interpret utterances

[NadeemKhan]

I found the following lines in a book named "Approaches and Methods of English Language Teaching".

The Englishman T. Prendergast was one of the first to record the observation that children use contextual and situational cues to interpret utterances.

What does it mean by interpret utterances? Does it mean speak words or something else?

Thank you very much

[Tukanja]

Probably to decide how to get/understand the utterance meaning.