SPA 3004 Exam 2 Study Guide
Early Speech Perception - correct answer-An Infants ability to devote attention to the
prosodic and phonetic regularities of speech
Prosody, stress, and intonation - correct answer-Prosody: Frequency, duration and intensity
of speech sounds
Stress: Prominence that is placed on syllables within multisyllabic words.
Intonation: Prominence placed on syllables in larger chunks of speech such as phrases or
sentences. (sing song way of talking)
Dominate stress patterns - correct answer-Stong-weak stress pattern is dominant in English
ex) Over, happy, impulse, produce (fruit)
Infants prefer this pattern over others= 9 months
Helps them parse words within a continuous flow of speech
Categorical perception of speech sounds - correct answer-The ability to distinguish between
phonemes and efficiently process speech
These categories are developed based on speech sound features: voicing, place, and
manner
perceptual narrowing - correct answer-When infants begin to focus on speech sound
differences that are relevant (9-10 months)
phonotactic regularities - correct answer-developing the ability to recognize permissible
combos of phonemes in your own language. Includes the phonotactic rules and regularities.
ex) str- and -ing
Allophones - correct answer-Subtle speech sound variations that occur within a language.
Occur naturally in language. Ex) pup- the two /p/ sounds are different in the same word, 1st
/p/ is more aspirated.
Voice onset time - correct answer-the interval between the release of a stop consonant (/p/
or /b/)and the onset of vocal cord vibration that follows it.
Semantics: Hierarchy of categories - correct answer-Superordinate: The most general of
concepts ex) food, clothing, furniture.
Basic: The level that develops first in an infant. Ex) apple, shirt, couch.
Subordinate: lowest level of category ex) granny smith, button up, rooms to go couch.
perceptual vs conceptual categories - correct answer-Perceptual: early categorization is
based on appearance, things that are similar in color, shape, texture or size. ex) able to
distinguish between a cat or dog
Conceptual: Categorization based on function, understanding what it does ex) stuffed vs real
animal.
, Early Vocalizations (order) - correct answer-1. reflexive vocalizations 0-2 months
2. Control of Phonation 1-4 months
3. Expansion 3-8 months
4. Canonical babbling 5-10 months
5. Advanced vocalizations 9-18 months
Reflexive/ Vegetative sounds - correct answer-Occur in the reflexive vocalization stage.
Include Burping, hiccuping. Also sounds of discomfort, including crying.
Marginal Babbling - correct answer-Occurs in expansion stage. Consonant and vowel
sounds with prolonged transitions.
Canonical, and reduplicated vs. non-reduplication, babbling - correct answer-Canonical:
producing more than 2 CV syllables in a sequence.
Reduplicated babbling: repeating or pairs of CV ex) ba-ba-ba
Non-reduplicated babbling: non repeated, varied includes multiple combos of CV
Jargon - correct answer-Babbling containing at least 2 syllables and at least 2 different
consonants and vowels, as well as varied stress. occurs in advanced forms
IDS - What is it? What are the main characteristics of IDS? What are the main Features of
these? - correct answer-Infant directed speech. Three main characteristics: paralinguistic
features, syntactic features, discourse features.
1) paralinguistic features: high overall pitch, exaggerated pitch contours, slower tempo.
2) Syntactic features: Shorter mlu, fewer subordinate clauses (and, buts, and those), and
more content vs function words.
3) Discourse: more repetition and more questions,
Phases of Joint Attention - correct answer-Birth to 6 months: Attendance to social partners,
start showing interest in people, shown through wiggle (excitement), caregiver
responsiveness is important
6 months to 1 year: emergence in coordination, interest in manipulating objects w/others
1 year and beyond: Transition to language
Intentional Communication - What are characteristics of it? What makes this important to
language development? - correct answer-imperative pointing: used to request an object 8-10
months
Declarative pointing: calls attention of others to object
Attention seeking to self, attention seeking to events, objects, others, requesting objects,
requesting action, requesting info, greeting, transferring, protesting, responding, informing
Beginning of communicating
Caregiver responsiveness - Is it important? Why? What makes it most effective? - correct
answer-Helps facilitate greater language development Helps sustain joint attention and
motivation to communicate.