Why Speech Therapists love Sound Words (Onomatopoeia)

Sound words (onomatopoeia) are words that echo the sound they are referring to like, “crack,” “vroom,” “buzz,” or animal sounds like “Mooo!”

Onomatopoeia appears more often in babies' first words than other word types, and research shows they do real work for language development too.

One study found that young children's ability to recognise sound words predicted their vocabulary knowledge, even after accounting for age and other language skills.

They’re great because they stand out in adults’ speech, are easy to say and have a strong sound-meaning link.

What are some ways we can include more sound words in learning?

1. Include sound words when reading books.
   You can easily bring in onomatopoeia with any book by sounding and acting out the actions or environments in which the stories take place.

2. Describe every day activities with sounds.
   For example, when bathing, you can describe the water with “drip, drop, slosh”.

While it’s great to sounds, it’s key to note that they cannot be a replacement for nouns and verbs. So it can be helpful if a sound word arises, (e.g. “Woof!”) to expand and make links intentionally, by saying, “The dog goes woof!”

References:

Han, M., Nie, Y., & Gu, Y. (2024). Sound effect, onomatopoeia, and iconic prosody in Chinese: Emerging vocal iconicity in child-directed speech and child production. Speech Prosody. https://doi.org/10.21437/speechprosody.2024-42

Laing, C. (2019). A role for onomatopoeia in early language: Evidence from phonological development. Language and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2018.23

Laing, C. E. (2019). Phonological motivation for the acquisition of onomatopoeia: An analysis of early words. Language Learning and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2019.1577138

Laing, C. E., Vihman, M., & Keren-Portnoy, T. (2016). How salient are onomatopoeia in the early input? A prosodic analysis of infant-directed speech. Journal of Child Language. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000916000428

Motamedi, Y., Murgiano, M., Perniss, P., Wonnacott, E., Marshall, C., Goldin‐Meadow, S., & Vigliocco, G. (2020). Linking language to sensory experience: Onomatopoeia in early language development. Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13066

Sun, J., Luo, H., Huang, Y., Jiang, Y., & Zhao, J. (2026). Onomatopoeia scaffolds early language development – Evidence from Chinese-speaking children. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-026-02153-4

Secondary reference:

Zanzinger, K., Bloem, M., Manesa, R., Berns, J. Click, clack, moo: The power of sound words in early language development

The Informed SLP