ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how speech and language therapists perceive speech and the development of speech perception in typically developing children and those with speech impairments. Real talk bears little resemblance to what might be written dialogue in a novel, for example. There are examples of sentences that are incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical. There are hesitations, repetitions and interruptions in anticipation of what might be said. Humans' understanding of speech is extremely rapid, and they identify words in context 200 milliseconds after they begin. They are helped to do this by the fact that information about the next sounds in words is already being conveyed in preceding sounds. At about 10–12 months the child can demonstrate understanding of words in context such as their name, ‘no’ and ‘bye’. Their speech perception skills have been finely tuned so that they focus on relevant bits of information about their own native language or languages, and ignore information that is less important.
