2 - learning to use sentences & Atypical development

Question 1

how many languages are there in the world?

Answer 1

over 5000

Question 2

what are the key components of grammar?

Answer 2

syntax and morphology

Question 3

what is syntax?

Answer 3

the organisation of words into large structures (sentences etc)

Question 4

how is children’s knowledge of syntax tested?

Answer 4

using novel words (e.g. point to where the lion weefed the dog)

Question 5

what is morphology?

Answer 5

the analysis of word structure

Question 6

what is inflectional morphology used to mark in English?

Answer 6

tense (walk - walked)
person (I walked, he walks)
number (dog, dogs)
possession (my dog’s bone)

Question 7

how can you test if a child understands the function of inflectional morphemes?

Answer 7

use a novel word
‘this is a wug, now there are two…’

Question 8

what is the development trajectory that children follow when developing morphology?

Answer 8

1. discover an inflection
2. over apply the inflection (I like mouses, overregulisation)
3. balance applying inflection productively and remembering exceptions

Question 9

what are some theories of grammatical development?

Answer 9

nativist approach: Chomsky
constructivist approach

Question 10

what is the nativist approach of grammatical development?

Answer 10

children cannot learn by creatively copying what they hear around them because of:
- the poverty of the stimulus problem
- the no negative evidence problem

so he proposed a universal grammar

Question 11

what is Chomsky’s universal grammar?

Answer 11

grammatical categories and principles used to generate the grammatical sentences of the world’s languages

it is proposed to be innate

Question 12

what is a criticism of universal grammar?

Answer 12

no complete account of what innate knowledge makes up universal grammar

little consideration of learning algorithms or child as social being

Question 13

what is the constructivist approach of grammatical development?

Answer 13

emphasis on learning

there is no poverty of stimulus nor negative evidence problem

grammar is learnable based on children’s capacity for statistical learning from social interaction

emphasis on social context and learning mechanisms

Question 14

what is a criticism of the constructivist approach?

Answer 14

no fully worked account of how different learning mechanisms interact to allow children to produce language based on what they have previously heard

Question 15

what are pragmatics?

Answer 15

the component of language whereby we vary linguistic forms according to people speaking to and context

Question 16

what do pragmatic skills involve?

Answer 16

• tuning into relevant context and common ground
• understanding communicative intentions and inferring what someone meant
• making multiple communicative moves in sequence during conversation and manage steady information flow

Question 17

how do children learn to tune into relevant context?: pragmatic skills

Answer 17

learning different referring expressions (saying ‘it’ or ‘the dog’ or ‘the big red dog’)

request for clarification help to develop this skill (‘which dog?’)

Question 18

when do children begin to combine words into sentences?

Answer 18

around 2-years-old

Question 19

what is evidence of querying intentions?

Answer 19

5-year-olds query why someone said what they did if it does not fit their predictive model of language
e.g. the horse with ears when its the only horse

Question 20

what is developmental language disorder (DLD)?

Answer 20

a language impairment that cannot be explained by hearing loss, other developmental disorders, or a brain injury and is causing a functional problem

Question 21

what makes the investigation and remediation of DLD difficult?

Answer 21

covers a number of heterogeneous sub-groups and child often have other difficulties (like ADHD)

Question 22

how many does DLD effect?

Answer 22

2 in 30 children

Question 23

what is sensorineural deafness?

Answer 23

hearing loss in the inner ear - the cochlear isn’t working well

Question 24

what is auditory neuropathy sensory disorder?

Answer 24

sounds are received normally by the cochlear but become disrupted as they travel to the brain

Question 25

what is conductive deafness?

Answer 25

sound can’t pass efficiently into the inner ear, often cause by blockages such as fluid in the middle ear (glue ear) while temporary can effect speech development

Question 26

how is deafness often identified?

Answer 26

newborn hearing screening - screens for sensorineural loss

Question 27

how do cochlear implants work?

Answer 27

convert sound into electrical signals and send them directly into the auditory nerve, doesn’t completely ‘fix’ hearing

Question 28

who uses cochlear implants?

Answer 28

children with severe/profound hearing loss that haven’t benefited from hearing aid

Question 29

how do deaf infants learn to communicate?

Answer 29

deaf infants with deaf parents learn to look to their parent more

hearing parents often struggle to support joint attention

Question 30

how does deafness affect speech development?

Answer 30

often a delay in early communicative development

Question 31

what are the consequence of language delay?

Answer 31

delays in pragmatics e.g. understanding deception or sarcasm can be delayed into adulthood

delays in social cognition - ToM

important to support children’s access to language

Question 32

why is pragmatic development affected by childhood deafness?

Answer 32

limited access to a fluent, natural language model, be it signed or spoken