FIGURE 6.5 Percent of infants able to discriminate foreign-language speech sounds Infants’ ability to discriminate between speech sounds that are not in their native language declines between 6 and 12 months of age. Most 6-month-olds from English-speaking families readily discriminate between syllables in Hindi (blue bars) and Nthlakapmx (green bars), but most 10- to 12-month-olds do not. (Adapted from Werker, 1989)