. d. 9 months.

6. The acquisition of what we call the “first” language(s) occurs before age

a. 2 years. b. 4 years. c. 5 years. d. 7 years.

Answers 1. c. Auditory or cognitive problems. The answer can be found in Section 6.1. 2. d. Babbling. The answer can be found in Section 6.2. 3. d. Children utilize full sentences in speech. The answer can be found in Section 6.3. 4. d. Use fewer words in sentences. The answer can be found in Section 6.4. 5. b. 3–4 years. The answer can be found in Section 6.5. 6. b. 5 years. The answer can be found in Section 6.6.

6.1 From Birth to 6 Months

On the day he was born, Kai weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 21 inches long. He cried loudly, without any tears, and although his parents showered him with attention, he appeared oblivious to their attempts to comfort him. Over the next few weeks, however, they began to notice that he attempted to focus on their faces when they talked to him, and his mother was certain that his crying differed as he attempted to express different needs. The development changes that occurred during Kai’s first 6 months might have appeared to be minimal to a casual observer. But Kai was following the

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.1 From Birth to 6 Months

same course of development as every other normally developing human child. Changes occurring during the first 6 months of life aren’t easily observed, but there are very sig- nificant developments:

• Infants develop binocular vision, meaning that their eyes begin to move together in unison. This is especially important for their ability to see and form visual perceptions.

• They will produce tears when crying (newborns typically cry without forming tears).

• The swallowing reflex, which moves food from the front to the back of the tongue, is still immature until the latter weeks of this period; the same tongue movements will be important for language later.

• The Landau reflex will appear at around 3 months. This reflex is an instinctive reaction in which infants held in a face-down position will lift their heads and fully extend their legs. It is useful to keep a baby from smothering when placed face down. It disappears once the child has developed sufficient muscular control to no longer need it, usually around the first birthday. This reflex helps the child to strengthen muscle tone and refine motor skills necessary for sitting, crawling, and walking. Without this reflex, a baby placed on a blanket would only be able to move her head from side to side. Unable to raise her head, she would have a limited field of vision and be unaware of anything occurring above the level of the blanket; thus, her range of perception would be greatly reduced.

Although cognitive development is difficult to observe or measure during this period, there are certain indicators of what is happening. For example, Kai loved to play peek-a- boo, as do most infants. It is a way for them to begin to learn object permanence (i.e., that an object does not cease to exist when it disappears from view), and most cultures have

their version of peek-a-boo. In Japanese, for example, it is called inai inai ba. Between 4 and 6 months old, babies begin to realize that crying gets adult attention, and babies will begin to develop other ways of gain- ing attention—squealing or wig- gling, for example. Some infants appear to know their names by 6 months, turning toward the person who says it. They also begin to differentiate between familiar faces and strangers. In terms of language, the behavior at this point is not linguistic per se, but infants do exhibit behav- iors indicating important pre- requisites to language learning. These are the precursory behav- iors discussed next.

A game of peek-a-boo with Mom is not only fun but is helping this baby learn the concept of object permanence.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.1 From Birth to 6 Months

Babies are born with brains primed to acquire language. They have the capacity to distin- guish human speech from other sounds, to figure out which sounds are significant and which are not, where word boundaries are, and how words get strung together to make meaningful sentences. During the first few months of life, infants perceive and produce sounds. They also learn about events, objects, and relationships as they interact with the people around them. From birth, infants can hear the full spectrum of sounds produced around them. In terms of language learning, their task in the first months is to work out which ones are significant and which ones can be ignored. Eventually, they will learn to pay attention and to produce the distinctive ones—the phonemes—of the language or languages they hear (Chapter 2).

Precursors to Language

We tend to think of language acquisition as starting when the child clearly understands words—by pointing at an object named by an adult, for example. But language learn- ing begins much earlier than that. Some researchers argue that language learning begins before birth (see Precursory Language Behavior), and to some degree this is true. As we learned in previous chapters, there is an innate predisposition to learn language, and that is formed in the brain before birth. Also, some evidence indicates that children become accustomed to the rhythms of their mothers’ speech while in utero. Newborns’ crying has been found to mimic the prosodic features of their own language (Cross, 2009). However, crying is not language per se, nor is babbling. Both are precursors to language, and they are important because they are prerequisites to language learning. Their absence could signal auditory or cognitive problems that should be assessed by a physician.

Precursory Language Behavior

The capacity to acquire language is innate, and evidence shows that language development begins in utero. The fetus hears the distinct cadences, intonations, and pitches of his mother’s voice and, to some degree, other sounds in the environment. Evidence that fetal learning takes place includes the following:

• The newborn infant recognizes and shows a preference for the human voice above other sounds.

• The newborn will also show strong preference for the mother’s voice over other female voices.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina studied the behavior of children of mothers who had been instructed to read Dr. Seuss out loud while pregnant. In particular, they tested to see whether infants recognized Dr. Seuss stories and whether they were able to recognize their mother’s voice against other readers. Infants were able to do both, picking up on the vocal patterns they’d become familiar with in utero (DeCasper & Spence, 1986).

British researchers discovered that infants born to mothers who had routinely watched a particular soap opera during pregnancy were attentive to the theme music of the soap opera after birth while children whose mothers had not watched the program did not exhibit such behavior (Hepper, 1988).

What other kinds of behavior would you consider as evidence for fetal language learning?

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.1 From Birth to 6 Months

Babies do not lie silently in their cribs working out the sound system in silence, though. They cry when wet, tired, or hungry; they coo or smile when happy or amused; and these are forms of communication. These are precursory language behaviors which differ from language in two important ways. First, dur- ing these early vocalizations, they do not use any of the con- ventions of language in these communications. The second difference has to do with intent. During the first 6 to 10 months, infants’ vocalizations reflect states of being—discomfort or pleasure. These early vocaliza- tions are related to language learning and share characteris- tics of the language the children hear around them (Cross, 2009; Mampe, Friederici, Christophe, & Wermke, 2009). They represent affect (feelings or emotion) and changes in affect. Later with language, children begin to communicate intentionally (i.e., they are aware of and intend to communicate a particular meaning).

Early Vocalizations

Crying begins at the moment of birth and is the child’s earliest vocalization. Crying is not language, but it is important to note that crying appears to be differentiated in a simi- lar way that language is—different cries serve different purposes, even if the infant may not be aware of the distinction. Cooing begins at around 6 weeks of age, and it is at this time that the vowel sounds ahh, ee, and oo begin to appear. Cooing behavior serves as a rehearsal of the tongue movements that will later be necessary for speech. The earliest vocalizations—crying, cooing, and seemingly random acts of vocal noisemaking—can be thought of as warm-up sessions. At 2 to 3 months, the cooing and noisemaking appears to be random, but gradually this gives way to babbling with a more rhythmic or sing-song quality. By around 5 months, infants begin to make more complex and more organized sounds. They have begun to babble.

Although these newborns cannot yet speak or even babble, they can distinguish the human voice from other sounds. They can also communicate their needs vocally. Such vocalizations are a precursor to true language.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.2 From 6 Months to 1 Year

6.2 From 6 Months to 1 Year

This is a very active time in children’s development; it is the “doing” stage in which many changes occur. Physically, they grow rapidly and begin to develop mobility. Typically, babies during this period will • begin to roll over and crawl; • sit up, first with support and then by themselves; • pull themselves up to a standing position; • walk while holding onto furniture or a person’s hand; • cut the first teeth; • triple their birth weight (by the end of this period); and • begin to assert self by resisting dressing or undressing and feeding.

Babies during this stage also exhibit behavior that demonstrates their cognitive growth. They begin to

• imitate sounds and actions; • recognize words and simple phrases; • attempt to say a few words; • look for familiar objects that have disappeared from view; • respond to their own names; • point to familiar objects; • enjoy stacking things and putting things into containers; • show evidence that they remember familiar objects and people; and • anticipate routines, thereby also exhibiting memory.

At birth, crying is the principal vocalization that babies engage in. Gradually, however, their vocalizations become more language-like.

Babbling

If the earliest vocalizations are the warm-up, babbling can be thought of as “dress rehearsal” for language (see The Impor- tance of Babbling). “Although precisely how babbling relates to language development is not yet clearly understood, psychol- ogists and linguists have sug- gested that babbling serves at least two functions: as practice for later speech and as a social

Crawling is an important developmental stage; it helps infants develop muscular strength and large motor skills. It also provides a way of expanding their experiences.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.2 From 6 Months to 1 Year

reward” (Mihalicek & Wilson, 2011, p. 324). At first, infants’ babbling may sound like ran- dom noises with only a few of the sounds resembling language, but gradually the noises start to take on the characteristics of the language or languages around them. In fact, over the next months and extending into the stage when first words appear, it is possible to see steady growth toward real words.

By the time they are 6 months old, babies begin to produce recognizable syllables such as ba, ma, and da. Within 2 months, most babies will begin to reduplicate these sounds, creat- ing baba, mama, and dada. Many parents will hear these combinations of sounds as words, but it is unlikely at this point that babies intend any meaning. Rather, they are rehears- ing the sounds they hear and are beginning to differentiate those that correspond to the language around them from those that do not. During the final stage of babbling, babies begin to create two-syllable utterances (some of which may be words) by adding one syl- lable to an entirely different one, thus producing forms such as ma me. In most children, this final stage of babbling occurs around 10 months and is coincident with first words.

The Importance of Babbling

Although it is hard to say with any precision exactly how babbling relates to later language develop- ment, much of what we know about babbling in infants constitutes evidence that it does play an important role. We know that

• babbling gives babies practice in using the articulatory system—especially the mouth, tongue, and lips—that they will eventually use to talk;

• early babbling sounds pretty much the same all over the world; • children who are deaf do babble, but they tend to start a little later. If their parents sign to

them, they may start to “babble” with gestures; and • one of the first identifiable speech sounds is m, a sound that a contented baby can make while

nursing.

To hear different kinds of babbling sounds, go to the Weblinks section at the end of the chapter and find the link under “Babbling.”

First Words

Babbling is articulatory practice for producing real words, but using real words intention- ally to express meaning is a result of the categorization and concept development that has been going on since birth, as we learned in Chapter 5. The age at which children begin to produce real, intentional words varies, but it is usually around 1 year, although there is no cause for concern if the first words do not appear until 16 or even 18 months. Some infants simply take a longer time with warm-up and rehearsal, and there is undoubtedly a great deal of categorization conceptualization going on as well, learning that is important to language acquisition but which is unobservable. Whatever language the child speaks, the first words will be concrete content words (mama, cookie, doggy). That is because children’s first words tend to grow directly out of their experience.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

Researcher Margaret Harris and colleagues (Harris, 2004) studied four children from the age of 6 months until 2 years old to determine how their first words were used and, in particular, the degree to which they reflected their mothers’ use of the words. They asked parents to keep a word diary for each child, recording the use and context of each word. The researchers also filmed interactions between the mothers and children at 2-week intervals. Once they were sure that a child was using a word and not just babbling, they examined the mother ’s utterances over the previous month to discover how many times the mother had used the word and the context in which she had done so. Studying a total of 40 words, they discovered that in 33 instances, the child’s use was identical to the mother ’s, and in only 3 instances out of the 40 did the child’s use bear no resemblance at all to the mother ’s. In an earlier study, Harris had con- cluded that “78 per cent of maternal utterances to 16-month-old infants referred to objects on which the child was currently focusing attention” (Harris, 2004). Therefore, it is not surprising that children’s first words are so firmly rooted in their interaction with the world around them. These words are usually the names of familiar objects or persons—mama, daddy, nana, cookie, and jump. At this stage, the sounds of those words may be imperfect, as we saw in Chapter 3. Isabelle, for example, could articulate mama and daddy almost perfectly, but nana (for banana) left off the first syllable. Cookie was pronounced “kookoo” and jump was “yum.”

When children begin to use a word, often they will use it only in a single context. Margaret Har- ris gives the example of a child named James who “initially used the word mummy only when he was handing a toy to his mother and there only when pointing up to a picture on a frieze” (Harris, 2004, p. 85). Not all early words are used in lim- ited contexts, however. One of the most common examples is the word more, which children often use in a variety of contexts—to request another cookie, more milk, or the repeat of an activity.

6.3 From 1 to 2 Years The second year of life is a period of rapid cognitive growth. Children love to play hide- the-object games, and at the beginning, they will always look in the same place. They learn to pass an object from one hand to the other when offered a second object, and this ability, called crossing the midline, is considered to be a significant neurological develop- ment. Perhaps the most impressive growth of all, however, comes in the toddler’s devel- oping language.

Eager to learn to walk, this child gets some assistance from an adult. Walking and talking are similar in this way—a little assistance is useful but not required.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

12 to 18 Months: Vocabulary Expansion

Language lies quietly in wait during the first twelve to eighteen months of a child’s life. Though you can see only the merest hints of it in infancy, it grows like an air bubble submerged deep in the sea, rising and expanding until finally, somewhere in the middle of the second year, it explodes at the surface for all to hear. (Eliot, 1999, p. 168)

From the first birthday onward, word learning proceeds rapidly in both boys and girls, although as we saw in Chapter 5, the growth spurt usually happens about 2 months earlier in girls. Girls seem to understand and to produce more words than boys and do it faster. In later years, the boys will catch up, and they are busy acquiring other kinds of cognitive advantages at the same time. Not all boys will exhibit slower word acquisi- tion, nor will all girls excel; there is a wide range of normal.

At 16 months, Janet had a productive vocabulary of 24 words. By the time she was 18 months old, she could say more than 60. After that, her mother reports, Janet added words so fast that she gave up counting. During the 2 months in which she more than doubled her vocabulary, Janet was doing much more. Table 6.1 illustrates some of the changes that were occurring in Janet’s language. At 16 months, she showed a strong preference for open syllables (consonant-vowel CV), and her principle means of producing two syllable words was reduplication (the repetition of a sound seg- ment, particularly a syllable). We see that process in bottle, Mummy, Daddy, bubbles, and cookie, although not in window. By 18 months, however, this process almost entirely disappeared, and her pronuncia- tion more closely resembled adult forms.

Language production and learning typically pick up during the 12–18 month stage, especially in girls.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

Table 6.1: Changes in Janet’s use of selected words, 16–18 months

Word Pronunciation at 16 months Changes at 18 months

wheel wee-oh wee/wee-oh

bottle ba-ba ba -doh

gurgles (her teddy bear’s name)

ga-ga gur-goh

Mummy mum-mum-mum mum-mum

juice doo doos

no no no

daddy da-da daddy

bird buh buh

cat da (/dæ/) ka (/kæ/)

more mo more

go doe go

stop bop/top top

street dee teet

bubbles/water buh-buh buh-boo

window/door wee-moo win-oe (/wino/)

shoe doo soo

pie/cake/pudding by by

Janet da (/dæ/) shanet

cup guh gup

diaper dye dye-puh

cookie koo-koo cookie

Matthew (her brother) du ma-du

In this short 2-month period, Janet’s overgeneralization of words such as pie, bubbles, and window had disappeared as she refined the concepts those words represented. Other changes occurred during this period: Her vocabulary more than doubled, and her pro- nunciation became less infantile. She added a number of verbs such as jump, see, and go, and her pronunciation of her brother’s name changed from a single syllable to two, more closely approximating the adult pronunciation. At this point, it was possible to get an accurate measure of Janet’s vocabulary because her mother kept complete records of the words she used and appeared to understand. See How Adults Help Children Learn to Com- municate for a description of how vocabulary size is estimated in young children.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

How Adults Help Children Learn to Communicate

Different kinds of interactions are useful at different stages in a child’s development. Look at Table 6.2 and explain what each interaction helps the child learn.

Table 6.2: Children’s interactions, 0–3 years

Age Type of Interaction

0–6 months • Respond to crying and other vocalization with language. • Talk face-to-face so that baby can see facial expressions. • Talk frequently during baby’s waking hours, describing what is

happening as the child is being fed and dressed. • Name and describe common objects. • Respond to the baby’s expressions—laugh when the baby laughs and

express concern when he cries. • Recite rhymes and sing songs. • Hang photographs where the infant can see them, and describe what is

pictured. • Use both languages if either parent is bilingual.

6–18 months • Continue to respond to nonverbal vocalizations with language. • Continue to talk frequently in a conversational tone. • Continue to talk face-to-face so that baby can see expression. • Continue to name common objects. • Identify actions with verbs—running, walking, etc. • Point out attributes of objects—the big blue truck or the ball is round. • Introduce the notion of same and different and the appropriate

language—See, this cup is the same as this one. This Princess fork is different from the Mickey fork.

• Label and discuss feelings—I know you feel sad because Nana went home; Are you sleepy?

• Read short simple children’s books at bedtime and other times, if possible. • Encourage baby to turn the pages of books being read to him. • Concentrate on rhyming stories and games. • Encourage child to play with building blocks and other small

objects, thus helping to build hand-eye coordination and fine motor coordination needed later for writing.

• Ask baby to point to real-world objects pictured in books, on cards, or in photographs.

• Read the same story repeatedly. • Read aloud in an expressive manner. • Continue using two languages if bilingual. (continued)

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

Janet’s language development was typical of children her age, although it would be a mis- take to assume that every child learns in exactly the same way. For example, most children prefer the CV syllable during this stage, but VC syllables are not uncommon. As shown in Table 6.1, children during the 16–18 month period begin to produce words that are more recognizable as they refine the sound system. They also begin to refine the meanings so that they, too, conform more closely to adult usage.

How Adults Help Children Learn to Communicate (continued)

Table 6.2: Children’s interactions, 0–3 years (continued)

Age Type of Interaction

18 months–3 years • Continue to talk frequently in a conversational tone. • Continue to talk face-to-face so that baby can see expression. • Expand the names of objects that are identified—light switch, garage

door, necklace, etc. • Continue to identify actions with verbs—running, walking, etc. and

expand to include adverbs—running fast, walking slowly, jumping high. • Point out attributes of objects—the big blue truck or the ball is round—

and expand the adjectives used—skinny dog, fluffy bear. • Ask child what the attributes are—is the bear big or little? • Deliberately use comparatives—Is this ball bigger than that one? or

Which boy is taller? • Continue to label and discuss feelings—I know you feel sad because

Nana went home; Are you sleepy? • Read children’s books with rhymes or short memorable stories, and

good colorful illustrations. • Use books with one or two sentences per page and continue to

encourage child to turn the pages. • Continue to read favorite books and stories, but try to introduce a new

one each week. • Encourage child to participate in reading process by asking, “What do

you think the Princess will say?” or “And then what happens?” This also helps to develop memory.

• Be attentive to what the child wants to talk about, listen and engage in conversation meaningful to him.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

18 to 24 Months: More Words and Beginning Sentences

For most children, and especially girls, the period from 18 months to 2 years is marked by very rapid vocabulary expansion. The words they learn will more closely resemble adult pronunciations, although there will still be many developmen- tal forms, or those imperfect pronunciations produced by children in the process of learn- ing the sound system.

Perhaps the most notable change during this period, however, is the emergence of sentences. Janet, the child represented in Table 6.1, produced her first two-word sentence at 18 months when she said “no nap.” In gen- eral, the sentences children cre- ate during this time are of five types, although not all children will produce all five types dur- ing this period:

1. agent performing an act 2. action affecting an object 3. location of object 4. person or object described 5. negative, plus action or object

Table 6.3 illustrates these five kinds of sentences with exemplars produced by Juan at 22 months.

Table 6.3: Juan’s first sentences, 22 months

Agent performing an action

Action affecting an object

Location of object

Person or object described

Negative, plus action or object

Doggie eat. Kick ball. Cookie there. Juan cold. No go.

Mommy jump. Hit ball. Doggie there. Doggie hungry. No Cheerio.

Baby cry. Get Teddy. Daddy home.

Drink milk.

Read book.

One of the most significant language developments of the 18–24 month stage is the emergence of sentences.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

Although the first two-word utterances tend to be of the type shown in Table 6.3, some children will begin to use two-word noun phrases in expressions such as bad doggie or big boom.

Usually, by 18 months, and almost always by the age of 2, most children will have a productive vocabulary of about 60 words, and many will have more. They will also have begun to combine them into sentences such as those in Tables 6.1 and 6.3. What about those who do not?

Language Delay

As discussed earlier in the chap- ter, Harris and her colleagues’ research revealed the concrete nature of mothers’ language with their children. In a follow-up study, the researchers compared mothers’ speech with their chil- dren whose language was devel- oping typically. These children’s speech was compared with the

speech used by mothers with 2-year-old children who appeared to be language-delayed. Language delay refers to language that is developing in the normal sequence but slower than expected. In a 2-year-old, language delay is assessed mostly on the basis of words produced, and is referred to as speech delay (see Speech Versus Language Delay). In moth- ers of children deemed to be developing normally, mothers’ speech referred to concrete objects that the child was attending to 78% of the time. In contrast, in the speech of moth- ers of children deemed to be language delayed, less than 50% of their speech referred to objects to which their children were attending. When the researchers took a closer look at the way the mothers of children with typical language development referred to the objects, nearly half of the mothers’ utterances contained at least one specific object name. Mothers of children with language delay, however, made specific object references only 25% of the time. Moreover, these mothers were more likely to refer to these objects using generic names such as one or thing rather than specific names such as teddy or truck (Har- ris, 2004; Harris et al., 1988). So is there a direct relationship between the mothers’ speech and children’s language development?

Meaningful interactions with people that expose children to language—like story time—provide motivation for toddlers’ earliest sentences.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.3 From 1 to 2 Years

Speech Versus Language Delay

When a child is not speaking by the second birthday, parents may begin to worry that the toddler has a speech or language delay. If they have another child who had begun speaking earlier, they are especially concerned. At that point, they might not know which, if either is causing the child’s failure to produce words. But there is a difference between a speech delay and a language delay.

Speech delay refers to a delay caused by a developmental problem with the speech mechanism—lungs, vocal cords, tongue, teeth, lips. Tracy, at age 4, could not accurately reproduce all the consonants of English. Shoe sounded like Sue but might also be confused with zoo or juice. In all other ways, though, she seemed normal. Her comprehension was excellent; she appeared to know a great many words and became frustrated when she was misunderstood or when people corrected her. When her parents took her for an evaluation, the speech therapist examined her mouth and determined that there was a simple physical reason for her pronunciation problems—the membrane under the tongue extended too far toward the tip of the tongue. A simple procedure called a tongue-clip remedied the situation, and after a few months of speech therapy, Tracy’s speech was normal.

Language delay refers to the condition in which a child fails to develop language abilities more or less on the developmental timetable outlined in this chapter. It refers specifically to a delay in the develop- ment of the underlying knowledge of language. Children with language delays are also likely to have speech delays, since the underlying system has not yet formed. Language delays can affect the compre- hension of language, the production of language, or both. It is a risk factor for other kinds of develop- mental delay. Both speech and language delay will be discussed further in Chapter 9.

It appears that the language-delayed children had a slower rate of word learning because they had less experience of the kind of concrete, object-centered speech than their peers. Why? One possibility is that there is a difference in language ability between the two groups of children, and the mothers adjusted their speech according to the responses they observed in their children. But a second possibility exists, namely that differences in maternal speech are responsible for the difference in language ability. Other researchers have confirmed that while children are greatly dependent on concrete language “input” as they learn their first words, they become less dependent on the nature of the input in later stages, presumably because later learning is more dependent upon internal cogni- tive development (Bloom, 1973; Dromi, 1987, 1993, 1999). We certainly cannot draw any conclusions about the causes of language delay from these data, but they do point to a strong connection between the language environment and children’s early language learning. This connection likely diminishes over time but probably extends well into the school years.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.4 From 2 to 3 Years

6.4 From 2 to 3 Years

Between their second and third birthdays, children leave infancy behind. They have begun to develop a stron- ger sense of self and to separate more easily from parents. They are capable of expressing a wide range of emotions, and frequently do, without being able to control those emotions. They may object to changes in routine. They are highly mobile with rapidly devel- oping large motor skills, and their play with other children seems to be more “parallel” than interac- tive. In other words, children of this age may play alongside each other, but until close to the third birthday, there is not much inter- action between the children. Dur- ing this time they

• climb on playground equipment, furniture, and up stairs with ease; • walk up and down stairs, at the beginning by placing both feet on each step and

then by alternating feet and holding onto a rail, hand, or wall; • run easily; • pedal a tricycle; and • maintain balance while bending over.

Their fine motor coordination has also improved, and during this year, they

• make vertical, horizontal, and circular strokes with a crayon or pencil; • turn the pages of a book; • build towers of six or more blocks; and • turn rotating handles and screw and unscrew jar tops.

Cognitively, children between 2 and 3 years demonstrate a great deal of growth and pro- ficiency as they play. They can

• match a real object with a picture in a book; • engage in make-believe with toys, animals, and people (girls may be better at this

than boys at this age); • sort objects by color; • complete puzzles with three or four pieces; • understand the concept of “two”; • make most mechanical toys work (boys may be better at this than girls at this age); • recognize and identify most common objects and pictures;

Parallel play—where children play near but not with one another—is common among children in the 2–3 year range.

Associated Press

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.4 From 2 to 3 Years

• know the difference between males and females; and • understand physical relationships such as those expressed by on, in, above, and under.

At this stage, observing the relationship between cognitive and linguistic development is easy. The appearance of personal pronouns corresponds with the growing awareness of self versus other, and the appearance of prepositions indicates their growing awareness of physical and spatial relationships. In general, children between 2 and 3 understand most sentences, say their name, age, and sex; and as they approach their third birthday, they speak clearly enough for strangers to understand most of their words.

Morphological Development and Longer Sentences

In the third year of life, children are very busy language learners. They continue to work toward mastery of the sound system, their sentences become longer and more complex as they learn to express more complex meanings, and there is marked growth in morpho- logical development. Suddenly, at around the age of 2, the negative, as well as the word mine, become very prominent parts of children’s speech. Parents will hear both no or not appended to almost any word in their children’s vocabulary as they become more asser- tive in expressing their views. Mine! demonstrates an awareness of self and asserts the child’s ownership and individuality. The vocabulary children use during this period will increase to between 50 and 300 words, and as words are added, there will be evidence of more abstract cognitive development. For example, a child who goes to the closet, retrieves mittens and says, “Me go bye-bye,” is not reporting on an action but expressing a wish, and the child who says, “No go bed,” is not expressing a reality but an intention.

Growth in the Sound System

Phonological development proceeds rapidly during this period, although there is still much to be learned. Children begin to master more syllable shapes; although CV syl- lables still dominate, consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) and vowel-consonant (VC) sylla- bles are not uncommon. Certain infantile pronunciations will remain because children at this age are not yet cognitively mature enough, nor are their articulators mature enough, to reproduce the sounds of the language perfectly. Instead, they simplify adult sound sequences to those they can manage. These simplification processes are not random but are governed by three universal processes:

1. Consonant reduction. This refers to children reducing the number of consonants in a syllable. The preponderance of CV syllables occurs, in part, because chil- dren reduce consonant clusters or even syllable-final consonants, producing, for example, cool or coo for “school.”

2. Assimilation. This refers to making a sound more like another one in a word. Assimilation is very common, especially in two-syllable words. When Janet pronounced doggie as gah-gee, she was making the first consonant more like the second one.

3. Substitution. This refers to replacing a difficult sound with one that is easier to articulate. An excellent example of this is the replacing of word-final /l/ with /o/ in words such as bubble (buh-bo) and little (lito).

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.4 From 2 to 3 Years

These processes and the forms they produce are perfectly normal and, in most children, will disappear between 4 and 5 years of age if not before.

Growth in Syntax

Within a month or two of the second birthday, most children will produce three- and even four-word utterances. Children are able to produce many kinds of meaning with longer sentences. Typically, they include the semantic relationships shown in Table 6.4.

Table 6.4: Semantic relationships in children’s sentences, 2–3 years

Semantic relationship Exemplars

agent action object Matthew eat cookie. Daddy chase doggie.

possessor possession place My cookie there. Mommy’s car here.

possessor possession attribute My hands dirty. Mia’s pool cold.

action attribute entity Go big pool.

action entity place See cake there. Bite me here.

negative agent action Me no go!

As Table 6.4 illustrates, although there are missing words (relative to the adult form), word order is generally consistent with adult word order. One of the major indicators of syntactic growth to appear during this stage is the appearance of questions and negatives. What this? may be the question parents hear most often from their 2-year-olds, and it is indicative of their growing ability to elicit new information and new words; it is evidence of their active participation in language learning.

Growth in Morphology

Before the age of 2, most children’s speech is devoid of grammatical morphemes (Chapter 2). We have seen how their vocabularies tend to be grounded in the here and now; and when their sentences consist of only two words, it is not surprising that grammatical infor- mation is left out. As they become more adept at creating longer sentences, however, they begin to show some grammatical awareness. One of the first grammatical morphemes to appear is the -ing, or progressive, morpheme followed closely by the first person posses- sive. It is not hard to imagine why these appear early. The progressive -ing morpheme is usually associated with action (Matthew jumping!), and the possessive is highly relevant to a toddler because it is used to assert ownership. Other grammatical morphemes may also appear in this period. Some children at this stage use the plural form on nouns, espe- cially in words like shoes, possibly because the plural is heard more often than the singular. The only plural inflection Janet used was the -s on shoes, and she used the third person possessive (“Mummy’s juice”) when she was 2 years, 7 months old (Piper, 2007).

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.4 From 2 to 3 Years

The first 3 years are a time of rapid language and cognitive growth. The quality of chil- dren’s interactions with adults can have a very positive impact on their learning. How Vocabulary is Measured provides some examples of how adults help children learn during this period. It is important that they do so because the next year will bring another period of rapid growth as the toddler transforms into a preschooler whose world will continue to expand.

How Vocabulary Is Measured

Estimates of children’s knowledge of vocabulary vary widely. Different researchers and psychologists report different numbers. Some of the difference is attributable to the confounding of productive and receptive vocabulary, but another cause is the different methods for estimating children’s vocabulary.

To measure vocabulary in adults, methods usually involve sampling—a person is given a list of 100 or more words and asked to mark those he knows the meanings of. The sample is deemed to be representative of the entire lexicon, or dictionary, and the researcher computes the resulting score into a proportion of the whole dictionary. Such techniques do not work well with very young children. How do we determine a child’s vocabulary? For the most part, researchers use parental reporting in one of two forms:

• Researchers use parental journals in which a parent keeps a record of everything an infant says and appears to understand. It becomes much more difficult to keep up as the child becomes more proficient.

• They also use parental report forms. These are similar to the sampling techniques used for adults, but with the parents doing the reporting. These tools include vocabulary estimators that require a parent to view a list of words and indicate which words the child knows. Depending on the mea- sure being used, the list can be very short or very long. In general, the longer the list, the more accurate the estimate is considered to be. See Weblinks at end of this chapter for more on this.

During this year before their third birthday, children make huge strides toward becoming proficient language learners. They will be far from perfect, but their developmental errors illustrate that they are actively acquiring the words, sounds, and sentence structure of their language. Take Oliver, for example. He is playing outside with his mother, when the following exchange occurs:

Mother : That spider has only five feet!

Oliver: Dat pider have fie feets!

Figure 6.1 breaks down Oliver’s language rules in progress.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.5 From 3 to 4 Years

Figure 6.1: Oliver’s language rules in progress

This figure shows that a very complex set of rules work together to enable Oliver to complete his sentence: Dat pider have fie feets, or “That spider has five feet.”

6.5 From 3 to 4 Years

During this pivotal year, the toddler transforms into a preschooler. The “terrible twos,” during which toddlers display frequent emotions, gradually subside, and children begin to show more control over emotions. The parallel play that younger toddlers engage in is replaced by a willingness and ability to play with others in small groups, and they begin to grasp the notion of turn-taking. Children of 3 to 4 have a greater sense of personal identity. In terms of their physical and motor development, they

• eat independently using utensils; • put away their toys; • undress themselves independently; and • dress themselves with a little assistance, in part because their fine-motor skills

have improved and they can snap, zip, and manage buttons with greater ease.

At the same time, their cognitive development is advancing quickly, and during this time, they

• understand and follow simple rules; • follow simple requests or commands, usually with little resistance; • recognize and name colors and shapes; • name almost all their body parts; • match sequences of three to six items;

Phonologically

• Replaces /th/ sound with /d/, which is easier to pronouce

• Reduces cluster /sp/ to a single consonant /p/

• Changes the syllable structure of five from CVC to CV

Morphologically

• Ignores 3rd

person form and produces have

• Adds regular plural suffix to feet, which is already plural

Syntactically

• Produces perfectly ordered sentence

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.6 From 4 to 5 Years

• count to 10 or higher; • understand the concept of same and

different; • comprehend opposites—up and down,

in and out, etc. • sort items by color, shape or size; and • categorize items according to function

(shoe and sock, plate and spoon, ball and glove).

During this year, it becomes increasingly evident that cognitive and language development are inter- dependent. Table 6.5 (in the next section) shows the principle differences between a 3- and a 4-year-old in language ability. Remember that these milestones apply to most children, but every child will vary somewhat from these expectations.

Children show rapid growth in all aspects of lan- guage during the year between their third and fourth birthdays. They combine words into longer sentences, conveying more complex thoughts and relationships. They gain greater control over pro- nunciation, and they show signs of learning the rules of morphology—plurals, possessive and past tense, for example. But perhaps the greatest change is in the expanded functionality of language.

6.6 From 4 to 5 Years

By the time Kai, whom we met earlier in this chapter, celebrated his fifth birthday, he weighed 40 pounds and had achieved considerable cognitive and linguistic growth. Like all typical 5-year-olds, Kai’s physical development included the following: • 20/20 vision (unless otherwise impaired); • improved coordination, especially apparent in skipping, hopping, and jumping; • better balance, allowing him to balance while standing on one foot with eyes

closed; • increased skills with crayons, pencils, and simple tools; • well-established handedness; • ability to color within lines; • ability to copy a triangle; • ability to spread with a knife; and he • may have begun to lose baby teeth by the end of this year.

Both the cognitive and linguistic development exhibited by a 5-year-old are profound; they are also difficult to separate given the tandem identity of cognition and language. We learned in Chapter 5 of the close link between cognition and language. In particular,

Learning to get dressed is a pivotal accomplishment in this boy’s development, marking both fine and gross motor coordination as well as increasing independence.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.6 From 4 to 5 Years

memory capacity and memory strategies are closely related to the ability to learn lan- guage. At age 5, Kai was much better at remembering and retrieving information, thus all aspects of language seemed to expand. His language was typical of other children his age. Like other children his age, Kai’s ability to learn new words and expressions seemed boundless during the year between 4 and 5.

Five-year-old children are becoming more social. They have friends outside the family, and they are better able to play with and integrate into small groups of children. Language learning continues, but from age 5 onward, it happens within a larger social sphere. With the structural building blocks in place, children begin to learn to use language appropri- ately in a wider variety of settings and for a broader range of purposes, as we will see in Chapter 7.

Bilingual Children

Before the age of 5, bilingual children have essentially acquired two first languages. This is not to say that all bilingual children will have achieved equal competence in both, but they have activated the same processes for learning them. To get an accurate measure of a bilingual child’s language development, it is necessary to evaluate both languages. For example, Sarah, at age 3, had an English vocabulary of around 600 words, which would appear to lag behind the norm (Table 6.5). But Sarah is bilingual, and in French, she had 600 or more words. Therefore, her vocabulary size is 1,200 words. Similarly, while she appeared to be confused by why questions in English, at age 4, she handled similar ques- tions much better in French.

In most instances, it is not possible to get an accurate estimate of the devel- opment of a bilingual child’s two languages. The number of variables makes it too difficult to estimate—all of the different ages at which learners begin the second language, the differ- ent languages and settings involved, and the different levels of profi- ciency achieved, but as we will see in Chapter 9, it is especially impor- tant to look at the bilingual’s total accomplishment, especially if there is any suspicion of language or speech delay. What we need to remember too, is that bilingual children have a cognitive advantage, as we saw in Chapters 4 and 5. If they appear to lag behind, this advantage will help them to catch up in the dominant lan- guage when the time is right.

These bilingual children may not have yet achieved equal competence in both their languages, but with proper instruction and some time they will catch up with their monolingual peers in English.

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CHAPTER 6Section 6.6 From 4 to 5 Years

Table 6.5: Language abilities, 3–5 years

3-year-olds 4-year-olds 5-year-olds

Speak clearly enough for strangers to understand.

Vocabulary of 1,000 words. Vocabulary of up to 2,000 words. Vocabulary of more than 4,000 words, growing to 6,000 words by end of this year.

Speak in sentences of three or four words.

Speak in sentences of five or six words.

Longer sentences with greater complexity.

Sing simple repetitive songs. Remember and recite rhymes and simple songs.

Repeat more complicated songs and rhymes.

May experience some difficulty in turn-taking in conversation. May change topics abruptly.

Engage in conversational turn- taking and can sustain one topic longer.

Follow directions and can give simple directions (e.g., “put your books away”).

Struggle with some word pronunciations, especially those with three or more syllables and with consonant clusters.

Have mastered most of the sound combinations of the language. May still have difficulty with consonant clusters.

Some consonant clusters and multisyllable words may cause some problems.

Ask questions with who, what, where and why but may not always be able to answer such questions.

Often able to answer who, what, and where questions, but may still have difficulty with why.

Can answer why questions. Ask more probing questions, addressing meaning and purpose.

Will overuse words such as because, but, and when.

Will still overuse because and show confusion in the use of because (e.g., “Mia hit me ‘cause she hurt me!”)

Increasingly self-correct.

May have some difficulty with appropriate use of before, after, and until.

Show better understanding of before, after, and until, but still have difficulty, especially with until.

Understand before, after, and until, and generally uses them correctly, but until age 6, may struggle with correct use of until.

Can do simple sentence combining to link ideas, mostly using and (“I eat my lunch and I eat it all.”)

Try to communicate beyond what vocabulary allows, creating new words or extending meaning of existing words.

Can recite full name, address, and phone number if taught.

Will resist talking in front of groups.

Will talk in front of small groups, with some reluctance.

More willing to speak in front of groups.

Is able to retell a simple story but may confuse the order or forget the point of a story, concentrating on favorite parts.

Can accurately retell a story with a sequence of four to five events.

Can tell a story and engage more meaningfully in conversation (see Chapter 7).

(continued)

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CHAPTER 6Conclusion

3-year-olds 4-year-olds 5-year-olds

Use more advanced sentence structures such as relative clauses (“Sheepy ate the pancakes that Nana made”) and tag questions (“It’s pretty, right, Mommy?”)

Have mastered some basic rules of grammar.

Most of the rules of grammar are in place. Can understand and use some passive constructions (“Sheepy got hit!” “It was ruined.”)

Show interest in written materials, especially books.

May be able to identify some written letters, and may ask what a written word says.

Often able to identify written letters and numbers.

Conclusion

Chapter 5 examined development from the perspective of cognition, but because language and cognitive ability develop in tandem, it was necessary to talk about language. In this chapter, we examined development more directly from the per- spective of language, although it is always necessary to contextualize linguistic develop- ment within children’s physical and cognitive development. In particular, this chapter examined the developmental milestones in young children’s lives with emphasis on the language learning that occurs between birth and age 5. Beginning with the precursory language behavior of infants, we have seen how children grow their vocabularies, learn to form sentences, and gradually become more proficient in understanding and using language. Language development in bilingual children under the age of 5 will follow the same path as in monolingual children, but their development is more properly assessed by considering both their languages. As we will see in Chapter 7, as children become more proficient with the “mechanics” of language, they are better able to acquire the social aspects of language. They are gradually learning how to use language for conversational purposes and how to construct narrative. These skills are necessary for their success in school and for establishing effective social skills throughout life.

Table 6.5: Language abilities, 3–5 years (continued)

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CHAPTER 6Post-Test

Post-Test

1. Precursors to language like cooing and smiling differ from language in that they

a. do not involve sounds. b. do not express affect. c. are not intentional communications. d. are not methods of communication.

2. Which of the following skills does NOT typically develop between 6 months and the end of the first year of life?

a. pull up to standing b. respond to their own names c. imitate simple sounds and behaviors d. say simple common phrases

3. Many children use assimilation with

a. one syllable words. b. two syllable words. c. three syllable words. d. four syllable words.

4. Syllable simplification occurs when children

a. reduce the number of syllables in words. b. eliminate consonants within syllables. c. ignore syllables that are tough to pronounce. d. use fewer words in sentences.

5. Socially, 5-year-old children

a. integrate into small groups. b. tend to play alone. c. engage in parallel play with other children. d. play in large groups of same-sex children.

6. Bilingual children

a. must be equally competent in both languages. b. have used the same processes for learning both languages. c. are measured in terms of vocabulary in only one language. d. can accurately be measured for competence.

Answers 1. c. Are not intentional communications. The answer can be found in Section 6.1. 2. d. Say simple common phrases. The answer can be found in Section 6.2. 3. b. Two syllable words. The answer can be found in Section 6.3. 4. b. Eliminate consonants within syllables. The answer can be found in Section 6.4. 5. a. Integrate into small groups. The answer can be found in Section 6.5. 6. b. Have used the same processes for learning both languages. The answer can be found in Section 6.6.

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CHAPTER 6Critical Thinking Questions

Key Ideas

• Precursory language behavior includes crying and cooing and is important because they help the child to learn the purposes of language and to practice using the articulators.

• Precursors to language represent feelings and emotions and are not intentional, while true language is both purposeful and intentional.

• Babbling is the intermediate stage between nonintentional vocalization and intentional language. It is the “dress rehearsal” for true language.

• First words grow out of a child’s experience and are concrete and referential, usu- ally the names of objects, actions, or people.

• Children simplify the sound system in regular ways—by reducing the number of consonants in a syllable, by making a sound more like another, and by replacing a difficult sound with one that is easier to pronounce.

• Interactions with adults are profoundly important to children’s preschool lan- guage and cognitive development, especially in the first 3 years.

• Language development in bilingual children must take into consideration their knowledge of both languages.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. What is the difference between precursory language behavior and true language? Why is it important?

2. Why should a preschool teacher be concerned about the difference between speech delay and language delay?

3. Consider these two sentences from Michaela: a. Age 4 years: “I miss you, Nana!” (spoken over the phone to her grandmother

who had returned home after a visit). b. Age 4 years, 6 months: “I’m going to miss you, Nana” (spoken in person to

her grandmother who was preparing to leave Michaela ‘s house to return to her own home).

What cognitive understandings lie behind Michaela’s first utterance (a)? In other words, what kinds of things does she know and understand in order to produce this sentence appropriately? Now, look at the second utterance (b). What addi- tional cognition is revealed? What kind of linguistic growth is evident?

4. According to the data in Table 6.5, a 3-year-old has trouble using words such as before and after appropriately. What can you conclude about the conceptual learn- ing that needs to occur before those words can be used appropriately?

5. A 4-year-old is “often able to answer who, what and where questions but may still have difficulty with why” (see Table 6.5). What might be the reason a 4-year-old has difficulty with “why” despite the fact that, at age 2 and 3, “why” would have been the most common question the child asked?

6. Look at the following dialogue between Domas and his father. Based on what you have read in Chapters 5 and 6, do you think Domas is closer to age 2 or 4? Answer in terms of cognitive and linguistic development.

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CHAPTER 6Key Terms

affect Feelings or emotion.

assimilation Making the sounds in a word more like each other (yellow becomes lalo).

consonant reduction Reducing the number of consonants in a syllable (stop becomes top).

crossing the midline The point at which an infant learns to pass an object from one hand to another, indicating a significant neurological development.

language delay Language that is devel- oping in the normal sequence but slower than would be expected.

Domas: Want kookoo.

Father: You want what?

Domas: Kookoo. Want kookoo.

Father: [Hands him a stuffed toy] You want Kitty?

Domas: No! Kookoo.

Father: Show me.

Domas: [Goes to pantry and tries to open door] There.

Father: Oh, you want something in there?

Domas: Yep.

Father: [Opens pantry] Show me.

Domas: [Points toward a box] Dat!

Father: Oh, you want a cookie!

Domas: Yep. Kookoo.

7. If a bilingual 4-year-old uses casa in an English sentence and doggie in a Spanish sentence, is this cause for concern? What does it tell you about bilingual language acquisition?

8. What is the importance of interaction with adults for children’s language development?

Key Terms

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CHAPTER 6Weblinks

Weblinks

For an overview of child development, see http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/1874.asp http://www.wvdhhr.org/birth23/milestones.asp http://www.dimensionsfoundation.org/media/Develomental_Milestones_3to5.pdf

Forms of peek-a-boo are seen in many cultures around the globe. To see how it is played in Japan visit http://www.worldofjapan.net/2011/05/inai-inai-ba-peekaboo/

For an overview of the stages of language acquisition, see http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-lang_acq.cfm

More on estimating vocabulary size is available at http://babylab.psy.ox.ac.uk/research/oxford-cdi/vocabulary-size-estimator-1

For more on speech and language delay and disorder, see http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/speech.htm

precursory language behavior Infant vocalization such as crying and cooing, more related to emotional state than to intention to communicate.

simplification processes The processes by which children simplify pronunciation to forms their immature articulators can manage. These include consonant reduc- tion, assimilation, and substitution.

speech delay A delay caused by a developmental problem with the speech mechanism—lungs, vocal cords, tongue, teeth, lips.

substitution Replacing a difficult sound with an easier one (juice becomes du or dus).

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