Question

Research about the ability of infants to distinguish human speech sounds indicates that:

a. young infants are capable of distinguishing only the sounds they hear in the language spoken around them.
b. the ability to distinguish all speech sounds increases as infants grow older.
c. there are distinct stages in the ability of infants to perceive different speech sounds.
d. infants gradually come to distinguish best the speech sounds of the language spoken around them.

Answer 1

Infants initially can distinguish speech sounds from all human languages but eventually specialize in the phonemes of their surrounding language(s) as they approach 1 year of age.

Step-by-step explanation:

Research about the ability of infants to distinguish human speech sounds indicates that infants have a robust capacity to perceive different speech sounds from various languages, not just those spoken in their immediate environment. Early in their development, infants can differentiate between the sounds of all human languages, including those beyond their own linguistic surroundings. However, as infants grow and approach the age of 1 year, their ability to distinguish between phonemes becomes more specialized to the phonemes present in the language or languages they are exposed to regularly. This developmental changeover suggests that while infants are born with an innate ability to process a wide range of phonetic sounds, their perceptual system becomes fine-tuned to the specifics of their linguistic environment as they mature.