language development Flashcards
when can babies hear
25-29 weeks
what frequencies could be heard in the womb?
lower frequencies - below 1000Hz
Decaspers reading study to foetus
in utero testing, DeCasper et al. women read a short story everyday from 33-37 weeks on the 38th week foetus is played a recording of that story and then a control story, target start = decreased in heart rate control didn’t. Habituation effect, suggesting foetus can learn sound patterns.
what were the findings of pre and pst natal study of a melody on the brain
testing spanning pre and post-natal periods. —> musical melody 5 times a week for the last trimester, ERP recorded after birth and 4 months later in response to ogrinal and changed melody. Significant difference in brain responses. at birth and 4 months.
are babies able to discriminate between the language they were exposed to in the womb and other languages?
tested on french babies
they were unable to distinguish between two non native languages but could discriminate between their own and another
what is syntax?
Syntax = conventions (set of rules) for ordering words in ways that change the meaning of an utterance.
what age does syntax start?
Golinkoff said 19 months because babies looked at video with incorrect syntax for longer suggesting they were surpsied and understood it wasnt correct
at what age do infants understand words fall into different categories (abstract rule learning) ?
12 months
is the novelty effect bigger for verb or noun framed sentence?
verb
what does vgotsky think language is learned in?
the Zone of interest
what did piaget think language development was progressed by?
Piaget: Language development is connected to (= conditioned by) cognitive development. Cognitive prerequisites à language. Stages.
skinner believed languga eis learned via…
associations
what psychologists believed language is learned?
vgotsky
piaget
skinner
why did chomsky think language cannot be fully learned?
hilds language imput is poor (there isnt enough in the environmnet to justify a complex language skill set) and contains limited negative evidence:
- Children are rarely exposed to ungrammatical sequences as counterpoints
- parents do not tend to correct the child’s syntactic errors
chomsky argues..
we must have an innate capaicty to learn language because it is so complicated
syntactic trees highlight this
does language learning have a critical period?
YES
linguistic environment is important since it triggers an innate syntax-acquisisation device, but this has to happen in the first few years of life,
genie example of critical period for language
until age of 13 genie was eft in an attic with no means for communication she was never able to learn lanugae fully and was held back at the age of 24-36 months old
chomskys main ideas that are dominnant in the field of lanagueg development
- Chomsky (1965) – children come equipped with a biological endowment for language processing (cf. poverty of the input and lack of negative evidence).
- Children come into the world knowing that languages take certain limited forms. This is called Universal Grammar (UG). Continuity from infancy to adulthood.
- Chomsky (1981). UG is not entirely fixed. It has a few Parameters that are free to vary from language to language.
pinkers argument
innate capacity for language, They have pre-conceptions about links between knowledge of roles (semantics) and knowledge of grammatical position (cf. Mintz’s experiment), e.g., the ‘doer’ (agent) appears before the verb. Semantic bootstrapping (see later slide). more open to the idea that additional mechanisms contribute to syntactic development.
what is semantic bootstrapping?
There are regularities in the observable world. Observation of a link between semantic representations (persons, actions, objects) and syntactic structures:
person-action-object (who does what)
agent-action-patient
subject-verb-object
what is statistical learning?
the ability for humans and other animals to extract statistical regularities from the world around them to learn about the environment
what was seidenbergs definition of syntax?
knowledge of what is likely to come next given the sentence so far.
when does babbling occur in babies?
6-15 months
deaf children hand gesture study
Tracked proportion of “manual babbling” (syllabic hand structure) of 2 deaf children and 3 matched hearing children.
Deaf children showed a greater proportion of manual babbling than hearing children and this difference increased with age.
This increased over time, babbling will transfer to gestural communication, it is a necessary stage.
what is the debate between babbling being a percersur of language?
discontinuity and continuity hypothesis
what is the discontinuity hypothesis?
They have just discovered they can make vocal noises and are using their vocal cords, for muscular exercise it is not a step to learning language
no correlation between babbling and start of langauge merley muscle exercise
what is the continuity hypotehsis?
commonalities between babbling and their native language.
- acoustic analysis would demonstrate this and show its more complex than vocal muscular activity
- there actually isn’t a silent period
- babbling has linguistic manifestations
holowka and Petitto study into continuity hypothesis - babies faces
- brain is lateralised
- emotion = right brain
- language = left
- when we express emotion our left side of the face does something
- when we laugh the left side of our moth opens more
- do infants when bablling have the right side of the mouth opened more, as adults tend to do
- this is what the study found
- in depth brain specific features
what is a phoneme?
units of speech sounds that can lead to different words, approx 45 phonemes
at 1.5 years 50-60% of phonemes are correctly articulated
at 3 years nearly all of them are learnt correctly
tend to avoid difficult phonemes and simplify words
p h n b m q are easiest phonemes for infants 1.5 years
when do babies have first word?
9 months ish
Tincoff and Jusczyk study loooking into wether children know the words mum and dad
sit child in fonrt of 2 mointors then speaker in between play word they might no, present a video of mum and dad and see which one they look at for longer. then play a word that has no meaning and they have no preference. replace fathers face with random women and found they looked at the mum for longer.
if knowing the word mummy can infants learn the word tommy
wo groups
one story with mummy in every sentence
another group with tommy in every sentence
is the word feet easier to know if its with a sentence of a word you already know
measure amount of time vs they hear the word cup vs feet, cup is a test word they dont know this word
mummy group had prefernce for feet but tommy group didnt
saffron et al study with head turn procedure on 8 month old children
xposed child to a made up language for twenty mins - sounded like random words but they start spotting regularities - that language is made of 4 words - they might notice the words and regularities - test play the word that was in the language play word that wasnt in language - can they spot difference - can they spot difference between non word and half word -
findings of saffran study
they were excited by hearing words that didnt match watch they expected
Results: Infants can discriminate familiar from novel items. Longer listening time to novel items, i.e., a novelty effect.
this allowed children to learn words
what factors account for ID in vocab vastness
age = 50%
biology
cognitive abilities, theory of mind, symbolism
environmental factors
is comprehnsion or productin first in LD
comprehnsion
when does sudden word learning spurt?
two years
whole object bias
words refer to objects not object parts - teachings features is difficult
role of infant directed speech
highlights novelty of sentence, may play an important role in learning syntax
role of visual attention in language learning
Results: Successful learning of object-word pairs associated with the proportion of field of view occupied by the object during relevant utterance by the mother (more -> better). But only if the object continues to occupy scene after utterance (how long before doesn’t matter).
hebbian learning
track occuing events and consolidate occurong events and decrease link between events that dont connect
for example if you see a dog and and a ball together and you already know the word dog other must be ball
what is a communication disorder?
impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems.
can be evident in language, hearing and speech processes.
can range in severity
may be a primary disability or secondary to other disabilities
when does DLD occur?
DLD occurs when one of these breaks down: semantics, morphology, syntax, phonology and pragmatics.
what is DLD?
- Selective problem with language development (quiet, word finding, linguistic immaturity, challenged language comprehension). Language abilities below chronological age expectations that are unlikely to be resolved by age five.
- Other aspects of development – self-help skills, socialisation, nonverbal abilities, motor skills – all developing normally.
- DLD is specific to language
- not explained by biomedical conditions such as brain injury etc. diagnosis by elimination
what disorder does DLD commonly occur with?
ASD
what feature of ASD does DLD overlap with?
DLD overlaps with impaired communication but may not have the other features
evidence for biological factors causing DLD
- 60% of children with DLD have an affected family member; 38% have an affected parent. Important twin studies by Bishop.
- However, no single known genetic anomaly, despite literature on gene FOXP2 (mutation on chromosome 7). Don’t generally associate these together though.
- Possible differences in brain structure, e.g., grey matter density (MRI) and brain activation patterns (fMRI).
what are the causes of dld?
- biology
- environmenetal
- perceptual and cognitive
reasoning for socio-evnivronmental factors causing dld
- Less interactive/talkative environments, e.g., parents of children with DLD are less likely to “recast” sentences (i.e., rephrase or expand).
- causality, does linguistic behaviour causes DLD or DLD cause linguistic behaviour
reasoning for perceptual and cognitive factors (not purely linguistic) causing DLD
- iew that DLD is not a purely linguistic disorder as such but a secondary consequence of cognitive deficiencies.
- Difficulty holding phonological information in working memory, possibly leading to weak contextual integration (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990).
- problems with non verbal problem solving
study that shows DLD have a problem with number of phonemes not knolwedge
- Children listen to spoken nonwords and repeat. Ok with short nonwords. Harder with longer nonwords
- gets harder but no difference when working memory is not overfilled the gap is highlighted more
- concluding that its not phonological knowledge bc with two syllable they can do it its the number of phonemes going in working memory that gets confusing
what is auitory processing disorder?
- communication problems
- perceptive not linguistic
- not a hearing problem
- Difficulties understanding speech in noisy situations and fast speech.
- can share symptomology of DLD and can lead to poor speech perception/production as well as impaired learning.
- can align with: heairng impairemnt, depression, learning disability, ADHD and DLD
what is the main symptoms of APD?
- Tallal: main problem is with poor auditory temporal discrimination they struggle telling apart short and long auditory events. time is the problem.
treatment for APD?
training example study
APD children before and after 4 weeks of training (5 to 10 y-olds).
Training: Speech and non-speech durational contrasts.
Auditory temporal discrimination training leads to speech perception and language comprehension improvement.
causes of APD
Problem is auditory: Higher-level auditory brain abnormalities (central nervous system)
Beyond auditory nerve, auditory information is processed in complex higher pathways.
That is where information about sound features such as pitch, loudness, duration, and spatial location, is extracted.
this is tallalls claim problem in brain stem
problem is not auditory
non neuroscience cause of APD
- POOR ATTENTION
- leading to poor auditory heairng and attenion
- just a symptom of ADHD?
what does APD comorbid with
ADHD
WHAT IS A SPEECH DISORDER?
- Speech production deficits that result from an impairment of the motor control system or of phonological planning.
- They are not language impairments per se, but they may co-occur with language impairments.
- Other oral movements (besides speech) may be impaired, including chewing and smiling.
what is apraxia of speech?
roblem with motor control of linguistic representations, Muscle physiology is intact. Phonological representations are intact.
traits of apraxia
slow speech, sound distortions, prolonged durations of sounds, reduced prosody, difficulties initiating speech, groping of articulators. Inability to say some sounds.
cause of apraxia
Caused by neurological damage to the left frontal cortex surrounding Broca’s Area – due to stroke, brain injuries, illness, or infection.
traits of phonological impariment
Sound substitutions, omission (cat > tat). Speech rate and prosody are unimpaired. Errors are more consistent and easier to correct than in apraxia of speech.
what is a phonological impairment?
Impairment of phonological planning or phonological representations. Can say all sounds, but don’t use them appropriately within words. Articulation itself is intact; no problems with motor control.
treatment for speech disorders?
- Slowing down speech.
- Exaggerating movement of lips and tongue.
- Saying sounds clearly in words and sentences.
- Using more breath to be louder when speaking, e.g., LSVT LOUD intervention programme. Particularly effective for apraxia of speech mostly.
what is LSVT LOUD?
- Named after Lee Silverman Voice Treatment. Lee Silverman was a Parkinson’s disease (PD) patient.
- Emphasis on loudness and breathing.
- LSVT LOUD provides speech treatment for people with PD and other neurological conditions involving motor speech disorders (e.g., apraxia of speech).
is lsvt loud more effective or is it normal speech therapy?
lsvt
what is non-nutrive sticking?
- babies do this when born
- shows interest and engamement when they have higher sucking rates
- novelety and excitement
- usually happens at a new stimulus
what is prosody?
Prosody refers to the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech, which contribute to the expressiveness and meaning of spoken language.
explain the prosody of cries straighta fter birth
- infants’ cries seem to reflect their native language
- french cries pitch refelct french prosody
what is a main buidling block for language aquisition in the womb?
prosody
phoneme
speech sounds
t and d
ten and den
make different meanings
vowels are …
voiced - allow production of pitch and intensity
prosody is carried by what what does this mean for infants?
syllables so infants shouldt be able to differentiate between sunds with no syllable structure (no viwels)
bertoncini and mehler exp
- played babies pst sound and tsp
- no vowels
- babies didnt suck more for one suggesting didnt differenciate
- vowel is vital for prosody
- then put vowel at the beggining and end of the sounds
- and they found discriminate
- suggesting vowel = prosody
infant direct speech
- higehr pitch
- exaggerated prosody
- this is not universal so isnt necessary for language development
is prosody a language specific skill
no
what is categorical perception?
a percetual phenomenon whereby events on a continuum are percieved as belonging to discrete catgeories
what is voice onset time
time form openning liips until the time vocal chors start vibrating
what do you find on a phoneme identification task
theres a sharp phoneme baoundary
how can you test auditory categorical perception?
continuum - boundary is distinnctive
discrimination - test at the boundary should be good discrimination
is categroical perception present at birth?
- create continuim
- habituation to one sound
- then play one of three things
1. between boundary
2. within boundary
3. control same sound - only a difference in sucking rate in group one
- yes its present at birth
if categorical perception at birth, does this mean humans are born with a predisposition for language?
no general properties rather then language predisposition
is categorical perception language specifi?
no
music rhythm
vision
is categorical perception human specifi?
no, chinchillas, monkeys etc
how do you test if chinchillas can tell the difference between sounds?
- go to left side of room if here t for reward or right for d
- then play continuim of t - d
- they should go left for t 3 times then d 3
- found categoircal perception
what tools help learn language for babies?
regularities in language - example of stat learning
