Child Language Acquisition Flashcards
Vegetative stage (Pre-verbal)
- Using the vocal cords from birth
- Crying, gurgling, burping
- Used to indicate needs.
Cooing (Pre-verbal)
- Start using a range of sounds, using their vowels
- Getting used to their tongues
- Experimenting with sounds - referred to as vocal play
Babbling (Pre-verbal)
- Sounds become more defined
- Consonant vowel combinations
- ‘Mama’, ‘googoo’
Proto-words (Pre-verbal)
- Just before words
- Combination of sounds have meaning
- Accompanied by gestures
- ‘Mmmm’ + pointing
DeCasper and Spence (1986)
They found that babies sucked on their dummies more when they are read a story that was familiar to them from the last 6 months.
Fitzpatrick (2002)
He found that the heartrate of a baby often slows when it hears it’s mothers voice.
Mehler et al (1988)
French babies sucked their thumbs more wen listening to French as opposed to Italian and English.
Berko and Brown (1960s)
They conducted research into a child’s understanding and ability. They carried out what is known as the ‘fis’ phenomenom. A child can understand the phonemes before they can actually say it.
Nelson (1973)
He studied 18 children’s first 50 words.
- Nouns
- Actions
- Describing
- Personal/social words
Phonemic expansion
Practicing all sounds
Phonemic contaction
Using sounds in their language
Overextension
Naming something similar to the same.
Underextension
Only apply words to the content in which they understand it.
Deletion
Omitting the final consonant in words.
Substitution
Substituting one sound for another.
Addition
Adding an extra vowel sound to the ends of words, creating a CVCV pattern.
Assimilation
Changing one consonant or vowel for another.
Reduplication
Repeating a whole syllable.
Consonant cluster reduction
When there are more than one consonant in the world children will often miss out one.
Deletion of the unstressed syllable
Omitting the opening syllables in a polysyllable word.
Holophrastic stage
- One word
- Phonology is important still
Two-word stage
- Successfully joining words and phrases involves understanding the meanings of words
- Discourse skills are developed
Telegraphic
- Vocabulary starts developing rapidly
- Grammatical ability enhances
- Discourse and pragmatic awareness become more sophisticated
Post-telegraphic
- More complex utterances are created accurately
Brown
Suggested 3 stages of children asking questions:
- 1-18 months. In the two-word stage, children use intonation to indicate a question
- 2-3 years. Begin to use the wh- words.
- Subject-verb inversion.
Bellugi (Negation)
Stages of negation.
- 18 months. No and not at the start of sentences.
- 2-3 years. Starts to put no and not near verbs, also use contracted verbs like ‘can’t’.
- 3+ years. Using proper terms, using contracted verbs in the correct place.
Bellugi (1971) (Pronouns)
Stages of pronouns.
- Learn to use their names and proper nouns.
- Child starts to use ‘I/me’ but doesn’t always use it correctly.
- Able to use the pronouns in the correct positions.
Plosives
Created when the airflow is blocked for a brief time. Voiced: b, d, g
Unvoiced: p, t, k
Fricatives
Created when the airflow is only partially blocked and air moves through the mouth in a steady stream.
Voiced: v, z
Unvoiced: f, s, h
Affricatives
Created by putting plosives and fricative together.
Approximants
Similar sounds to vowels
Voiced: w, r, j
Nasals
Produced by air moving through the nose
Voiced:m, n
Laterals
Created by placing the tongues on the ridge of the teeth and then air moving down the sound of the mouth
Voiced: l
Categorical overextension
The name for one member of a family is extended to all members of the category.
Analogical overextension
a word for one object us extended to in in a different category; usually on the basis that it has some physical or functional connection.
Mismatch statements
One-word sentences that appear quite abstract; child makes a statement about one object in relation to another.
Aitchisons’s stages of children’s linguistic development
- Labelling – linking words to the objets to which they refer.
- Packaging – exploring the labels and to what they can apply. Over/underextension occurs
- Network building – making connections between words, understanding similarities and opposites in meanings.
Halliday’s Functions
- Instrumental – To get something done. E.g ‘go tolly’
- Regulatory – To make requests or give orders. E.g ‘leave teddy’
- Interactional – To relate to others. E.g ‘nice mummy’
- Personal – To convey a sense of personal identity and express views and feelings. E.g ‘naughty doggy’
- Heuristic – To find out about the immediate environment. E.g ‘what boy doing’
- Imaginative – To be creative through language. E.g ‘one day we did…’
- Representational – To convey information. E.g ‘I’m three’
Features of child-directed speech
- More pronounced intonation
- Simplified vocabulary
- Repeated grammatical ‘frames’
- Reduplication
- Expanding and recasting
- Simplified grammar
- Actions that accompany speech
- Proper nouns instead of pronouns
- Obvious lip and mouth movement
- Repetition
Holt and Willard (2000)
A social interactionist theory that states children need a ‘more knowlegedable other’ in order to acquire acquire language skills.
What is nativism?
The belief that humans have an inbuilt capacity to acquire language.
What is behaviourism?
The belief language is acquired through imitation and reinforcement.
What is social interactionism?
Child language is developed through interaction with adults.
What is cognitive development?
Language acquisition is part of a wider development of understanding that develops.
Holt and Willard (2000)
A social interactionist theory that states children need a ‘more knowlegedable other’ in order to acquire acquire language skills.
Berko-Gleason (The Wug Test)
Study involving children being given made up words and being asked to apply grammar rules to them and the children did it. This supports nativism.
Chomsky
Chomsky believed that humans are born with the innate ability to acquire language. He believed that we are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD), that contains a universal grammar.
Strengths of Chomsky’s Theory
- The Wug Test.
- All children across the world go through the same language stages.
- They’re surrounded by impoverished language but still learn to use language correctly.
- Children make their own rules.
Weaknesses of Chomsky’s Theory
- Feral child
- Children stop making errors suggesting they do take influence off others
- Children need to learn pragmatics from other people
Lenneberg
He created this in response to the criticisms of Chomsky’s research. He suggested that that there needs to be interference within the first 5 years for a child to be able to acquire grammar.
Skinner (Behaviourism)
Skinner’s psychological theory can be applied to child lanuage acquisition. Skinner tested that idea of learning though positive reinforcement nd imitation. Applying it is language acquisition, a child imitates their caregiver and is positively reinforced when they have done something correctly. This is how they acquire language.
