Language Development Flashcards
High Amplitude Sucking Procedure
Use to test infants from birth to 4 months
-relies on infants sucking reflex
-the number of strong sucks is an indicator of the infants interest
Voice Onset time (VOT)
Length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start to vibrate
Different speech sounds can be done in a very similar way. What distinguishes them?
VOT
Categorical perception
We perceive speech sounds as distinct categories even though the differences between speech sounds is gradual. Ex. BA and PA. You hear a B if the VOT is smaller than 25. And a P if voice onset time is bigger than 25.
Why categorical perception is useful
Focuses on sounds that are linguistically meaningful while ignoring meaningless differences. Difference between 10ms VOT vs 20ms VOT is meaningless in English, both a “B”.
Do infants have the same speech perception as adults
Yes.
-Increase sucking when sound from new category (BA and PA)
-No change in sucking when sound from same category (PA and PA)
although both represent the same different in VOT
True or false: Infants make more distinctions between speech sounds than adults
True. Study with “Ta” and “ta” in Hindi. ? months old get used to one of them. Increase sucking when hear the other speech sound.
Meaning infants are able to distinguish between sounds they have never heard before, in language they have never been exposed to before.
Perceptual narrowing of speech perception
speech perception diminishes around 8 months
At what age kids lose the ability to distinguish between non-native sounds
10-12 months of age
At what age comes word segmentation
7 months of age
How do children know where words begin and end in fluent speech
They pick up on patterns of native language via statistical learning. Sensitive to the patterns of language and use it to segment words.
What are the two types of statistical learning that allow children to find words in speech
1) Stress-patterning.
Where you place stress, or weight in the sentence. In English, stress usually on the first syllable In french, stress usually on last syllable.
2) Distribution of speech sounds
“ba” and “by” occur together often because make word “baby”.
statistical learning: if it happens often, it’s probably a word.
Preferential listening procedure
how much time they look at each sound.
Developmental milestones
2 months: cooing & gurgling “ahhhhh”
7 months: “papapa”, “bababa”.
12months: first words
18 months: knows 50 words
functions of babbling
-social function: practice turn-taking in a dialogue. elicit caregiver reactions which in turn elicit more babbling
-learning function: signal that the infant is listening are ready to learn. infants learn more when an adult labels a new object just after they babble vs. learning the world in the absence of babbling.
around what age do infants appear to understand high-frequency words (words they hear often)
around 6 months of age. eye-tracking task. if experimenter says apple, infant is most likely to look at apple.
shows that infants understand more words than they can produce, and more words than their caregiver realize
What is considered a first word?
any specific utterance consistently used to refer to or express a meaning. consistently being used to refer to a specific thing every time. like saying “gulgul” to refer to a turkey = first word.
when are first words produced
12 months of age
what do first words usually refer to
family members, pets, or important objects
2 limitations of first words
overextension: using a word in a broader context than is appropriate
-like using dog for all 4 legged animals
underextension: using a word in a more limited context than appropriate
-like using cat only for the family’s cat
what is vocabulary spurt
rate of word learning accelerates
when do children know around 50 words
at 18 months of age
children’s assumptions in word learning: mutual exclusivity assumption
a given object/being will have only one name.
-will turn their attention to the object they don’t have a name for when they hear a new word
children’s assumptions in word learning: whole-object assumption
a word will refer to the whole object rather than to a part oor action of the object
children’s assumptions in word learning: pragmatic cues
using the social context to infer the meaning of a word
-if adult says a new word, the child assumes that it refers to the object the adult is looking at, even if the chlid cannot see it.
children’s assumptions in word learning: adult’s intentionality
if an adult uses a word that conflicts with child’s word for that object, they will learn the new word if it is said with confidence
“you’re not gonna believe this but his is actually a dog!” greater intention. kid will believe
children’s assumptions in word learning: grammatical form
children pay attention to grammar
“this is sibbing”: knows it refers to the action
“this is a sib”: bowl
“this is some sib”: grains
children’s assumptions in word learning: shape bias
Children will apply a noun to a new object of the same shape, even if that object is very different in size, colour, or texture
children’s assumptions in word learning: cross-situational word learning
determining word meanings by tracking the correlations between labels and meanings across contexts
in context 1, someone says this is a dax. three things in front of you. in context 2, someone says again this is a dax, still three things in front of you. The thing that is common in both situation is the dax
how can caregivers influence word learning (3 ways)
-Infant directed speech
-Quantity of speech: the number of words used around them
-Quality of speech: the richness of adult communication with their child
function of infant-directed speech
draws attention to speech, which then faciliates their language learning
study with 7-8months old: do they prefer IDS or adult speech words
IDS. look longer at words introduced in IDS
true or false: the number of words heard by children differs across income groups
true. called “the 30 million word gap”. children from high SES have larger vocabularies than kids from low SES. differences in language exposure contribute to achievement gap between higher and lower SES children.
first sentences: at around what age comes telegraphic speech (2-3 words phrases, like “ hurt knee”)
2 years old
learning grammar: between what age children acquire the basics of grammar
between 2 to 5 years old. master grammar at 5
what does this exercice allow us to see in children and at what age is a child able to respond. “This is a Wug. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two _____”
to see if children have learned the grammar of their language (applying rule to new context): around 5 years old
how is grammar learned
-parents and other caregivers
-statistical learning
from sentences to conversations: what what characterizes speech in children between 1 to 4 years old
- private speech: directed to themselves to organize actions.
“this is blue. this one is pink. i’ll draw it pink.” - egocentric discussion between children
at around what age can children stick to the same conversation topic as their conversation partner
5+ years old
what explains the sensitive period (from birth to before puberty) for language acquisition
due to maturational changes in the brain whereby language brain areas become less plastic
what are evidences of sensitive period in language acquisition
1- Genie. rescued at 13. Never able to talk
2 - Children with brain damage usually recover full language vs teenagers and adults are more likely to suffer permanent language impairment
3 - Deaf individuals: if they could hear as children, perform better on language task. same thing if exposure to ASL. exposure to language, regardless of modality, is crucial for full language dev.
4 - Second language learners: first age of exposure
bilingualism: what were the results of the study done with 2 groups of newborns, one group mom English-Tagalog bilingual, other group mom monolingual English
English monolinguals had a preference for English
English-Tagalog bilinguals showed no consistent preference for either language
-Suggest that bilingual infants start learning about two native languages pre-birth
In follow up study, to see if children can actually discriminate betwen english and tagalog, they habituated children to either Tagalog or English. Then played other language. What happened
Increase sucking to new language for both Tagalog babies and English babies.
-shows that bilingual infants can differentiate between native languages despite showing similar preferences for both languages
-also shows that bilingual infants are developping two separate language systems, which goes against monolingual brain hypothesis
what are evidences for two separate linguistic systems
- language development in bilingual vs. monolingual children is very similar
ex. say their first word roughly at the same time - children select language they use based on conversational partner
- Even if children mix languages, not sign of confusion
what are advantages of bilingualism
- bilingual children perform better on measures of executive functionning than monolingual children
- bilingualism seems to delay onset of Alzheimer’s in older adults
what explains that: bilinguals have to quickly switch between languages, which practices their executive functionning skills, especially cognitive flexibility
