8 Summary of Session 3

Babbling – whether spoken or signed – marks the beginning of children’s language production. It takes a lot of effort to work out how to produce the right sounds or gestures, and there are complicated pathways through the body to articulate language. Babbling already reflects the sounds of children’s native language and over days, months and years, children begin to home in on the language everyone else around them uses.

The first words they utter reflect what is important in their world and specific properties of the language they are learning. As well as learning how to put smaller pieces of language together to form longer sequences, children are also breaking apart longer sequences into shorter ones.

How we respond to all these early forms of language has a significant effect on their later language development. Caregivers do not just talk at children but with them, underlining the individuality and agency that children have to shape the way in which adults speak to them.

In the next session you will explore children’s comprehension and production of language further, and how they master the meaning of words.

You can now go to Session 4.