Speech sound acquisition

From the moment children are born they vocalize. Refinement of this vocalization into intelligible speech takes many years while children's body structures develop, and their perception and production systems become more sophisticated and attuned to their ambient language. This chapter explores typical or normal speech sound acquisition. At the beginning of this chapter we consider the reasons it is important for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to understand typical speech sound acquisition, models of speech sound acquisition, and the research methods that have been employed to understand how children learn to produce speech sounds. The remainder of this chapter examines children's speech sound acquisition of English, from infancy to the school years. A comprehensive appendix summarizes data on speech sound acquisition of English.