Prespeech and early speech development of two late talkers

Speech samples of 34 children were analysed to determine patterns of babbling and early word productions from 9 to 24 months. The present study focuses on the vocal and verbal development of two 'late talkers' in the group who did not meet the criterion for achieving the Meaningful Speech Stage until 24 months. Analysis of these subjects' prespeech utterances revealed that one of them produced few canonical babbles from 9 to 21 months; the other displayed an unusual pattern of sound preference in his babbles. At 24 months, word productions of both late talkers evidenced more limited phonetic repertoires and simpler syllable shapes than those used by their peers. These findings suggest that atypical babbling may be associated with delays in the acquisition of meaningful speech.