An integrative-interactive approach to speech development

• Applicant: Dr. Susanne Fuchs
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 548508044

The first two years of life are crucial for speech acquisition from vegetative sounds to babbling to the first words. For decades, empirical studies on infants’ productions have relied on phonetic transcriptions, which have provided crucial insights, yet insufficient information on the underlying articulatory controls before infants attune their productions their native language. This important limitation does not only impede theoretical advances of typical language acquisition, but it also clouds our understanding of the most critical aspects of speech-motor development. The first two years are also essential for the co-development of perception and production-related abilities. We consider that speech acquisition is shaped by multi-faceted interactions between sensory, motor, cognitive and language-related abilities. While theoretical models infer predictions about how infants' speech motor organization matures over time, there is limited empirical evidence for the development of tongue control and its interplay with other speech articulators. The coordination of the upper vocal tract with respiratory activity also plays a pivotal role in speech development but has rarely been considered. Within this context, the overarching objective of VOC2SPEAK is to illuminate the early development of speech-motor coordination and its interactions with attention, lexical and phonological development from longitudinal and cross-sectional perspectives. We focus on infants growing up in a French- or German-speaking environment. The complementary expertise within the team will be leveraged across three key work packages, in which we aim to explore: 1. The emerging coordination among diverse articulatory mechanisms, with special emphasis on the involvement of the respiratory system as a pivotal component. 2. The interplay between attentional dynamics, examining how infants’ shifts in attention from the eyes to the mouth of the interlocutor and how it may influence infants’ production-related abilities. 3. Methodological advancements from manual to automatic data processing and analyses aimed at enriching our investigative approaches. VOC2SPEAK integrates cutting-edge technologies such as ultrasound imaging, eye-gaze tracking and techniques measuring respiration to investigate typically developing infants. We will employ novel routines inspired by recent computational advances because they will facilitate replicability and knowledge sharing within the research community. The crosslinguistic comparisons will allow us to disentangle unspecific and language-specific properties, with a focus on the development of segments and prosody. The findings drawn from this project will substantiate an integrative-interactive approach to speech development. Providing essential, thus far missing pieces of the developmental puzzle, the findings will foster our understanding of typical development that can further inform education and clinical practices.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Sweden
• Partner Organisation: Agence Nationale de la Recherche / The French National Research Agency
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Marianne Jover; Aude Noiray, Ph.D.; Dr. Caterina Petrone; Dr. Amélie Rochet-Capellan; Dr. Marcin Wlodarczak