Comprehensive Phonetics and Phonology – Speech Sounds, Articulatory Features, and Developmental Stages Practice Test

In early speech development, simple syllable shapes are more common because they require less articulatory control. At about 13 months, children are still expanding their consonant inventories and coordinating onsets and codas. A vowel-only syllable is the simplest unit—the nucleus without an onset or a coda—so it appears most frequently as the child’s vocalizations are vowels or vowel-like sounds. Shapes with a consonant before or after the vowel (such as CV, CVC, or longer sequences like CVCV) demand more precise articulation and sequencing, which are still being learned at this age. So a standalone vowel syllable dominates because it represents the easiest, most stable production available to a 13-month-old.