UC San Diego

A longstanding assumption is that children acquire language mainly from adult models, but newer research suggests this cannot be correct. Children experience a great deal of child speech as well, particularly across a broader sample of cultures. They enjoy listening to child speech. They can comprehend and learn from child speech. This chapter discusses acoustic properties unique to child speech; argues for its prevalence and importance as an input source to other children; outlines an account that children recognize speech contingent on the speaker’s age and identity; and discusses some outstanding questions about children’s comprehension of and learning from child speech. The goal is to convince readers that there is an enormous gap in our knowledge of a major component of children’s language input, which shapes both child comprehension and production.