Child Language Acquisition (ao1)

Question 1

preverbal stage

Answer 1

Experimenting with noises/sounds but without producing recognisable words – it can be further broken down into the vegetative state, cooing and babbling.

Question 2

vegetative state

Answer 2

The baby makes discomfort sounds such as crying - this is instinctive to how a baby feels.

Question 3

cooing

Answer 3

Distinct from crying but not yet forming recognisable vowels and consonants. A baby experiments with the noises that can be made when the tongue and back of the mouth come into contact; the baby begins to develop control over the vocal muscles.

Question 4

babbling

Answer 4

The baby produces phonemes, often in the form of combinations of vowels and consonants (eg. ma, ga, ba, baba, gaga), they are largely those that appear in the child’s native language.

Question 5

reduplicated babbling

Answer 5

The period when infants repeat the same syllable over and over, such as “babababa” or “mamamama” or “gagagaga”. Non-Reduplicated Babbling: In this phase of babbling, the sounds are now more varied.

Question 6

variegated/non-reduplicative babbling

Answer 6

Non-Reduplicated Babbling: In this phase of babbling, the sounds are now more varied. Instead of producing the same syllable over and over, they start to combine different sounds and syllables like “magaga,” “gagamee,” or “gababama”. This type is also called variegated babbling.

Question 7

proto words

Answer 7

‘Made up’ words that a child will use to represent a word they cannot pronounce (eg. ‘rayray’ for raisin’). These are not true first words as they have no semantic content.

Question 8

overextension

Answer 8

When a word is used more broadly to describe things with similar properties, other than the specific item to which the word actually applies (eg any round fruit may be an ‘apple’ or rats, squirrels, and rabbits are all ‘mice’).

Question 9

underextension

Answer 9

When a word is used in a limited way which does not recognise its full meaning (eg. knowing the word banana for one in real life but not for a bunch of bananas or a picture of a banana).

Kitty might mean the family cat, but not other cats.

Question 10

hypernym

Answer 10

An overarching (category) noun which encompasses many other nouns

Superhero is a hypernym for Batman and Spider-Man

Question 11

hyponym

Answer 11

A noun with a narrower meaning which is part of a hypernym (category member)v

batman

Question 12

content word

Answer 12

Content words are words that have meaning. They can be compared to grammatical words, which are structural. Nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs are usually content words. Auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, and prepositions are usually grammatical words.

Question 13

virtuous error

Answer 13

Errors in morphology that have some underlying logic to demonstrate that learning has taken place (eg. I runned, Three mens).

Question 14

syntactic inversion

Answer 14

Reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, learnt when forming a question (eg. ‘I can eat the cake’ (S;MAV;V;O) becomes ‘Can I eat the cake?’ (MAV;S;V;O)).

‘On the mat sat the cat. ‘ Inverting the sentence draws the reader’s attention to the mat (the object) instead of the cat (the subject). It takes the reader by surprise because it’s not what they expected.

Question 15

assimilation

Answer 15

Swapping one consonant/vowel for another (eg. borry = lorry)

Assimilation occurs when a consonant sound starts to sound like another sound in the word (e.g. “bub” for “bus”). Children no longer use this process after the age of 3. Denasalization is when a nasal sound like “m” or “n” changes to a nonnasal sound like “b” or “d” (e.g. “dore” for “more”).

Question 16

consonant cluster reduction

Answer 16

Reducing phonologically more complex units into simpler ones – from two (or more) consonants down to one (eg. dis = dish; fis = fish).

Question 17

deletion

Answer 17

Omitting a particular sound within a word, usually the final consonant or a weak syllable (eg. jamas = pyjamas; tephone = telephone).

Question 18

diminuitive

Answer 18

Adding a suffix to make a word phonologically easier to say (eg. doggie).

Question 19

reduplication

Answer 19

Repeating consonants clusters or vowel clusters in a word (eg. snowwowman).

Question 20

substitution

Answer 20

Swapping one sound for another which is easier to pronounce (eg. wok = rock).

Question 21

th fronting

Answer 21

Replacing th- sounds (/ð/; /θ/) with /f/ or /v/ (eg. fink = think; vem = them).

Question 22

positive reinforcement

Answer 22

Encouraging or establishing a pattern of behaviour by rewards and praise

Question 23

negative reinforcement

Answer 23

Stopping a child from repeating a mistake through correction, punishment, ignoring or a denial of wants (eg. being told off for forgetting ‘please’)

Question 24

Universal Grammar

Answer 24

All human languages posses similar grammatical properties which the brain is hardwired to be able to decode and use

Question 25

interpersonal speech

Answer 25

Also termed social speech, this is external communication used to talk with one another.

Question 26

intrapersonal speech

Answer 26

Also termed private speech, this is communication that a person directs at themself – typical from age 3.

Question 27

silent inner speech

Answer 27

What happens when private speech is internalised – typical at around age 7.

Question 28

recasting

Answer 28

where the baby’s vocabulary is put into a new utterance.

Child: She is littler than me Adult: She is little. She is smaller than you. You are small but she is even smaller.

Recasting enables a parent to teach language in a positive, low-pressure way. Done correctly, it keeps the conversation going without interruptions and criticism. Because you’re repeating what your child has said, it shows them that you are listening to them.