Reconsidering variability in child speech production

Abstract

Child speech is highly variable between and within speakers. This pattern has traditionally been explained by a lack of motor routine and articulatory control in the developing speech-motor apparatus. But the assumption that child speech is inherently variable—and the result of motor development and control—may be premature. Recent work suggests that some child speech variation may instead be attributable to errors in measurement: children's high fundamental frequencies make many traditional acoustic measures, such as formant tracking, unreliable and variable. Additionally, child speech variation can often be explained by experiential factors, such as the size of the lexicon or the type and quantity of language exposure. This talk will report on these and other recent findings that suggest a need to reconsider the prevalence of, and reasons for, variability in young children's speech.