CLA - the holophrastic stage

Question 1

What is a holophrase?

Answer 1

It is a child’s first attempt at grammar where a single word can have many possible meanings.
Contextual clues are needed to interpret the meaning of for example “up”.

Question 2

Which are the earliest consonant sounds an infant will produce?

Answer 2

Plosive sounds: b/ p sounds
Nasal sounds m/ n sounds

Question 3

What did Katherine Nelson’s (1973) study find about the types of words a child mostly used in their first 50 words?

Answer 3

Nouns represented 60% of a child’s first 50 words. i.e. people and everyday items within the infant’s world (mummy, ball, train, book.)

Question 4

Which words in Katherine Nelson’s (1973) study only made up 8% of children’s first fifty words?

Answer 4

Social/ personal interaction words e.g. “bye bye, thank you, no…”

Question 5

What four categories of words did Katherine Nelson’s (1973) study find constituted children’s first fifty words?

Answer 5

Naming/ nouns (e.g. ball, Daddy, dog)
Action/ verbs (give, stop, up)
Modifying (more, dirty)
Social (byebye, no)

Question 6

At the holophrastic stage, what influences the rate of children’s language development?

Answer 6

How much they are spoken to by the family around them

Question 7

When does the two word stage typically emerge?

Answer 7

Between 18 and 24 months

Question 8

What grammatical patterns does the two word stage follow?

Answer 8

Subject - verb (Me go)
Verb - object (hit ball)

Question 9

What is still missing from the two word stage?

Answer 9

Tense