They come in developmentally in the second half of the first year, before the child has developed single words. When words are added to sound, these variations of the voice are already in place to define syllables, phrases, words, sentence breaks and sentence types. Infants will babble and then jargon using the suprasegmental patterns of the languages spoken in their home. There is a hierarchy of complexity that influences the level of difficulty for early speech production. Spontaneous sound play without word meaning is the easiest for a child to produce.
Short sounds are easier than long sounds because they require less control of breathing.
There is a progression of difficulty in developing the consonants used in sound play and speech. The Songs Marvelous Mouth Music provides songs that support the child's development of movement, vocal play, oral play, sound play and exploration. Even though you they focus on specific opportunities for pre-speech development, adults need to remember that children learn best when they are having fun. Most typically developing children can enjoy the songs without specific attention to therapeutic activities. Other children who have sensorimotor challenges can benefit from specific activities from the following areas or modifications of the songs.