Longitudinal Changes in the Structure of Speech Categorization Across School Age Years: Children Become More Gradient and More Consistent.

ABSTRACT: A critical aspect of spoken language development is learning to categorize the sounds of the child's language(s). This process was thought to develop early during infancy to set the stage for the later development of higher-level aspects of language (e.g., vocabulary, syntax). However, many recent studies have shown that speech categorization continues to develop through adolescence. This work, which uses more sophisticated forced-choice tasks and stimuli that span speech continua (e.g., /b/ to /p/ in small steps) suggests that children show increasingly sharp category boundaries over development. However, this contrasts with the consensus view in adult speech perception that speech categories are graded and this may help listeners be more flexible. Here, our longitudinal study revisited t

SUBMITTER: Kutlu E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12583890 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature