Language Development

Question 1

What are the 4 components of language?

Answer 1

Phonemes
Morphemes
Syntax
Pragmatics

Question 2

What are phonemes?
What are 4 facts?

Answer 2

Smallest units of sound recognizable as speech rather than random noise
1) Helps us distinguish words from one another
2) Examples: consonants and vowels
3) Each of the world’s languages have a unique set of phonemes
4) Not all languages use all phonemes

Question 3

What are morphemes?
What are 3 facts?

Answer 3

The smallest meaningful units of language
1) What is the smallest number of phonemes needed to make a morpheme?
2) How can you tell whether a group of sounds is a morpheme or not?
3) Examples: “me”, “giraffe”, “text””ing”, “un””fair””ly”, “doctor”

Question 4

What is syntax?
What is one fact?

Answer 4

The rules governing how words are combined to form meaningful phrases and sentences
- Syntactical rules differ across languages
–English: I went to the beach yesterday
–Spanish: Ayer fui a la playa: Yesterday went to the beach
–French: Je suis allé à la plage hier: I am gone to the beach yesterday

Question 5

What are pragmatics?
What are 4 elements that they can include?

Answer 5

Part of language that do not consist of spoken words, but can nonetheless change meaning
- Can include elements such as:
1) Context
2) Intonation (how a word is said, e.g. “Oh, that’s great news…”)
3) Facial configuration
4) Body language

Question 6

Explain pragmatic development

Answer 6

Children develop an understanding of pragmatics from early infancy (e.g. response to pointing), and it continues throughout lifespan (important to learn awareness of culture and meanings aside from literal spoken word meaning)

Question 7

What are 4 facts about phonological development?

Answer 7

1) Before birth to adolescence
2) Learn to differentiate (perceive) sounds of native language
3) Learn to produce sounds of native language
4) Much perceptual phonological development complete by 10 months

Question 8

4 facts about semantic development?

Answer 8

1) Birth throughout lifespan
2) Very high rates of acquisition after 10 months through early school age
3) Requires ability to segment speech (identify phonemes)
4) Mostly nouns

Question 9

3 facts about syntactic development

Answer 9

1) Telegraphic speech: often two word utterances (“more milk,” “eat cookie”)
2) Pronouns start being used in the third year (24-36 months)
3) Development slows by 5-6 years of age, at this point child knows the syntax of their native language (order of which words are said)

Question 10

What are 2 pieces of evidence that support the notion that there is a critical period for language acquisition?

Answer 10

• Comparing adult second language learners to child second language learners: often the child learner does a better job which suggests that learning language in childhood is easier for us
• Evidence from ASL learnings:
  Comparing those who learned ASL in adulthood vs. childhood: found that those who learned ASL in childhood made less mistakes and were more fluent
  ASL instruction is most beneficial as soon as child identified as being deaf

Question 11

What is the Quinean Reference Problem?

Answer 11

All labelling is inherently ambiguous so how do kids figure out meaning of words? If you point to an object and label it, how does the child so quickly know whether you are referring to the whole object, a part of the object, the colour of the object, or some other property of the object?

Question 12

5 explanations to the Quinean Reference Problem?

Answer 12

1) Whole-object bias: if you hold an object and say this is “water bottle,” they will see that it is a water bottle and not that you are referring to the cap or design.
2) Mutual exclusivity: each label applies to one and only one object; each object has one and only one label
3) Basic level bias: when we hear a word, we tend to think of it as being that basic level; e.g. someone points at a rabbit and says “rabbit” you interpret that at the basic level (‘rabbit’) and not the superordinate (‘mammal’) or subordinate (‘arctic hare’)
4) Linguistic context:
Grammatical/syntactic cues, child will take these cues to interpret what you are referring to:
- “He is gavagaying!” Talking about a verb, what is the person doing at that moment?
5) Pragmatic clues: parent points at objects, and says “this is a waterbottle.”

Question 13

What are the 4 hypotheses for language development?

Answer 13

Behaviourist account, nativist account, connectionist account, statistical learning account

Question 14

What are three facts about behaviourist account?

Answer 14

• Caregivers support language learning through reinforcement
• Parents correct children when they make mistakes
• Parents reward children when they are correct

Question 15

A) Who pioneered nativist account?
B) What are 6 Facts?

Answer 15

A) Chomsky
B)
1) Brain has a language acquisition device, specialized part of brain for learning language
2) A dedicated language module has involved in humans (modularity hypothesis)
3) Specific brain areas are used for language
4) Universal grammar (all languages follow a basic structure, and once your brain figures out the innate structure of the language, it turns on and one can acquire language)
5) All (typically developing) children acquire language
6) Evidence from Nicaraguan Sign Language (created a language out of nothing, shows the brain’s innate predisposition towards this basic language structure)

Question 16

4 facts about connectionist account?

Answer 16

1) Opposite of nativism
2) Children learn language the same way that they learn everything (general-purpose associative learning mechanisms)
3) Computer simulations show that some features of language can be learned with repetitive input
4) Parallel processing allows for a lot of information to be processed at once (e.g. processing word form, meaning and grammar)

Question 17

What are 4 facts about the statistical learning account?

Answer 17

1) Learn from environment, nothing special about language
2) Children sensitive to the statistical probabilities of the input (hard sound like ‘k’ is likely to be followed by soft sound like ‘a’), what phonemes are likely to follow other phonemes
3) Not language specific (i.e. not evolved specifically for language learning) but used in service of learning language ((conditional probabilities)
4) Can learn rules as well as sound (phoneme) patterns

Question 18

What are two concepts of word learning?

Answer 18

1) Fast mapping (ability to acquire word quickly on minimal information: quickly pair word with object, do not need lots of repetition
2) Syntactic bootstrapping (use syntax to bootstrap/figure out meaning of word)

Question 19

What are 2 concepts on conversations?

Answer 19

1) Children talk to themselves as a regulatory function (to help organize their thoughts)
2) Collective monologues: taking turns in conversation that have no correlation with each other

Question 20

What are gender differences at age 1?

Answer 20

• Toy preferences as early as 1 year
  Not only preference for gender typical toys but neutral toys if believed gender appropriate (e.g. more likely to play with an object if they saw someone of the same presenting gender playing with it first)

Question 21

What are gender differences at 1-2 years of age?

Answer 21

Form gender-related expectations about the kinds of objects and activities that are typically associated with males and females

Question 22

What are gender differences in age 2-3?

Answer 22

Learn which gender group they ‘belong’ to and by age 3, to use gender terms (e.g. boy) in their speech
- Behaviour becomes gender-differentiated, particularly in play
- Rough and tumble play, competition
- Pretend play (heroes vs. families)
- Aggression

Question 23

What are gender differences in the preschool period?

Answer 23

Increase in gender differentiation in play and among same-gender peers
- Avoid peers who violate gender-typical behaviour
- Gender segregation appears to be culturally universal

Question 24

What are the gender differences in middle childhood?

Answer 24

Peer groups tend to establish somewhat different gender-role norms for behaviour
-Boys: tend to value self-assertion and peer groups are more likely to reflect norms of dominance, self-reliance, and hiding vulnerability
- Girls: tend to value affiliation or a balance of self-assertion and affiliation; peer groups are more likely to reflect norms of intimacy, collaboration, and emotional sharing

Question 25

What are noticed gender differences in social interaction styles?

Answer 25

• Social interaction revolves more around shared emotion (girls) vs. shared activities/interests (boys
• Social problem solving: compromises (girls) vs. physical force (boys)

Question 26

At what age do children start to show understanding of gender and unfair gender roles/discrimination

Answer 26

9 or 10 years old

Question 27

What are gender role differences in adolescence?

Answer 27

Can be a period of either increased gender-role intensification or increased gender-role flexibility
- Gender-role intensification: heightened concerns with adhering to traditional gender roles
- Gender-role flexibility: allows adolescents (girls more than boys) to transcend traditional conventions and pursue a more flexible range of interests

Question 28

What are 4 key processes of social learning theory?

Answer 28

1) Attention (to gender info): Information about gender attracts attention of children
2) Memory (for that info): Child is more likely to remember information when it has to do with gender
3) Motivation (to repeat gender typed behaviour): clear motivation to want to engage in behaviour that is reflective of one’s gender identity
4) Production (of gender behaviour): children go on and produce behaviour that is consistent with beliefs of what is normative of identified gender

Question 29

What are 4 typical parental behaviours around gender?

Answer 29

• Reward gender stereotypical behaviour
• Buy gender stereotypical toys
• Are supportive of gender stereotypical play
• Talk differently to children (e.g. about their emotions)

Question 30

What are 3 ATYPICAL parental behaviours about gender?

Answer 30

1) Display a difference in warmth (based on gender)
2) Differ in responsiveness (based on gender)
3) Restrict activities, tell child NO if child first expressed interest (based on gender)

Question 31

What are 3 conversational differences in parents to children about gender?

Answer 31

1) Parents often convey messages about gender through gender-essentialist statements (gender and experience of it is fixed, and it has a fixed effect on child)
2) Fathers tend to use more instructional talk with sons than with daughter (son asks a question, father will explain the why in more detail)
3) Parents and other adults are more likely to comment on appearance of daughter rather than of son

Question 32

What are gender schemas? and what do they teach?

Answer 32

Mental representations incorporating everything they know about gender
From these children learn:
- Ways to talk, look, play, etc.
- In-group/out-group distinction (us vs. them)

Question 33

What is gender self-socialization?

Answer 33

Child determines what and how much other info they learn about gender?

Question 34

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 34

Tendency to retain schema-consistent and ignore or distort schema-inconsistent information

Question 35

What does the gender schema theory state?

Answer 35

The motivation to enact gender-typed behaviour begins soon after children can label other people’s and their own gender during toddlerhood

Question 36

What are three ways that learning about gender occurs?

Answer 36

1) Tuition: direct teaching
2) Enactive experience: experiencing the reactions one’s behaviour evokes in others (e.g. are parents pleased with your behaviour?)
3) Modelling: how people are behaving (in a two-parent heterosexual household, is the mom doing all the cooking and cleaning?)

Question 37

What does social cognitive theory state?

Answer 37

Adults are more upset when boys engage in cross-gender-typed behaviours because the asymmetry is tied to men’s dominant status in society (so if a boy engages in female associated behaviour, it is seen as insuperior)
Fathers play a particularly active role in instilling male behaviours in their sons and in enforcing the avoidance of feminine behaviours

Question 38

What does social role theory state?

Answer 38

How different expectations for each gender stem from the division of labour between men and women in a given society
- Such as: Parents frequently assign different chores to boys and girls
Boys: tasks performed outside the home that involve tools and machines
Girls: tasks inside the home, particularly helping to care for younger siblings

Question 39

What does Kohlberg say about role development (3 processes)?

Answer 39

• influenced/informed by Piaget
• Children’s understanding of gender involves 3 processes
  1) gender identity by 30 months (not fixed, haven’t essentialized), start using gender nouns (such as “I’m a boy.”)
  2) gender stability by 3-4 yrs (quasi-fixed; appearance still matters, don’t think that gender can be changed as easily but interprets appearance as a distinguisher as gender, such as girl with short hair can be a boy)
  3) gender constancy by 6yrs (fixed, the gender the person identifies with is largely stable, harder to be pushed around), begin to self-socialize themselves in regards to gender

Question 40

A) What are 3 major influences on the gender differences in aggression?
B) What are 3 smaller influences?

Answer 40

1) Cognitive and Motivational Influences:
- Cross culturally, we tend to see that boys are higher on direct aggression
- Boys may be more likely to appraise conflicts as competitions that require use of direct aggression, socialize girls to approach conflict with resolution and be kind and understanding
2) Biology:
- The body increases its production of testosterone in response to perceived threats and challenges, and this increase can lead to more aggressive behaviour
- Males tend to interpret conflict as threats
3) Parental and Other Adult Influences:
- Parents tend to be more tolerant of aggression in boys than in girls
B) Other Influences:
1) Peers: aggressive children are typically rejected in both male and female peer groups, but male peer groups tend to be more lenient
2) Media: boys exposed to more violence than girls
3) Culture: levels of aggression that are considered normal vary from one area to another, but boys show more aggression than girls

Question 41

What is gender identity?

Answer 41

our deeply held, internal sense of self as masculine, feminine, a blend of both, neither, or something else.

Question 42

3 pieces of evidence that support the fact that biological sex is ASSIGNED and NOT BINARY

Answer 42

1) XX, XY, or Mosaic
- Mosaic: not all cells have the same chromosomes
2) Hormones
- Pre-pubescent children have basically same level of hormones
- Hormones vary and men and women can both have varying levels of estrogen and testosterone
3) Primary and secondary sex characteristics
- Are simply markers, e.g. hair length does not suddenly change gender
- Intersex: individuals born with chromosome patterns, gonads, and/or genitalia that do not coincide with either binary sex

Question 43

4 types of Other-Socialization

Answer 43

1) Categorization: others label and treat children according to their assumed gender
2) Modeling: indirect exposure to social stereotypes and norms about gender
3) Tuition: direct teaching of social stereotypes and norms about gender
4) Policing: rewarding behaviours associated with the child’s assumed gender and punishing non-gender conforming behaviours

Question 44

3 types of Self-Socialization?

Answer 44

1) Children are “gender detectives”: actively trying to identify what is typical of their gender
2) Children seek out information about their own gender group
3) Most children seek to align themselves with the traits, behaviours, values, expressions, of their gender group

Question 45

What is Two-Spirit?

Answer 45

an umbrella term used by Indigenous peoples of North America (often, but not always) to refer to an Indigenous person who identifies as having both a masculine and feminine spirit.

Question 46

3 facts about ingroup bias?

Answer 46

• The preference for one’s own gender and the sentiment that one’s own gender is superior to the other
• Preference for one’s own gender is consistent throughout lifespan, but sentiment that one’s own gender is superior tends to lessen, especially with women
• Very strong in early childhood

Question 47

What does Olson et al. research question?
How was it tested?

Answer 47

Do socially transitioned, young (5- to 12- year-old) transgender children show patterns of gender cognition more consistent with their expressed gender or their sex assigned at birth?

Tested using IAT on ingroup bias with explicit gender cognition and implicit gender cognition

Question 48

What were Olson et al.’s findings?

Answer 48

KEY FINDING:
Children’s self-socialization and internal sense of identity best explains children’s gender preferences and expression
Explicit preference:
Transgender children, cis-gendered children, and sibling group all have strong preference for same gendered peers and associated objects
Implicit preference:
Transgender children, cis-gendered children, and sibling group all have strong preference for same gender group
Implicit identity:
Transgender children, cis-gendered children, and sibling group all have strong association with own identity and gendered group

Question 49

What is gender typicality?

Answer 49

• The extent to which one feels like a typical example of one’s own-gender category
• Children judge typicality through toy and activity preference, appearance and dress, as well as traits and behaviours

Question 50

What are the findings on a study about gender typicality in transgender children?

Answer 50

Transgender children (3 to 12 years old) showed no differences in gender typicality from their cisgender peers on measures of toy preferences, clothing preferences, felt similarity to their own gender, and felt dissimilarity to the other binary gender
- Gender typicality was no affected by how long the child had been socially transitioned (living as their gender)
- Indicates that self-socialization is more important than other-socialization, which means it is the most influential (as they are both more important than biology)