To learn language, children must map variable input to categories such as phones and words. How do children process variation and distinguish between variable pronunciations ("shoup" for "soup") versus new words? The unique sensory experience of children with cochlear implants, who learn speech through their device's degraded…

Children look longer at a familiar object when presented with either correct pronunciations or small mispronunciations of consonants in the object's label, but not following larger mispronunciations. The current article examines whether children display a similar graded sensitivity to different degrees of mispronunciations of the vowels in…

Examined the effect of regional accent on children's processing of speech. Children ages 4 to 7 were tested on their ability to repeat and define single words presented in their own and another accent. Word comprehension was significantly reduced in the other accent. Younger children performed less successfully and showed different error patterns…

The early and continued use of semantic, syntactic and contextual clues in recognizing mispronounced words was demonstrated in an experiment involving preschoolers, grade school students and college students. Errors in highly predictable words and contexts were most easily recognized by all regardless of reading ability. (PMJ)

Smith's 1973 model of articulatory phonological development between the ages of two and four is re-examined in an attempt to develop a model that includes the possibility of both perceptual and articulatory learning. Smith's data, regarding phonological transformations of words after rules established by his infant son's pronunciation of the words…

Research on child language acquisition should distinguish between different possible causes of variation and not just attribute variation to individual variation. An alternative analysis using a different methodology can show that children's patterns of acquisition are actually relatively similar. (Author/CB)