As the Brain Matures

Those who study child development have pretty much all agreed that infants in the first six or seven months of life are able to discern a wider range of vowel and consonant contrasts, which the ear later becomes incapable of picking up. When the word “split” is pronounced to an infant with a mute spot where the “p” should be (s-lit), they hear just s-lit. Adults have learned to tune out the mute spot, and their brains insert the “p” if the gap is long enough. Periods of silence within language, for the adult listener, cannot be comprehended and so we instinctively just fill in the gap. Why do we smooth over the interruption?