FRIDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Unlike adults and older
children, toddlers do not listen to the sound of their voice to
correct their speech, a new study finds. Researchers had adults
and 4-year-old and 2-year-old children say the word "bed"
repeatedly while simultaneously hearing themselves say the word
"bad." This contradiction caused the adults and 4-year-olds to
change the way they said "bed" to something more like the word
"bid." However, the 2-year-olds kept saying "bed," the
investigators The findings, published online Dec. 22 in the
journal Current Biology, suggest that toddlers use a different
strategy to control their speech. For example, they may rely on
their parents or other people to monitor how they speak, study
author Ewen MacDonald, of the Technical University of Denmark,
noted in a journal news MacDonald pointed out that parents and
other caregivers often repeat back to young children what
they've heard them say. "As they play music, violinists will
listen to the notes they produce to en