When the baby is about seven weeks old he begins to show that he is aware of the sounds that he makes. Furthermore, he enjoys making them.
And such variety! With a little imagination you can hear Greek, Chinese, and Arabic in his babbling. The fact is, babies of all nationalities make the same sounds at this age. These sounds are the result of random activity.
Air passes from the lungs over the vocal folds, producing the laryngeal tone; this basic sound is shaped into every voiced sound in the English language—or any other language—by the activity of the jaw, lips, tongue, and palate. The sounds are made by random movements of these articulators, and seldom is the same sound uttered twice in succession.
Even at this age his “speech” is interesting. Of course his repertoire of sounds is quite different from that of adults, but you’ll enjoy observing that
- he uses a greater variety of sounds in his non-crying vocalizations than in crying
- he uses more nasal sounds in his crying than he does in his non-crying or contented sounds, and
- most of the consonant sounds that he produces are those made with the lips (such as the p and b, and a little later the m sound.)
This babbling or vocal play is important to the child’s development of speech, for it affords practice in articulation—in using his tongue, lips, jaw, and palate for the production of sounds. Later some of these sounds will be used in true speech.
