Language Comprehension in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

Infants and toddlers grow up in a variety of language environments—for example, some are monolingual and some are bilingual—but nearly all children develop the ability to understand the language(s) around them. In this chapter, we trace children's path to language comprehension, from listening in infancy, to phonetic perception, speech segmentation, word learning, vocabulary development, and finally understanding language in real time. For both monolinguals and bilinguals, developing fluency in language comprehension in infancy and toddlerhood sets the stage for later language and school success.