Individual children's different paths in first word learning

Although a baby’s first words are often relatively accurate, in the period that follows we typically find a ‘regression’ in accuracy, with the baby’s words tending to become more similar due to the emergence of one or more production routines or ‘word templates’. 

Our research investigates the ways in which these phonological templates first appear and later fade and how they differ according to the language that the baby hears around them, and how individual children may produce different templates even when hearing the same language. 

The evidences suggests that  each child is an active learner in a unique environment. 

• • Every child learns some words which are different from those that other children learn.

    • For example, their own name and the name of brothers, sisters, pets and favourite toys.

  • These words - which they will hear and want to use the most - will affect the specific sounds and sequences of sounds that they practice and are therefore able to produce early on.

The language the child is learning has significant influence on their first words. 

• • Languages differ in stress pattern, syllable structure, and the sounds they use, and children are very sensitive to what they hear around them. 

    • For example, English words are usually stressed on the first syllable, so this is the syllable a child is mostly likely to hear and try to produce. 

    • French words, on the other hand, are usually stressed on the second syllable, and French babies, therefore, tend to pay more attention to the final syllable of words.