Developmental Aspects of Speech Perception

In order to comprehend and speak a human language, an individual must be capable of abstracting the many levels of linguistic information from the acoustic signal, and of performing the necessary mental and motoric activities for the transformation of highly abstract semantic intentions into an understandable physical event. When one considers the full extent of the linguistic knowledge and competence that must be available in order to be a fully competent member of a language community, and the speed and ease with which normal children acquire language, it becomes evident that the child brings to the language acquisition task some very special, perhaps species-specific, abilities to assist and hasten the learning process (cf., Chomsky, 1965; Lenneberg, 1967).