Buxeraud Léna, Lebrec Romane & Lebon Lisa
Language acquisition begin during pregnancy, so before come into the world. The fetus perceives sounds in utero. After 6 month of pregnancy, his hearing system is developed and he can make difference between his mother’s voice and another, thanks to rhythm and prosody (Pouthas & Jouen, 1993).
Before making any word, babies, in first months of living are able to perceive and participate to non-verbal communication. Indeed, infants are constantly in contact with adults who interact with them. Consequently, according to Zazzo, nurslings are able to imitate persons in front of them, like sticking their tongue back: this is part of “infants’ synchronic motor dance”, which reveals the beginnings of conversation situation (Condon & Sander, 1974). In fact, the baby and his spokesperson are interacting by chance to speak, which help the baby to grasp a typical conversation functioning.
From second month, infants start to make first vocal productions: they can laugh and shout joy screams. It is around five months that these capacities begin to be controlled by the nursling, and aren’t coincidence anymore (Florin, 2016). At seven months, these sounds progress and become babbling, in other words a sequence of consonants and vowels (e.g. babababa).
At 12 months, there are more babbling. Children start to use every day words (like “mum”, “dad”) in specific contexts (e.g. they reach out arms to mum or dad). Then, from 15 months, children can use several words to make a sentence: for example, they say “dodo” to signify the action of going to bed and sleep. Around 18 months, the child is able to associate two words together, in order to constitute a short sentence understandable by any adult, and not only by his close family members anymore (e.g. “caché doudou”).
Between 18 and 24 months, there is a language explosion. The child is able to exprim 300 words. At the same time, he used to opposite himself to adults and often said the word “no”. He is open to the world and ask many questions about his environment like “what is that?”, “why?” …
At 30 months, the child has a more elaborated vocabulary: he can make sentences with 3 to 4 words and a correct syntax (subject, verb and complement in French). At this time, those kids appreciate to read same stories every time, in order to become familiar to words of this story, and be able to use these in another context.
Key words:
Nursling: nouveau-né
Spokesperson: interlocuteur
Chance to speak: tour de parole
To grasp : intégrer
To babbling : babiller
Understandable by any adult: compréhensible par tout adulte.
Condon, W.S., Sander, L.W. (1996). The Dance of the Neonates. In:Introducing Psychological Research. London : Palgrave.
Florin, A. (2016). Le développement du langage. Paris : Dunod.
Pouthas, V., Jouen, F. (1993).Les comportements du bébé expression de son savoir ?Bruxelles : Mardaga.