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Article: Baby's first phonemes. (perception of speech) (Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- February 8, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Before infants utter a single meaningful word, their perception of speech sounds, known as phonemes, changes as a result of consistently hearing adults speak a particular language, scientists report in the Jan. 31 SCIENCE.
The new data indicate that certain consonant and vowel sounds act as ideal examples, or prototypes, of particular phonemes and foster the learning of one's native language during the first six months of life, maintain psychologist Patricia K. Kuhl of the University of Washington in Seattle and her co-workers.
Kuhl and a colleague previously found that prototypes of English speech sounds identified by U.S. adults draw preferential ...