Child Acquisition Flashcards
What theorist supports the behaviourist theory?
Skinner
What is Private speech?
where a child talks aloud to itself (huge step in language development as it shows a child is thinking for itself.)
What is it called when a word is made that posses something ?
Possession
What are open mouth sounds and when do they occur ?
Cooing
3-6 months old
What are some features of the cognitive theory?
- The egocentric stage where a child can’t mentally process object permanence
- A child is better equipped to understand abstract concepts like the past, present and future when they learn of object permanence.
What are some features of the nativist approach ?
- Children use overextensions as if it is pre-programmed
- Language is inbuilt and occurs when exposed to language
- The ‘Language Acquisition Device’ - that means a child’s language is inbuilt. Allows them to take in grammatical rules where they live.
What is Vygotsky’s theory?
He studied two main factors of child development;
- Private speech, where a child talks aloud to itself (huge step in language development as it shows a child is thinking for itself.)
- Zone of proximal development is when a child needs help in social situations by the caregiver responding for the child or tries to encourage the response.
What is it when a child swaps one consonant or vowel for another ?
Assimilation.
What are some features of the behaviourist approach?
- Imitation and reinforcement - child can develop language through positive or negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment
- Phonological development (children will copy pronunciations of an adult)
What is it when the child adds a suffix to the end of a word ?
Give an example.
Addition.
‘Mummy - mum’
‘Dolly - doll.’
What case supports Lenneburgs ‘Critical Period Hypothesis’
The case of ‘Genie.’
She was deprived of language up until the age of 14 and since being found she has not been able to develop language fluently. Linguistics believe it’s because of either the Critical Period Hypothesis or lack of mental development which supports the Cognitive approach.
What theorists support the nativist theory?
Chomsky
What does Lenneburg argue?
Children who are deprived of language early on are unable to acquire it later on in life. He introduced the Critical Period Hypothesis
What is the post-telegraphic stage?
The stage after telegraphic where grammatical words from the stage before start to appear:
Auxiliary verbs, prepositions, determiners
Give the four different types of language development theories:
Cognitivist
Nativist
Behaviourists
Social interaction
What is Zone of proximal development?
when a child needs help in social situations by the caregiver responding for the child or tries to encourage the response.
What do nativists believe?
That language is inbuilt: ‘Language Acquisition Device’
Features of ‘Child Directed Speech’
Repetition The child’s name A higher pitch One-word utterances Concrete nouns
What is an utterance?
A stretch or continuous unit of speech
What theorists support the social interactionist theory?
Bruner
Vygotsky
Lenneburg
What is Bruners theory?
The ‘Language Acquisition Support System’
Caregivers help children’s language development in social situations ie, encouraging them to talk back by use of questions.
Who argues against Skinner and the Behaviourist approach?
Chomsky and his ‘Language Acquisition Device.’
Name the two different types of ‘babbling’ in the pre-verbal stage.
Give examples.
REDUPLICATED BABBLING appears first. Often involves the child repeating itself.
‘Babababababa.’
VARIEGATED BABBLING Still doesn’t resemble recognisable words but involves vowel sounds. More developed.
‘Daba, Manomoo.’
When a child makes up a new word in place of one that already exists.
Give an example
Proto words:
‘Ray Ray’ for Raisins.
What is overextension?
Example
When a child labels something that isn’t usually included in it’s meaning
Calling a ‘cat’ and a ‘dog’ a ‘rabbit’
What is object permanence and what theory does it belong too?
When an object exists without being able to see it ; part of the cognitive theory
What do behaviourists believe?
That language is developed through the reinforcement and imitation theory
One criticism of the cognitive approach by Piaget?
Doesn’t explain how people with learning difficulties can still speak linguistically fluent.
Brown argues what?
That children from different countries make the same relationship between grammatical concepts in the two-word stage.
What is the ‘Critical Period Hypothesis?’
Without linguistic interaction between the ages of 5-6, language development is severely limited.
What theorists support the cognitive theory?
Piaget
Possession
The making of a word that indicates it possesses something
Productive vocabulary
When a child speaks correctly
What is it called when a child can speak words that are correct?
Productive vocabulary
What is the holophrastic stage?
The point in a childs language when they use individual words to communicate
Bellugi argues what?
That they use ‘negative formation’ at the beginning or end of a sentence.
For example, ‘No.’ or ‘Not.’
What are some features of social interactionists?
- They need input from others to communicate
- There is an ‘Language Acquisition Support System where caregivers support the child in social situations
- They ask questions to encourage the children to be involved in more social situations ie, ‘what’s that there, is it a doggy?’
What is ‘child directed speech’
Any of the various speech patterns used by caregivers when communicating to young children.
What is the two-word stage?
Example.
A period of time where the child begins to put two words together
‘Kick ball’
What do cognitivists believe
It is the study of the mental process and how that effects the behaviour of language ; object permanence
What is the telegraphic stage?
The stage when a child uses three or more words
One criticism of Chomsky and his Nativist approach?
Undermines the significance of Skinners imitation and reinforcement theory
What are the theorists for the terminology stage of child language development?
Brown
Halliday
Nelson
Bellugi
Language features of the telegraphic stage
lexical terms ; nouns, verbs
To omit grammatical words like auxiliary verbs, prepositions and determiners
