Perceptual Narrowing - Phoneme Distinction

Phoneme Distinction

At birth, infants have broad abilities to detect similarities and differences among languages. The phonemes of different languages sound distinct to infants less than 6 months of age, but as the infant grows and their brain develops, they become less able to distinguish phonemes of nonnative languages and more responsive to their native language. This is due to infants experiencing their native language often, while not getting much experience with non-native languages. Research suggests that this perceptual narrowing phenomenon occurs within the first year of life. Infants aged 6–8 months have a greater ability to distinguish between nonnative sounds in comparison to infants who are 8–10 months of age. Near the end of 12 months, infants are beginning to understand and produce speech in their native language, and by the end of the first year of life infants detect these phonemic distinctions at low levels that are similar to that of adults.