| Language learning begins with
listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do
before they start speaking, and late starters are often long listeners. Most
children will "obey" spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though
the word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted
cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children
will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises. Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby's intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early form of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their store. This self-imitation leads on to deliberate imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech. It is a problem we need not get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation; and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at his seven months, of "mama" as a greeting for his mother can not be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and apparently meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents cash in on this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds. |