Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:59:42.402Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How to measure the onset of babbling reliably?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2011

INGE MOLEMANS ,
RENATE VAN DEN BERG ,
LIEVE VAN SEVEREN  and
STEVEN GILLIS
INGE MOLEMANS
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp
RENATE VAN DEN BERG
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp
LIEVE VAN SEVEREN
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp
STEVEN GILLIS
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Various measures for identifying the onset of babbling have been proposed in the literature, but a formal definition of the exact procedure and a thorough validation of the sample size required for reliably establishing babbling onset is lacking. In this paper the reliability of five commonly used measures is assessed using a large longitudinal corpus of spontaneous speech from forty infants (age 0 ; 6−2 ; 0). In a first experiment it is shown that establishing the onset of babbling with reasonable (95%) confidence is impossible when the measures are computed only once, and when the number of vocalizations are not equal for all children at all ages. In addition, each measure requires a different minimal sample size. In the second experiment a robust procedure is proposed and formally defined that permits the identification of the onset of babbling with 95% confidence. The bootstrapping procedure involves extensive resampling and requires relatively few data.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , June 2012 , pp. 523 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baayen, H. (2008). Analyzing linguistic data. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, K., Hardin-Jones, M., Schulte, J. & Halter, K. (2001). Vocal development of 9-month-old babies with cleft palate. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 44, 1268–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clements, G. (1990). The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In Kingston, J. & Beckman, M. (eds), Papers in laboratory phonology I: Between the grammar and physics of speech, 283–333. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Efron, B. (1979). Bootstrap methods: Another look at the jackknife. The Annals of Statistics 7, 1–26.Google Scholar
Fagan, M. K. (2009). Mean Length of Utterance before words and grammar: Longitudinal trends and developmental implications of infant vocalizations. Journal of Child Language 36, 495–527.Google Scholar
Heilman, J., Nockerts, A. & Miller, J. (2010). Language sampling: Does the length of the transcript matter? Language, Speech and Hearing Sciences in Schools 41, 393–404.Google Scholar
Hutchins, T., Brannick, M., Bryant, J. & Silliman, R. (2005). Methods for controlling amount of talk: Difficulties, considerations and recommendations. First Language 25, 347–63.Google Scholar
Klee, T. & Fitzgerald, M. (1985). The relation between grammatical development and mean length of utterance in morphemes. Journal of Child Language 12, 251–69.Google Scholar
Koopmans-van Beinum, F., Clement, C. & van den Dikkenberg-Pot, I. (2001). Babbling and the lack of auditory speech perception: A matter of coordination? Developmental Science 4, 61–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans-van Beinum, F. J. & van der Stelt, J. (1986). Early stages in the development of speech movements. In Lindblom, B. & Zetterstrom, R. (eds), Precursors of early speech, 37–50. New York: Stockton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landis, J. & Koch, G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33, 159–74.Google Scholar
Lynch, M., Oller, D., Steffens, M., Levine, S., Basinger, D. & Umbel, V. (1995). Onset of speech-like vocalizations in infants with Down syndrome. American Journal of Mental Retardation 100, 68–86.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Malvern, D., Richards, B., Chipere, N. & Durán, P. (2004). Lexical diversity and language development: Quantification and assessment. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molemans, I., Van Severen, L., van den Berg, R., Govaerts, P. & Gillis, S. (2010). Spraakzaamheid van Nederlandstalige baby's en peuters: Longitudinale spontane spraakdata. Logopedie 23, 12–23.Google Scholar
Morris, S. (2010). Clinical application of the Mean Babbling Level and Syllable Structure Level. Language, Speech and Hearing Sciences in Schools 41, 223–30.Google ScholarPubMed
Nathani, S., Ertmer, D. J. & Stark, R. E. (2006). Assessing vocal development in infants and toddlers. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 20(5), 351–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oller, D. K. (1980). The emergence of the sounds of speech in infancy. In Yeni-Komshian, G. H., Kavanagh, J. F. & Ferguson, C. A. (eds), Child phonology. Volume 1: production, 93–112. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. (2000). The emergence of the speech capacity. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oller, D. K. & Eilers, R. (1988). The role of audition in infant babbling. Child Development 59, 441–49.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., Eilers, R. & Basinger, D. (2001). Intuitive identification of infant vocal sounds by parents. Developmental Science 4, 49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oller, D. K., Eilers, R., Bull, D. & Carney, A. (1985). Pre-speech vocalizations of a deaf infant: A comparison with normal metaphonological development. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 28, 47–63.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., Eilers, R., Neal, A. & Schwartz, H. (1999). Precursors to speech in infancy: The prediction of speech and language disorders. Journal of Communication Disorders 32, 223–45.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., Eilers, R., Steffens, M., Lynch, M. & Urbano, R. (1994). Speech-like vocalizations in infancy: An evaluation of potential risk factors. Journal of Child Language 21, 33–58.Google Scholar
Richards, B. (1987). Type/token ratios: What do they really tell us? Journal of Child Language 14, 201–209.Google Scholar
Roug, L., Landberg, I. & Lundberg, L.-J. (1989). Phonetic development in early infancy: A study of four Swedish children during the first eighteen months of life. Journal of Child Language 16, 19–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowland, C., Fletcher, S. & Freudenthal, D. (2008). How big is big enough? Assessing the reliability of data from naturalistic samples. In Behrens, H. (ed.), Corpora in language acquisition research: History, methods, perspectives, 1–24. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Rvachew, S., Creighton, D., Feldman, N. & Sauve, R. (2001). Acoustic-phonetic description of infant speech samples: Coding reliability and related methodological issues. Acoustics Research Letters Online 3, 24–28.Google Scholar
Schauwers, K., Gillis, S., Daemers, K., De Beukelaer, C. & Govaerts, P. (2004). The onset of babbling and the audiological outcome in cochlear implantation between 5 and 20 months of age. Otology and Neurotology 25, 263–70.Google Scholar
Stark, R. E. (1980). Stages of speech development in the first year of life. In Yeni-Komshian, G. H., Kavanagh, J. F. & Ferguson, C. A. (eds), Child phonology. Volume 1: production, 163–73. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. (1989). Prespeech and early speech development of two late talkers. First Language 9, 207–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. & Otomo, K. (1986). Babbling development of hearing impaired and normally hearing subjects. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 51, 33–41.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. & Stahl, D. (2004). Sampling children's spontaneous speech: How much is enough? Journal of Child Language 31, 101–121.Google Scholar
van der Stelt, J. & Koopmans-van Beinum, F. (1986). The onset of babbling related to gross motor development. In Lindblom, B. & Zetterström, R. (eds), Precursors of early speech, 163–73. New York: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Woods, A., Fletcher, P. & Hughes, A. (1986). Statistics in language studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zink, I. & Lejaegere, M. (2002). N-CDIs Lijsten voor Communicatieve Ontwikkeling. Leuven: ACCO.Google Scholar