Abstract
Bebeklerde Sözcük Ayrıştırma Becerisi ve Söz Varlığı Gelişimine Etkisi: Bir İnceleme
Language development and cognitive development are closely interconnected. In particular, vocabulary development in children below the age of three plays a significant role in determining their future learning capabilities. More specifically, the size of their productive vocabulary greatly influences their cognitive skills and academic achievement later in life. However, infants must first acquire the ability to separate words from continuous speech before they can begin comprehending their initial words. The ability to segment words directly impacts both overall language progression and vocabulary expansion. Hence, gaining insight into how infants begin and progress with word segmentation will significantly contribute to their vocabulary acquisition. In consideration of these factors, this work seeks to examine infant word segmentation from different perspectives through a review of existing literature to advance understanding of the topic. The research findings indicate that word segmentation starts around 6 months and continues to improve. Infants use prosody, phoneme distribution, and syllable transition probabilities for word segmentation. Exposure to high-quality linguistic input, especially infant-directed speech, strengthens these skills. IDS offers benefits such as exaggerated prosody and frequent word repetition, making learning easier for babies. Similar to eye contact, bonding between the mother and baby also increases the impact of IDS. In conclusion, it is apparent that intervention programs related to word development in infants should consider the findings of the word segmentation process.
Keywords
word segmentation, infant-directed speech, vocabulary development.
