Maturation of consonant perception, but not vowel perception, predicts lexical skills at 12 months.

Abstract

Consonants and vowels differentially contribute to lexical acquisition. From 8months on, infants' preferential reliance on consonants has been shown to predict their lexical outcome. Here, the predictive value of German-learning infants' (n=58, 29 girls, 29 boys) trajectories of consonant and vowel perception, indicated by the electrophysiological mismatch response, across 2, 6, and 10months for later lexical acquisition was studied. The consonant-perception trajectory from 2 to 6months (β=-2.95) and 6 to 10months (β=-.91), but not the vowel-perception trajectory, significantly predicted receptive vocabulary at 12 months. These results reveal an earlier predictive value of consonant perception for word learning than previously found, and a particular role of the longitudinal maturation of this skill in lexical acquisition.