Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Ahrens, A.
Early speech-language development: The role of canonical babbling
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit/Master Thesis (UNI) ] Medizinische Universität Graz; 2025.
- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Bartl-Pokorny Katrin Daniela
- Gugatschka Markus
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Canonical babbling (CB) is a crucial developmental milestone in an infant’s path to language acquisition, typically emerging between 6 and 10 months of age. While CB is considered as a potential early marker for detecting developmental disorders, no clinical application has been widely implemented to date. A comprehensive study on typical babbling development is essential to establish a foundation for identifying differences in infants with atypical language development. In this study, the vocalizations of a typically developing female infant were analyzed, based on 599 minutes of home audio-video recordings taken between 4 and 12 months of age. A total of 2,852 vocalizations were classified into eight canonical babbling subtypes by differentiating between single and multiple syllable vocalizations, conforming and non-conforming to the target language German, and rapid versus slow formant transitions. For each month and week, the CB ratio (CBR), the babbling length ratio, and the proportion of each babbling subtype relative to the total number or length of vocalizations were calculated. The analysis revealed a typical CB onset (CBO) at nine months of age and showed that babbling length analysis provided no additional insights beyond the CBR. From 32 to 46 weeks of age, multiple syllable vocalizations consistently outnumbered single syllable ones. At the age of 37 weeks conforming to target language began to be frequently observed. This study suggests that there may be distinct steps in an infant's babbling development, each with a specific onset. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to determine whether CB development follows a similar pattern in other infants.