The process by which speech is acquired in children and that can be demarcated into age-related speech milestones. More often than not, speech development is described as consisting of two processes: the production and mastery of phonemes and the perception or recognition of the acoustic cues for phonemes, but there are also phonetic features, syllables and words to take into consideration. The development of the production of speech sounds is a highly complex process, involving as it does the coordination of respiratory movements and articulatory movements of the larynx and vocal tract, the latter ones including as well the jaw, lips, tongue pharynx, and velum. The role of pre-verbal speech sounds (crying, cooing and babbling) in the development of speech continues to be a topic of much debate and divided opinions. Even if they are not necessary conditions for speech acquisition, then it is possible that they may facilitate the fine tuning of sound production in that they constitute a form of ‘vocal play’ for exploring the limits of laryngeal and pharyngeal movements.
See Articulation, Babbling, Babbling drift, Bilinguals, Categorical perception, Clicks, Cooing, Crying, Frames, then content (FC) hypothesis, Hand preference, Language development, Larynx, Necessary and sufficient conditions, Pharynx, Phoneme, Velum, Vowel-to-consonant ratio