Chapter Six: How babies and children learn words

Petit Sounds

In this episode, Héctor and Elaine explore nouns, how babies learn to identify them before being able to pronounce them, then eventually form the words themselves.

They examine the categories of words babies are able to understand at key development stages, and how those categories start off fuzzy – with “mama” meaning simply “woman” – and become clearer over time.

Also, Héctor shares his approach to helping children with their phonemic awareness.

Links

• Child Language: Acquisition and Development, by Matthew Saxton
• Priming overgeneralizations in two- and four-year-old children