Chapter 5 Flashcards
Speech perception ability
The ability to devote attention to the prosodic and phonetic regularities of speech
Prosodic regularities
The frequency/pitch, duration/length, and intensity/loudness of sounds
Word stress
The prominence placed on certain syllables of multisyllabic words
Intonation
The prominence placed on certain syllables as they apply to phrases and sentences
Infants vs. Older children in phonetic regularities
Infants not yet learning words focus more on the phonetic details of speech, whereas older children focus more on learning words at the expense of fine phonetic detail
What does categorical perception allow?
It allows listeners to distinguish between phonemes so they can quickly and efficiently process incoming speech by ignoring those variations that are nonessential or nonmeaningful in their language
Detection of non-native phonetic differences happens until what age?
About 6 months of age
Perceptual narrowing
The process by which infants start to focus more on perceptual differences that are relevant to them and focus less on perceptual differences that are not relevant to them, or that they encounter less often
Phonotactic regularities
Permissible combinations of phonemes in their language
What does an infant’s ability to detect phonotactic regularities in their native language help with?
It helps them segment words from continuous speech
Our perception of speech is:
Categorical: we categorize input in ways that highlight differences in meaning
Voice onset time
The interval between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of vocal cord vibrations
By what age can infants distinguish between purposeful and accidental actions?
By 4 months of age - they learn to focus more on the goal and intention rather than the physical action itself
What is crucial for language development?
The ability to form categories
Three levels in the hierarchical structure of categories
Superordinate, Subordinate, and Basic
Superordinate level
The uppermost level; preschool age; describes the most general concept in a particular category (furniture)
Subordinate level
The lowest level; describes specific concepts in a category (coffee table)
Basic level
The middle level; describes general concepts in a category (table)
Perceptual categories
Forming categories based on similar-appearing features (color, shape, size, texture); by 3 mo they can distinguish between cats and dogs, and by 4 mo between animals and furniture
Conceptual categories
Forming categories based on what an object does
By what age do infants learn that their non-cry vocalizations elicit reactions from social partners?
By 5 months of age
What does the stage model (SAEVD-R) do?
It describes/classifies an infant’s vocalizations
What are the stages in the stage model?
Reflexive, control of phonation, expansion, basic canonical syllables, advanced forms
Stage model reflexive stage
(0-2 mo): reflexive sounds (fussing, crying, sneezing, coughing, burping)
Stage model control of phonation stage
(1-4 mo): vowel sounds, vowel-like segments with a consonant-like segment, nasalized sounds
- Cooing and gooing
- Combining vowel-like segments with consonant-like segments
- Isolated consonant sounds and raspberries, trills, and clicks
Stage model expansion stage
(3-8 mo): isolated vowel sounds and vowel glides; infants also experiment with loudness and pitch; may also use marginal babbling (an early type of babbling containing consonant-like and vowel-like sounds with prolonged transitions between the consonant and vowel sounds)
Stage model basic canonical syllables stage
(5-10 mo): begin to produce single consonant-vowel syllables (ba, goo); canonical babbling emerges; whispered vocalizations; CV combinations followed by an isolated consonant (ba—g), and disyllables (deaf babies babble too in sign language)
Stage model advanced forms stage
(9-18 mo): produce diphthongs, more complex syllable forms, complex disyllables, and multisyllabic strings; jargon
Reduplicated babbling
Repeating CV pairs (ma ma ma)
Nonreduplicated babbling
Nonrepeating CV pairs (da ma goo ga)
Nonreduplicated babbling is also known as
Variegated babbling
What form important early foundations for language development?
The quality and quantity of input infants receive (along with social interactions)
Infant-directed speech (IDS)
The speech that adults use to communicate with babies
Paralinguistic features of IDS
- High overall pitch
- Exaggerated pitch contours
- Slower tempo
Syntactic features of IDS
- Shorter MLU
- Fewer subordinate clauses
- More content words, less function words
Discourse features of IDS
More repetition and more questions
What are the three phases of joint reference and attention?
- Attendance to social partners
- Emergence and coordination of joint attention
- Transition to language
Joint reference and attention phase 1
Phase 1: attendance to social partners (0-6 mo)
- Receptive to interpersonal interactions
- Maintain attention when engaged with people
Joint reference and attention phase 2
Phase 2: emergence and coordination of joint attention (6-12 mo)
- Engage in joint attention (supported joint engagement)
- Perform object-focused activities
Attempt to communicate with other people
Joint reference and attention phase 3
Phase 3: transition to language (12+ mo)
- Incorporate language into communicative actions with other people
- Use language to communicate intentionally with others
Intersubjective awareness
The recognition of when one person shares a mental focus on some external object or action with another person
Two types of pointing and the ages
- Imperative pointing: requesting for an adult to retrieve something for them (10 mo)
- Declarative pointing: a social process used to call attention to or comment on objects (developed later than imperative)
The three early foundations for language development in infancy
IDS, daily routine, and caregiver responsiveness
Why is daily routine important in infancy?
Daily routines of infancy allow infants to encounter linguistic patterns and have opportunities to participate in joint attention with their caregivers
Caregiver responsiveness
A caregiver’s attention and sensitivity to an infant’s vocalizations and communicative attempts, which help teach infants that other people value their behaviors and communicative attempts
Seven characteristics of caregiver responsiveness
- Waiting and listening
- Following the child’s lead
- Joining in and playing
- Being face-to-face
- Using a variety of questions and labels
- Encouraging turn taking
- Expanding and extending
Phonology, morphology, and syntax in infants
- Phonology: infants produce sounds as soon as they are born
- Morphology and syntax are nonexistent
What are the three criteria to be a true word?
- Clear intention
- Recognizable pronunciation that approximates the adult form
- Used consistently and generalized to appropriate contexts
By what age do infants communicate intentionally?
By 8 months of age
What are the preverbal functions?
- Attention seeking to self
- Attention seeking to events, objects, or other people
- Requesting objects
- Requesting action
- Requesting information
- Greeting
- Transferring
- Protesting or rejecting
- Responding or acknowledging
- Informing
Expressive language
The amount of language an individual can produce spontaneously without imitating another person’s verbalizations
Receptive language
The amount of language an individual can comprehend (1-year-olds typically understand 80 words but can only produce around 10)
Expressive language learners
Use language primarily for social interaction
Referential language learners
Use language primarily to refer to people and objects
What do researchers use to measure infant language development?
- Habituation/dishabituation
- Switch task
- Intermodal preferential-looking paradigm
- Naturalistic observation
- Neuroimaging technologies
Habituation vs. Dishabituation
- Habituation: presenting the same stimulus repeatedly until the attention to the stimulus decreases by a predetermined amount
- Dishabituation: describes an infant’s renewed interest in a stimulus according to some predetermined threshold
Switch task
- Used in conjunction with habituation
- Switch between a habitual stimulus and a new one
Intermodal preferential-looking paradigm
The infant watches a split-screen
Directs more visual attention to the side where the action matches the sound
What technologies measure changes in the brain’s electrical activity?
EEG and MEG
What technologies measure changes in the brain’s blood flow?
fMRI and fNIRS
Clinicians use?
- Informal language screens: involve checklists of common early language milestones
- Parent-report measures
By what age do infants learning English prefer words with strong-weak stress patterns?
By 9 months of age
Categorical perception abilities…
Develop and allow listeners to distinguish between phonemes so they can quickly and efficiently process speech by ignoring variations that are not meaningful
Jargon
Babbling containing at least two syllables and at least two different consonants and vowels, as well as varied stress or intonation patterns
Children who engage in longer periods of ______ have larger vocabularies at 18 months
Joint attention
When does intentional communication begin to emerge?
Around 8-10 months of age
Infants produce their first true word around…
12 months of age
1-year-olds comprehend ______ words but only produce around ______ words
80, 10
Late talkers will pronounce fewer than ______ words by age 2
50
