Child Language Acquisition: Spoken

Question 1

Name the four pre-verbal stages.

Answer 1

Vegetative, Cooing, Babbling, and Pronto-words.

Question 2

What age will a child be in the vegetative stage?

Answer 2

0-4 months.

Question 3

What age will a child be in the cooing stage?

Answer 3

4-7 months.

Question 4

What age will a child be in the babbling stage?

Answer 4

6-12 months.

Question 5

What age will a child be in the pronto-word stage?

Answer 5

9-12 months.

Question 6

Explain one feature of the vegetative stage.

Answer 6

Discomfort sounds (crying, coughing and sucking).

Question 7

Explain one feature of the cooing stage.

Answer 7

Any of the following:

Sounds of comfort, use of open-mouthed vowel sounds (coo’s, laughter and squeals).

Question 8

Explain one feature of the babbling stage.

Answer 8

Any of the following:

Vowel sounds that are repeated, extended sounds resembling syllable-like sequences (baba).

Question 9

Explain one feature of the pronto-word stage.

Answer 9

Word-like vocalisations (scribble talk). E.g. ‘waaaa’ to mean ‘I want something’, along with gestures such as pointing.

Question 10

What is phonemic expansion?

Answer 10

The increase of different phonemes used during the babbling stage.

Question 11

What is phonemic contraction?

Answer 11

When a child discards words that they know aren’t needed (this will happen at around 9-10 months).

Question 12

Explain what is meant if a child uses intonation and gesture.

Answer 12

Child uses patterns to resemble speech e.g. raising tones at the end of speech to indicate the child is asking a question. Gestures are when the child uses physical actions such as pointing and facial expressions.

Question 13

Explain what is meant by ‘understanding’.

Answer 13

When a child may not be able to speak properly, they can still understand things that the people around them are saying.

Question 14

Name the four stages of grammatical development.

Answer 14

Holophrastic/one word, two-word, telegraphic and post-telegraphic.

Question 15

At what age should a child be in the holophrastic stage?

Answer 15

12-18 months.

Question 16

At what age should a child be in the two-word stage?

Answer 16

18-24 months.

Question 17

At what age should a child be in the telegraphic stage?

Answer 17

24-36 months.

Question 18

At what age should a child be in the post-telegraphic stage?

Answer 18

36+ months.

Question 19

What are the features of the holophrastic stage?

Answer 19

One-word utterances.

Question 20

What are the features of the two-word stage?

Answer 20

Combinations of two words.

Question 21

What are the features of the telegraphic stage?

Answer 21

More than three words combined to make more accurate orders.

Question 22

What are the features of the post-telegraphic stage?

Answer 22

Awareness of grammatical rules and irregularities.

Question 23

What is over-extension?

Answer 23

When a child over-extends meanings. E.g. if a child uses the word banana for many different fruits.

Question 24

Which linguist divided over-extension into three categories?

Answer 24

Leslie Rescorla

Question 25

What are the three categories that Leslie Rescorla divided over-extension into?

Answer 25

Categorical, Analogical and Mismatch statements.

Question 26

Define categorical over-extension.

Answer 26

When the name for one member of a category is extended to all members of the category. E.g. ‘Apple’ used for all round fruits.

Question 27

Define analogical over-extension.

Answer 27

When a word for an object is extended to one in a different category, usually on the basis that it has some physical or functional connection. E.g. ‘Ball’ used for all round fruits.

Question 28

Define mismatch statements.

Answer 28

One-word sentences that appear quite abstract. A child will make a statement about one object in relation to another. E.g. saying ‘duck’ when looking at an empty pond.

Question 29

Explain what is meant by under-extension.

Answer 29

When a child gives a narrower definition to a word. E.g. ‘yellow’ only referring to banana’s.

Question 30

What are Jean Aitcheson’s three stages of language acquisition?

Answer 30

Labelling, Packaging and Network Building.

Question 31

What is labelling?

Answer 31

Making links between words and the objects they represent.

Question 32

What is packaging?

Answer 32

Understanding a word’s range of meaning. Over and under-extension will occur in this stage in order to eventually the range of a words meaning.

Question 33

What is network building?

Answer 33

Understanding the connections between words’ hypernyms and hyponyms, also understanding similarities and opposites in meanings.

Question 34

Name Jean Piaget’s stages of children’s linguistic development.

Answer 34

Sensorimotor, Pre-operational, Concrete Operational and Formal Operational.

Question 35

Explain Jean Piaget’s stages of children’s linguistic development.

Answer 35

Piaget linked language development with an understanding of the concepts surrounding the word’s meanings, suggesting that children cannot be taught before they are ready.

Question 36

What age will a child be in the sensorimotor stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 36

Up to the age of 2.

Question 37

What age will a child be in the pre-operational stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 37

2-7 years.

Question 38

What age will a child be in the concrete operational stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 38

7-11 years.

Question 39

What age will a child be in the formal operational stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 39

11+ years.

Question 40

Explain the key elements to the sensorimotor stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 40

The child will experience the physical world through the senses that classifies things into it. This is when lexical choices appear; they tend to be concrete rather than abstract.

Question 41

Explain the key elements to the pre-operational stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 41

Language and motor skills develop and become more competent. Language is egocentric- either focused on the child or used by the child when no one else is around.

Question 42

Explain the key elements to the concrete operational stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 42

Children will begin thinking logically about concrete events.

Question 43

Explain the key elements to the formal operational stage of Jean Piaget’s theory.

Answer 43

Abstract reasoning skills develop.

Question 44

Explain Eve Clarks theory.

Answer 44

Her research found that common adjectives are among children’s first 50 words, but spatial adjectives are acquired later.

Question 45

Name John Dore’s ‘Infant Language Functions’.

Answer 45

Labelling, Repeating, Answering, Requesting Action, Calling, Greeting, Protesting, and Practising.

Question 46

Name Michael Halliday’s ‘functions’.

Answer 46

Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal, Informative, Heuristic and Imaginative.