Phonological development : the origins of language in the child /

This is a complete, up-to-date, principled review of literature and research on children's acquisition of the sound system of their native language, interpreted and discussed in both historical and theoretical frameworks. Vihman (Univ. of Wales--Bangor) examines the acquisition of language sounds from a broad range of viewpoints; she covers both perception and production in children from birth through elementary-school age, relates the learning of sounds to other types of learning, and includes morphology and prosody. She is especially careful to look at data from many languages besides English and to consider individual differences. A particularly interesting chapter discusses the relationship between the acquisition of phonology and learning to read. Well organized and well written, with informative chapter summaries, figures, tables, and appendixes, this study is intended for readers above the undergraduate level. However, an early chapter covers relevant theories, past and present, making the book more accessible to readers not already familiar with this subfield of language acquisition. A necessary book for libraries where faculty and/or graduate students from fields such as linguistics, psychology, and pedagogy want up-to-date information about this area of child language acquisition. L. Bebout University of Windsor