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Related Experiment Videos

Silent mandibular oscillations in vocal babbling

R P Meier1, L McGarvin, R A Zakia

  • 1Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin 78712, USA. rmeier@mail.utexas.edu

Phonetica
|January 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Infants produce silent, rhythmic jaw movements, termed "jaw wags," alongside vocal babbling. This finding suggests a potential link between these non-vocal oscillations and early speech development in babies.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental linguistics
  • Speech-language pathology
  • Infant communication

Background:

  • Early babbling is often described as mandibular oscillation, creating consonant-vowel contrasts.
  • The role of non-vocal mandibular movements in infant speech development is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether infants produce rhythmic mandibular oscillations without phonation ('jaw wags').
  • To explore the potential relationship between these silent jaw movements and early speech acquisition.

Main Methods:

  • A longitudinal observational study of 14 infants (hearing and Deaf).
  • A parent survey of 90 hearing infants aged 4-10 months.

Main Results:

  • Seven infants produced speech-like, rhythmic jaw wags without phonation, sometimes integrated with vocal babbling.

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  • These jaw wags were most frequent between 8-13 months of age.
  • Silent babbles appear to be a common phenomenon in early infant speech development.

    • Conclusions:

    • Rhythmic mandibular oscillations without phonation ('jaw wags') are observed in infants.
    • Silent babbles may represent a significant, yet underrecognized, component of early speech development.