Showing strength through flexibility: Multi-accent toddlers recognize words quickly and efficiently

Abstract

One of the great mysteries of language acquisition is how children cope with variation in their input. If one parent says pah-tah-to and the other parent says pah-tay-to, how does this affect a child's speech processing development? Past research suggests variableinput may have negative effects on the efficiency of multi-accent children'swordrecognition, leading to slower word recognition compared to mono-accent children, and even failure to recognize words in their parent's non-dominant accent. Here, were-examine speed ofwordrecognitionina large sample of Dutch-learning 24-month-olds (n = 96) who receive routine exposure to one versus two varieties of their native language.. We conclude that multi-accent children are equipped to flexibly adapt to their variable speech input, and show no language delay at 24 months of age. Contrary to earlier reports, we find no evidence that exposure to multiple varieties has long-lasting detrimental effects ontoddler's wordrecognition efficiency.

Keywords: Accent adaptation; Language development; Speech perception; Word recognition.