Child Language Development 1

Question 1

What is Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning?

Answer 1

Modifying a child’s language use through positive and negative reinforcement.

Question 2

What is Chomsky’s universal grammar?

Answer 2

The ability to learn grammar is something hard-wired into the brain that anyone can do

Question 3

Who proposed LAD (Language Acquisition Device)?

Answer 3

Chomsky

Question 4

What is Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?

Answer 4

What a child is capable of learning is influenced by a more knowledgeable other

Question 5

Who created LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) and what is it?

Answer 5

A) Bruner
B) You need quality input from caregivers to facilitate learning.

Question 6

Name some features of Bruner’s Child-Directed Speech.

Answer 6

High pitch voice, singsong tone, mostly nouns, repetition

Question 7

What are the five stages of language development?

Answer 7

Pre-verbal, holophrastic, Two word, Telepathic, Post-Telepathic

Question 8

What are some features of the holophrastic stage?

Answer 8

12-18 months (generally), child begins to think and chose words, one word conveys a full sentence

Question 9

What happens by the Post-Telepathic stage at about 3 years?

Answer 9

Child’s speech begins to resemble adult speech, with full sentences

Question 10

What did Katherine Nelson observe?

Answer 10

Children at the holophrastic stage whose mothers corrected their grammar actually learnt slower