An interesting robotic project, RobotCub, is using a small humanoid robot and a development cycle that attempts to mimic how a human child learns, including speech. The effort is open hardware platform with open source software.
..."The iCub robot develops its capabilities in the same way as a child, progressively learning about its own bodily skills and how to interact with the world, so that it is already able to insert various shapes into the corresponding holes in a box, sort nested cups and stack wooden blocks. Next, the iCub will be asked to name objects and actions so that it acquires basic phrases such as "robot puts stick on cube"."..more, pretty soon teenagebot wants the keys to the flying car, there
Baby Bot