Chapter 9 - Preschool Language Development of Form Flashcards
Decentration
Process of moving from 1 dimensional descriptions of entities/events to coordinated, multi-dimensional ones
Mean Length of Utterance
MLU
Measure oof the linguistic complexity of a child’s language
Calculated by dividing the total # of morphemes present in a language sample by the total # of utterances
Eventcast
A type of narrative that explains some current or anticipated event
Often accompany the play of young children
Metalinguistics
Refers to the use of language knowledge to talk about language
Aspect
Dynamics of an Event, usually controlled by the verb relative to the completion, repetition, or continuation of some event
Epenthesis
Process of inserting a vowel sound where none is required
“Balack” instead of “black”
Phrase
Group of words that do not contain a subject or verb
e.g. Before the first test. Leaving behind the dog
Sibilants
Sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow constriction formed by the tongue and hard palate
s, z, sh
Tense
Marking of a verb, such as past or future, that relates the speech in the present to the event time or time when the event will (did) occur
The exact way in which a child will acquire grammar and sentence forms is unknown.
T/F?
True!
There is a great variation in acquisition between and among children
part of this variation may be due to the forms to which a child is exposed
Syntax + Morphology: MLU
- Up to an MLU of about 4, increases in MLU correspond to increases in utterance complexity
- Beyond an MLU of 4, growth in utterance length will slow greatly + individual variation increases. Sentences become more complex thus rendering MLU less reliable as a measure of child’s language development
18mo-5 years; MLU increases by 1 morpheme per year
Syntax + Morphology: Children under 3
Most under 3 will not fully understand subject-verb-object word order. True for both production of this form and the ability to understand the form
The syntactic patterns of a child most often reflect what the child has heard others produce
T/F?
True
Many sentences types used by children under 3 are learned with specific verbs (often those they hear in their environment)
Rules regarding use of different verb forms are thought to be learned one rule at a time?
T/F?
True
Morpheme
Smallest unit of speech that is capable of changing meaning
Free Morphemes
Stand alone + are independent
Cat, Dog, Doll
Bound Morphemes
Cannot stand alone
Includes affixes - prefixes + suffixes
Superlatives - largest, biggest
Begin to appear at MLU of 2.0-2.5
Noun Phrases
A group of words that functions as a single syntactic unit that is less than a sentence in that it does not contain a subject and verb
Seen when children begin to combine words
By age 3, most will produce NP elaboration by using determiners, adjectives, and post-noun modifiers
Noun Phrases- determiners
Quantifiers: All, both, each, every
Possessive: my, your, his, her
Articles: A, An, The
Demonstratives: This, that, these, those
Post-Noun Modifiers
Prepositional Phrase: in the box, on the table
Adverbs: here, there
Adjectival: loved by her friends: next door
Embedded Clauses: Who went with you; that you saw
Verb
Syntactic element that expresses existence - past, present, future
Verb Phrase
A construction that includes the verb and all that follows, including any noun phrases
Phrase: Verb Development
Early on a child will use simple TRANSITIVE (an action verb that requires object) verbs or phrases to describe activities people perform with objects
Main verbs often used: make, open, play, push, put, read, ride, say, take, throw, want
There is a strong association b/w the variety of maternal verb usage + a child’s development of verbs
T/F?
True!
Development of Time and Reference are marked by?
both TENSE and ASPECT
Tense
Past or future that relates to the speech time which is in the present
Aspect
Concerned with the dynamics of the event relative to its completion, repetition, or continuation
E.g. she walked to the store vs. she is walking to the store - both are
AT 18 mo - 3 years, a child speaks about past and present with reference point ALWAYS being in the present
T/F?
True!
Development of both tense and aspect are STRONGLY related to?
A child’s cognitive (and language) development
By age 3-3.5 a child gains a sense of reference other than the present
T/F?
True
Kim drove yesterday
By what age does a child acquire a flexible reference system that allows free reference to different points in time
3.5-4 years
e.g. Yesterday, Mi-mi asked if I would like to go to the zoo next week
How is preschool SENTENCE development gauged?
By an increase in the # of sentence elements and in the diversity of sentence forms
Emergence of adult sentence forms takes quite a bit of time
What sentence types do most children develop by age of 5?
Declarative
Interrogative
Imperative
Negative
Declaratie Sentence Type
- Uses subject + verb + object format
- MLU of 2.5-3.0, a child will use the auxiliary verb forms do, have, can, be, will.
- By an MLU of 2.5-3.0, the subject + auxiliary + verb + object form also appears (Mommy is eating ice cream)
- By 4, a child will develop indirect objects
Subject + verb + indirect object + object form (He gave me the ball)
Interrogative Sentence Path
Kids use intonation when asking questions - why?
Questions are main means adults use to communicate with children
Types of questions don’t change for first 18 months
Questions go from commenting on what the child is doing (looking at the truck?) to requesting information (what are you doing?)
Interrogative: 3 phases of Question Development
That Horsie
What Doggie Doing
Where Doggie Going
MLU 1.75 -2.25:
Nucleus + intonation
What + NP + doing
Where + NP + going
MLU 2.25 - 2.75:
Asks what/where questions but uses both a subject and a verb
What doggie eat?
MLU 2.75-3.5
Child begins to invert subjects and auxiliary verbs
Is she going?
At all ages, the use of DECLARATIVE sentence forms tends to be much better than the use of INTERROGATIVES
T/F?
True
By what age have most kids mastered the basic adult question form - Who is, where is, what are etc.
40 months
At what ages to adult imperatives appear?
Ages 2.5
Imperatives are:
Gimme a cookie
Throw the ball
Pass the peas
What is the first negative that appears in a child’s vocabulary?
“No”
Early usage involves putting the word in front of sentences:
No daddy go bye-bye
No eat ice cream
Stages of Neg Development
MLU up to 2.25
No placed at start of sentence
MLU 2.25-2.75:
Negative structure is placed b/w subject + verb
Common contractions include: don’t, can’t
e.g. I don’t eat
MLU: 2.75-3.5:
Development of other auxiliary forms such as do, can, does, did, will these are used with “not” followed by a main verb
e.g. she cannot go
By MLU 3.5-3.75:
Child’s negative contractions will include isn’t, aren’t, doesn’t, didn’t
Compound Sentences
Has at least 2 independent clauses
Often joined by: and, if, or, nor, because
Compound Sentences
By age 2, children will be able to use the connect ______
“and”
The dog runs AND barks
By what MLU will children begin to use the CONJUNCTION “because” - she fell because she ran
MLU 3.5
By what age are English vowels acquired?
3
There are great individual differences in phoneme acquisition and the age of acquisition may vary by a much as 3 years
T/F?
True!
Order of Phoneme Acquisition (ON TEST)
Vowels before consonants
Manner: nasals, stops, fricatives, then affricates
Place: Glottal, bilabial, velars, alveolar
Sounds are 1st acquired in the initial position in words
Consonant clusters and blends are not acquired until about age ___, although some may appear as early as age 4.
7 or 8
Phonological Processes: Syllable Structure
Final consonant deletion (most common; gone by 3)
Deletion of unstressed syllable (4)
Reduplication
Reduction of clusters
Phonological Processes: Substitution
Stopping + Fronting
- they are not random and usually only involve on direction
- most sound for sound substitutions are articulatory in nature
- phonological processes, on the other hand, involve substitution of entire classes of sounds
Most phonological processes are discarded by what age?
4
These processes characterize the speech of TYPICALLY developing children
Examples of Phonological Processes: syllables
Final Consonant deletion - be for bed
Unstressed syllable deleted in multisyllabic word: ‘Puter for computer
Reduplication - Syllable in a word becomes the same as another syllable in same word: wa wa for water
Reduction of clusters: one consonant within the cluster is deleted e.g. nake for snake
Phonological Processes Examples: substitution
Stopping: normally fricative or affricate is replaced with a plosive (stop)
most common in the initial word position
e.g. tun for sun
FRONTING: sounds produced at the back of mouth are replaced with sounds produced in the front of mouth
e.g. tan for can or doat for goat
