Exam 1 Flashcards
ASHA definition of language
complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols that are used in various modes for thought and communication
What are the characteristics of language?
symbolic, dynamic, complex, conventional
What do the characteristics of language do?
work together for the purpose of communication and thinking
What is speech?
Voluntary neuromotor behavior that allows humans to express language
The physical act that we do
What four systems are involved in speech?
respiratory, phonation (vocal folds), resonance (oral and nasal tract), articulation (tongue and lips)
What is communication? What is its purpose?
Process by which meaning is conveyed to others
Request, reject, comment, etc.
What are examples of non spoken language?
ASL, morse code, braille, written language, binary code
What are the 5 remarkable features of language?
Language is …. symbolic, productive, not stimulus bound, universal, acquisition rate
Bonus remarkable feature of language
Language is species specific
Language is symbolic refers to …
A word is a symbol that stands for something else
Language is productive refers to …
It can be segmented into parts and recombined to create new meanings
Language is not stimulus bound refers to
Language can be used in a variety of contexts, applied in contexts different than the environment where it was learned
Animal language is (stimulus bound or non stimulus bound)
stimulus bound
What makes human language unique from animal communication?
We use language productively and create new utterances
We are able to use language symbolically spontaneously
Animals are not able to extend language beyond the context in which they learned it
Spoken language is unique to humans
What are the 5 components of language?
Phonology, Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, Pragmatics
What are phonemes?
Smallest unit of sound that can distinguish between morphemes
Signals a difference in meaning
What is phonology?
Set of rules that govern the occurrence and distribution of phonemes
Specific to each language
Phonology determines….
Which phonemes occur in a language
Phonotactics of language: sequences of phonemes that are allowed to occur
What are phonological rules?
Rules that determines the change between the phonemic (mental representation) and phonetic (what is said) level
Rules apply in a certain context
What is an example of a phonological rule?
Stops are unreleased when they occur in word final position
What is a morpheme?
smallest unit of meaning
What are the two types of morphemes?
Free: stand alone
Bound: must be joined to another morpheme
What are the two types of bound morphemes?
Inflectional and derivational
Bound morphemes: derivational (details)
Creates new word using prefixes, suffixes, or compound word
Creates new meaning
Bound morphemes: inflectional (details)
Creates new forms of the same word using suffixes
Also called grammatical
Change number, gender, person, case, tense, voice, aspect, mood
Definition of semantics
Study of meaning, often lexical (word) meaning
What are the semantic categories?
Basic level: words that children learn first (apple)
Superordinate: categories (fruit)
Subordinate: examples of the categories (granny smith)
What occurs with children during semantic development?
They overextend the meaning of words during acquisition
Start to learn through context and examples and even acquire non prototypical examples (nonliteral)
What does referent vs sense mean?
What the word stands for vs internal concept of the word
Referent vs sense: anomalous
There is a sense but no referent due to contradictory information among the referents
Example: King of America
Referent vs. sense: Ambiguous (homonym)
There is more than one possible meaning
Referent vs sense: synonymous
Slightly different but similar meaning
What is syntax?
Rules that govern how words are organized into sentences (grammar)
Word order is language specific
Syntax: variation between languages
Some languages allow for variation in syntax
Languages differ in how much they rely on morphology and syntax to convey meaning
Example: English relies heavily on syntax
What are pragmatics?
Rules that govern how language is used in a social context
Why are pragmatics important?
Need knowledge of language as it relates to social roles, cultural backgrounds, ethnic identities
Need to develop the ability to adjust communication-based on the context and the listeners
Pragmatics involves
Requesting, answering, gaining attention, protesting/rejecting, greeting/leave-taking, commenting, describing
Characteristics of nature (nativist) theories
Child is born with language acquisition device, LAD, internal intrinsic ability to extract linguistic information from the environment
Universal grammar: universal principles of language that are innate humans and apply to all systems of language
Characteristics of nurture (behaviorist) theories
Sees language like any other behavior
Baby is born like a blank slate
Driven by child’s ability to make connections between language and its consequences
Reinforcement sustains and shapes learning
Nurture (behaviorist) theories: language is learned through
Receptive language: classical conditioning
Expressive language: operant conditioning
Interactionist theories characteristics
States that biological and social factors must interact to learn language
Recognizes that the other approaches do not fully account for acquisition
Interactionist theories: infants bring
Brings biology, cognition and instinct for social interaction
Cognition + social interaction with environment = mechanism for language acquisition
Interactionist theories: use linguistic input that
Is within the child’s zone of proximal development
Two types of interactionist theories
Cognitive and social
Cognitive interactionist theories characteristics and researcher
Piaget
• Cognitive prereqs for early word learning, especially in first 2 years
• Object permanence is required for assignment of verbal label to an object
• Language begins as egocentric
Social interactionist theory characteristics and researcher
Vygostky • Language emerges through social interaction with peers and adults • Development of joint attention • Zone of proximal development o Happy place where most learning occurs • Development of theory of mind
Who developed nature, nurture and interactionist theories?
Nature: Chomsky
Nurture: Skinner
Interactionist: Piaget (cognitive), Vygotsky (social)
What is the critical period for language learning?
L1: birth to about 5 years of age
L2: around age of puberty
Grammer relatively easy until 17-18
Accent pronunciation to native-like accuracy until about age 10
What is prevention?
Using a biological indication that indicates need to intervene before there is an issue
What is intervention?
Support of those that are struggling
What is enrichment?
Providing an enhanced language learning environment
What are the 3 components of evidence-based practice?
Clinical experience
Patient preference
Research evidence
Why should we care about theories?
Linked to evidence-based practice
Links theory, science and practice
Intersection between clinical experience, patient preference, and research evidence
Goals of Diary Studies
Capture rich information to describe child’s language development over time
Methods of Diary Studies
Parent/care taker are often the observer
Observation in naturalistic environment
Longitudinal: observations occur over time
Goals of Large Sample Studies
Find out what is typical about speech and language
Methods of Large Sample Studies
Large number of subjects
Collect cross-sectional data
Quantitative analysis
Goals of Longitudinal and Experimental Studies
Study a representative sample of the child across time
Methods of Longitudinal and Experimental Studies
- 3 children (minimum)
- Regular, longitudinal visits that are recorded
- Children’s language is transcribed
Important example of Longitudinal Study
Brown (1973)
Details of Brown’s 1973 Study
o Adam, Eve, Sarah
o Brown’s stages of acquisition
o Analyzed mean length of utterance (MLU)
Diary Studies Strengths
- Rich data
* Parent/caregiver insights
Diary Studies Weaknesses
- Unsystematic
- Observer qualification
- Biased
Large Sample Studies Strengths
- Systematic
- Provides normative data
- Measurement of variables is possible
Large Sample Studies Weaknesses
- Group data only
- Criticized as superficial
- May or may not be driven by theoretical hypotheses
Longitudinal and Experimental Studies Strengths
• Incorporates positive aspects of both diary study and large sample studies
Longitudinal and Experimental Studies Weaknesses
• Experimental studies
May examine only an isolated aspect of language acquisition
• Longitudinal studies
Sample size may decrease due to attrition (patients drop out)
• Transcription required
What is the purpose of having stages of language development?
Description: To identify something that is changing
Explanation: Provide a reason for the change
Stages of speech-language development
Prelinguistic stage, one word stage, two word stage, short sentence stage, complete sentence stage, school age stage
Milestones of the prelinguistic stage, age range
Cooing, babbling, prepared to understand and acquire words
0 to 1 year
Milestones of the one word stage, age range
Holophrastic stage: one word represents a complex idea
Acquire first 50 words, mostly objects
1 to 1.6 year
Milestones of the two word stage, age range
Word spurt after first 50 words
Onset of 2 word sentences, start to combine words
Telegraphic speech
1.6 to 2 years
Milestones of the short sentence stage, age range
Appearance of grammar and inflections
2 to 2.6 years
Milestones of the complete sentence stage, age range
Advances in grammar and clause structure
2.6 to 6 years
Milestones of the school age stage, age range
Mastery of rare complex grammar, literacy and reformulation (repair meaning)
Master irregular language, tie language to literacy
6 years and on
Brown’s contribution of MLU-m
Describes stages of language development in terms of mean length of utterance (MLU or MLU-m)
Measured in morphemes
Allowed for more information about how rich the meaning is when counting in morphemes, reflects complexity
Brown’s stages of language development
Early I, Late I, II, III, IV, V
Brown’s Stages: Early I
Single words
19 to 26 months
Brown’s Stages: Late I
Semantic relations, use words functionally
23 to 31 months
Brown’s stages: II
Start to acquire grammatical morphemes
27 to 35 months
Brown’s Stages: III
Start to form simple sentences, wh- questions, negatives, imperatives (how to give a command)
31 to 41 months
Brown’s Stages: IV
Embedding sentences
35 to 45 months
Brown’s Stages: V
Coordination of sentences (and, but, etc) clause structure
42 to 52 months
What are environmental foundations of the linguistic environment?
Infant directed speech
Caregiver responsiveness
Daily routine
Joint reference and joint attention
What is another term for infant directed speech?
Motherese
Parentese
Child Directed Speech
Paralinguistic features of Infant Directed Speech
High overall pitch
Exaggerated pitch contours
Slower tempo
Syntactic Features of Infant Directed Speech
Shorter MLU
Fewer clauses
More content words and lexical items that are specific to infants
Discourse Features of Infant Directed Speech
More repetitions and redundancy
More questions
What are the two types of parental conversational style? (part of caregiver responsiveness)
Expressive style
Referential style
Expressive style characteristics (parent conversational style)
More prescriptive (Telling the child what to say)
Fewer utterances overall
Focus on personal-social words
Referential style characteristics (parental conversational style)
More descriptive
Sports commentator for life, describing everything
More utterances
Focus on labeling
What tools do caretakers use to stimulate conversation?
o Waiting and listening o Following the child’s lead o Join in and play with the child o Be face to face o Use a variety of questions and labels o Encourage turn-taking o Expand and extends the child’s attempts
What is joint attention?
two or more individuals sharing common focus on a single thing
Development of joint attention
0 to 6 months
• Development of attending to social partners
• Face to face
0;6 to 1;0
• Emergence of coordination of joint attention
1;0+
• Joint reference established with language to communicate intentionally with others
What is critical for language learning?
Language input
Language learning can be enhanced or impeded by variables such as
Frequency and rate
Differential parental speech styles
Level of complexity
Style of interaction
Relevance of Dr. Kuhl’s research study to language development
o Looked at social interaction vs screen interaction with infants learning language
o Based on this and other studies, author suggests that learning language requires social interaction
o Can infer that language learning in infants does not benefit from screen time
Studies of speech perception are based on
The habituation paradigm
Property of the central nervous system
Repetition leads to habituation
Introduction of new stimuli leads to dishabituation
Methods used to study speech perception
6 months and under: nonnutritive sucking rate, heart rate
6 months plus: head turn
Using language from their environment babies ….
Recognize patterns and form hypotheses about them
Test those hypotheses for confirmation
Organize what they’ve learned for future use
What is the universal theory?
Infants babble all sounds that can be created by the human vocal tract, then non-native phonemes are eventually lost as distinctions are made and categories are solidified for their native language
What is perceptual narrowing?
Infants begin to focus on the sound distinctions of their native language
Begins around 8 to 10 months of age
Needed for quick and efficient speech processing
Revisiting the critical period based on categorical perception and universal theory
Categorical perception starts to solidify around 10 months meaning the critical period starts to solidify around 10 months
After this period, it takes more active engagement for infants to learn how to discriminate between phonemes
What are the elements that facilitate the development of speech perception
Cognitive skills
Prosodic characteristics
Categorical perception
Dev. Speech Perception: Cognitive Skills details
Determining and attending to perceptually relevant stimuli
Discriminating between stimuli
Remembering stimuli (working memory)
Classifying and organizing stimuli
Dev. of Speech Perception: Prosodic characteristics details
Frequency (pitch), duration (length), intensity (loudness)
Form perceptual concepts of stress and intonation
• Start to understand difference in meaning with intonation
Infants starts to learn prosodic elements of L1 in utero
By 9 months, infants show preference for stress patterns, melody and phonotactics of their L1
• Helps them extract words from connected speech
Dev. of Speech Perception: Prosodic characteristics details
Frequency (pitch), duration (length), intensity (loudness)
Form perceptual concepts of stress and intonation
Start to understand difference in meaning with intonation
Infants starts to learn prosodic elements of L1 in utero
By 9 months, infants show preference for stress patterns, melody and phonotactics of their L1
Helps them extract words from connected speech
Dev. Speech Perception: Categorical Perception details
Take spectrum of sounds they are encountering and create categories
Classify sounds into groups
28 to 32 weeks gestation, language areas in the brains of preemies are active during phoneme discrimination tasks
Infants start to learn which sound distinctions are meaningful and which they can ignore
Start hearing fine distinctions then solidify categories
Timeline for speech perception development
Birth Prefer native language and mother’s voice 4 months Prefer own name Less than 10 months Can discriminate sounds in non-native languages 8 months Prefer frequent phonotactics 8-10 months Perceptual narrowing
General anatomic differences between vocal tract of infants and adults
o Infant’s vocal tract is
Smaller than the adult’s
Wider in relation to its length
Flatter than the adult’s because there is no erupted dentition
Pharyngeal tract in infants is shorter as well
o Transition to oral breathing is important for production of oral sounds
Oller & Stark’s stages of vocalization: Reflexive
0-2 months What you hear Reflexive sounds: crying, fussing Vegetative sounds: coughing, sneezing, burping Protophones Mostly vowel like Low front vowels Velar or glottal consonant like
Oller & Stark’s stages of vocalization: cooing, control of phonation
1-4 months What you hear Less crying, laughter begins Lots of coo and goo Anatomy Greater variety of sounds due to anatomical growth Protophones Back consonants Back vowels emerge
Oller & Stark’s stages of vocalization: vocal play, expansion
3-8 months
What you hear
Experimenting with their voices
Vary pitch and volume, raspberries
Protophones
CV syllables (marginal babbling)
Anatomy
Greater control over articulators
Oller & Stark’s stages of vocalization: canonical babbling, canonical syllables
5-10 months
What you hear
-Reduplicated babble
-Babababa, same string of CVs
-Variegated babble
-Dabiduga, different string of CVs
Protophones
o CV syllable sequences
o Shift from back sounds to front sounds /m, b, d/
Oller & Stark’s stages of vocalization: Jargon, advanced form
9-18 months
What you hear
Conversation babble with adult-like stress and intonation
Vocalization paired with communicative intent (eye contact, gestures)
Can be produced as imitative play
95% of consonants were
Stops /p, b, t, d, k, g/
Nasals /m,n,/
Fricatives /s,h/
Glides /w,j/
Perlocutionary communication
An utterance that gives the effect of doing something
Partner perceived
Illocutionary communication
Intentional
An utterance that produces the literal meaning
About 8 months
Locutionary Communication
Symbolic
An utterance with social function in mind
About 12 months
What is a protophone?
Speech like sound produced by infants during the development of speech production
