Chapter 10 Flashcards
proto-conversations
interactions between adults an infants in which the adults tend to vocalise when the infants are not vocalising, or after the infant has finished vocalising
proto-imperative
occurs when infants point to an object and then alternate their gaze between the object and the adult until they obtain the desired object
proto-declarative
occurs when infants use pointing or looking to direct an adult’s attention toward an object
mirror neuron
a distinctive class of neurons that fire or discharge both when an individual executes a motor act and when they see another individual performing a motor act
speech stream
the undifferentiated series of words that are produced when we communicate
phoneme
the smallest unit of speech that can affect meaning
categorical perception
where perceptually discriminable stimuli are treated as belonging to the same category
reflexive vocalisations
the first sounds produced by infants, including cries, coughs, burps and sneezes
babbling
the first types of controlled vocalisations produced by infants typically between the ages of 4 and 6 months
canonical babbling
the usual, normal, or natural state of things. canonical babbling refers to babbling sounds made by the infant around 6-10 months, when vowels and consonants are combined in such a way that they sound like words
manual babbling
the manual equivalent of vocal babbling which is found in deaf children and hearing children learning to sign
modulated babbling
the final period of babbling and language play, which appears from around 10 months on and is characterised by a variety of sound combinations, stress and intonation patterns, and overlaps with the beginning of meaningful speech
syntax
the manner in which words and parts of words are related to one another to produce grammatical sentences: the production of sentences is governed by grammatical structures and rules
s-struture
the syntax of a sentence. however, one s-structure can have more than one meaning. in order to understand the intended meaning of a sentence, one must examine the d-structure
d-structure
the abstract representation of a sentence, or the actual meaning that the sentence is trying to convey
overregularisation
when a previously learned rule is applied in the wrong situation. for example, a child learning english might say ‘thinked’ rather that ‘thought’ because the child is using the regular past tense rule
overgeneralisation
creating a new verb by treating a noun as if it were a verb, for example ‘i am ballereening’
comprehension
in language development, the language children can understand, distinguished from production, which is the language they can produce. comprehension almost always exceeds production
overextension
extending the meaning of a word too broadly, for example using the word ‘bird’ to refer to birds, aeroplanes and hot air baloons
underextension
extending the meaning of a word to too few instances, as when a child restricts their use of a word such as ‘duck’ to situations in which the child is playing with a toy while in the bath, therefore failing to refer to the animals at the park as ducks
semantic system
a system that categorises words in relation to their meaning
