Child Language Acquisition Flashcards
What is the holophrastic stage?
One word utterances
12-18 months
What is the two-word stage?
two-word utterances
18-24 months
What is the telegraphic stage?
Three or more words combined
34-36 months
What is the post-telegraphic stage?
More complex grammatical constructions
36+
What is stage 1?
Vegative
-sounds of discomfort/reflexive actions (0-4 mths)
What is stage 2?
Cooing
-comfort sounds and vocal play using open mouthed vowel sounds
(4-7mths)
What is stage 3?
Babbling
-repeated sounds or consonant and vowel sounds (6-12 mths)
What is stage 4?
Proto-words
-word-like vocalisations, not matching actual words but consistently used for same meaning using actions eg pointing
(9-12mths)
What is Chomsky’s theory? (universal language)
•LAD = learning takes place through innate brain mechanism which is pre-programmer with ability to acquire grammatical structures
•Language is universal; anyone can learn it
(Did no experiments, just theorised)
What is Skinner’s theory? (behaviourist theory)
- Believed children imitate adults and will get positive and negative reinforcement for their verbal behaviour
- Positive reinforcement = behaviour is rewarded to encourage repeated behaviour
- Negative reinforcement = undesirable behaviour is unrewarded with the intention it won’t be repeated
Arguments for/against Skinner’s Behaviourist theory?
For:
•Children imitate accent and dialect
•Learn politeness and pragmatic aspects of language
•Repeat spoken language and incorporate it into theirs
Against:
•They form sentences they’ve never heard before- don’t just imitate
•Hear ungrammatical spoken language around them but learn it correctly
•Don’t always listen to correction
•WASN’T TESTED!
Key points from the Genie Wiley case study on feral children?
- Kept in a cage, isolated with no light available - lack of stimulation
- Had no toys - hinders development and lacks motor skills
- Had no relationships or care giver - lack of interaction
What was the outcome of Genie Wiley’s childhood regarding her language acquisition?
- Able to pick up words and associations (large vocabulary) but couldn’t learn grammar (gone beyond critical period)
- Her brain had not developed capacity for language - was smaller and malformed due to lack of interaction and development
What does ‘overextending meaning’ mean?
•Children often overextend meaning of words such as calling all 4 legged house hold pets ‘dogs’
What does ‘under-extending meaning’ mean?
•They may under-extend a word by giving it a narrower meaning eg calling cartoon ducks ‘ducks’ but not real ducks ‘ducks’
What is Eve Clark’s theory? (meanings)
•Studied babies first words and they way they over extend meanings
•She found that the over extension is based on the physical features of objects
(tested her theory)
What is Jean Piaget’s theory? (cognitivism)
•Emphasised children were active learners & their cognitive development has been very influential in language
e.g ‘wassat’ shows a child wanted more labels to describe the objects around them (active learner) > heuristic
•Children can’t be taught til they are ready
What is stage one in Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?
Sensorimotor stage - up to 2 years
- child experiences physical world through their senses and classify things in it
- concrete lexical choices
What is stage 2 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?
Pre-operational- 2-7 years
- language and motor skills are more competent
- Language is egocentric - focused on the child
What is stage 3 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?
Concrete operational- 7-11 years
-children begin to think logically about concrete events
What is stage 4 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?
Formal operational - 11+
-abstract reasoning skills begin to develop
What are some of the features of CDS? (child directed speech)
- higher pitch of voice
- simplified vocabulary helps establish keywords
- concrete nouns
- yes no questioning
- simplified grammar
- exaggerated pauses to encourage turn taking
What are some actions that accompany speech in CDS?
- pointing, smiling and shrugging
- more obvious lip and mouth movement
- exaggerated facial expressions
What does exaggerating prosodic cues mean?
-using more exaggerated intonation patterns and higher frequencies eg ‘uh oh’
What is recasting?
Phrasing sentences in different ways such as making it a question
What is echoing?
Repeating what the child said
What is expansion?
Restating what the child said in a more linguistically sophisticated form
What is positive about baby talk?
- contributes to mental development as if helps teach the child the basic function and structure of language
- responding to a baby’s babble with meaningless Abbie aids their development
Why may it be difficult for children to learn grammar?
- irregular grammatical structures
- limited vocabulary
- overgeneralisation of rules
- poor grammar of caregivers
What does a child’s mean length utterance (MLU) depend on in a transcript?
- depends on their relationship with the speaker
- depends on the context and the child as an individual (every child is different)
What is deletion?
Omitting the final consonant in words eg ‘do (g) or cu(p)
What is substitution?
Substituting one sound for another eg ‘pip’ for ‘ship’
What is addition?
Adding an extra vowel sound to ends of words eg doggie
What is assimilation?
Changing one consonant or vowel for another eg gog for dog
What is reduplication?
Repeating a whole syllable eg dada, mama
What are consonant cluster reductions? (PHONOLOGY)
Reducing consonant clusters to be smaller eg pider for spider
What is deletion of unstressed syllables?
Omitting the opening syllable In polysyllabic words eg nana for banana
What are plosives? (Sounds)
Airflow is blocked for a short period of time eg ‘p, t, k’
What are fricatives?
Airflow is only partially blocked and air moves through mouth in a steady stream eg ‘f, t’
What are affricatives?
Putting plosives and fricatives together eg (church) and (judge)
What are approximants?
Similar to vowels eg w, r, j
What are nasals?
Air moves through the nose eg m, n
What are laterals?
The tongue is on the ridge of the teeth and air moves down the sides of the mouth eg ‘i’
What is Berko and Brown’s theory? - The Fis Phenomenon
•Described how a child referred to his plastic fish as a ‘fis’
-The child continued to reject the adult’s mimicry or his speech until he was told “is this your fish”, he then replied “yes my fis”
•Shows that they understand but unable to pronounce fricatives sound ‘sh’
What does it mean ‘children are born universal’ ?
They are capable of producing any sound in the human language
