When infants encounter infant speech

Over the past four decades, we have learned a great deal about how infants perceive and decode the speech spoken around them and directed to them. Yet we know very little about how infants perceive their own vocalizations or speech with the unique vocal properties of an infant talker. This leaves a serious gap in our understanding of infant language development. In this talk, I will present findings from a new line of research that begins to address this neglected aspect of infant speech development by exploring how infants perceive speech with infant vocal properties. The findings suggest that access to infant speech has a broad and significant impact—influencing receptive, expressive, and motivational aspects of speech development. I will highlight some of the valuable lessons I learned under the mentorship of James J. Jenkins that have steered me along this rich and exciting line of research.