Language Development in Children Flashcards
What are the subfields of language?
morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology
What is morphology?
study of word structure, describes how words are formed out of morphemes
What is a morpheme?
smallest meaningful unit of language
what are base, root, or free morphemes?
have meaning, cannot be broken down further, can have other morphemes added to them
What are bound or grammatical morphemes?
cannot stand alone, must be formed with free morphemes to have meaning
What are examples of bound morphemes?
ing, s, ed, ‘s
what is an allomorph?
variations of morphemes that do not alter the original meaning (ex. z or s ending)
What is syntax?
word order dictation, study of sentence structure
What does the study of syntax involve?
arrangement of words, word order, collection of rules
what is a passive sentence?
the subject recieves the action of the verb
What is an active sentence?
subject performs the actions of the verbs (Mark petted the cat)
What constitutes a compound sentence?
two or more independent clauses joined by a comma, conjunction, or semicolon.
What is a complex sentence?
one that contains an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
What is semantics?
study of meaning in language including a person’s vocabulary
What does vocabulary development depend on ?
environmental exposure as well as the individual capacity each child brings to the learning situation
What are important aspects of vocabulary development? Knowledge of:
antonyms or opposities, synonyms, multiple meanings of words, humor, figurative lanaguage, deictic words (referents change depending on who is speaking)
What is overextension?
using the word “ball” for round objects
What is a child’s ability to learn a new word on the basis of just a few exposures to it?
quick incidental learning
What is a good component in language development?
categorizing
Why is the use of categories good?
brings order to the child’s experiences, these experiences can be filed under preexisting categories or under mental constructs the child has that allow him to group similar items together.
What is pragmatics?
study of rules that govern the use of language in social situations. One focuses on the use of language in social context, places greater emphasis on functions or uses of language than on structure.
What part of language considers the context of the utterance and the function of the utterance?
pragmatics
What are some functions of language?
labeling, protesting, commenting
What are important functions of utterances?
providing listeners with adequate information, making a sequence of statements logical, taking turns with other speakers, maintaining a topic, repairing communication break downs
What does language context involve?
where the utterance takes place, to whom the utterance is directed, what and who are present at the time
What is cohesion?
the ability to order and organize utterances in a message so that they build logically on one another
What is discourse?
how utterances relate to one another, the connected flow of language
What is a narrative?
A form of discourse in which someone tells a story
What are major variables that interact in the development of language?
child’s innate characteristics, child’s environment, cultural expectatons
What are characteristics of motherese or child-directed speech?
utterances produced with a higher pitch and greater pitch fluctuation, slower rate, clearer, more fluent, simpler utterances, longer pauses, words refer to here and now
What interaction skills do infants typically learn from their caregiver?
turn-taking
What does the development of langugae in motivated babies typically look like?
more rapid pace of language development, attempt more frequent, caried interactionss
What would language look like in an infant who was ignored or punished when they communicated?
delays or slowness in developing language skills
What milestones occur from birth to three months?
startle response to a loud sound, visually tracks or moves eyes to source of sound, attends to and turns head toward voice, smiles reflexively, cries for assistance, quiets when picked up, ceases activity or coos back when person talks, produces predominantly vowels
What milestones occur at 4-6 months?
responds by raising arms when mother says “come here”, looks toward family members when they are named, explores vocal mechanism through vocal play, produces adult like vowels, begins marginal babbling, varies pitch of vocalizations, responds to name, vocalizes please and displeasure, varies volume, pitch, and rate
What milestones occur from 7-9 months?
looks at objects when name is spoken, comprehends no, begins to use some gestural langugae, uses wide variety of sound combinations, uses inflected vocal play, imitates intonation and sounds of others, uses variegated babbling, uncovers hidden toy
What milestones occur from 10-12 months?
understands up to 10 words, understands one word simple direction, uses first true word, gives block or toy upon request, obeys some commands, understands and follows simple directions regarding body action, looks in correct places for hidden toys, turns head instantly to own name, gestures or vocalizes to indicate wants and needs, jabbers loudly, uses all consonant and vowel sounds in vocal play
What are the stages of pragmatic skills?
perlocutionary, illocutionary, locutionary, joint reference
What is perlocutionary behavior?
“signals” have an effect on the listener but lack communicative intent
What is illocutionary behavior?
At 9-10 months, uses a signal to carry out some socially organized action such as pointing and laughing, uses intentional communication
What is the locutionary stage?
At 12 months, begins to use words
What is joint reference?
the ability to focus attention on an event or object as directed by another person.
What is the holophrastic single word phase?
one word represents a complex idea (up-for please pick me up because I don’t want to sit here and play) milestone met between1-2 years. Sentence like words are conveted through vocal and bidily cues
When do children begin to put 2 words together?
18-24 months
When might children begin to put together 3-4 word responses?
2 years
At 24 months what is the normal percentage of 3-4 word plhrases and 2-word utterances?
50-50
When does a child first use “and” to form a conjoined sentence?
24 months
How many words are typically produced around 18 months? How many do they understand?
10-50, 200
What are semantic relations? A child uses these around 18 months of age
utterances that reflect meaning based on relationships between different words
What is an overextension?
Calling all brown-eyed, slender women “Mommy”
What is “all gone” production demonstrate?
emerging negation
What is attribution?
an adjective, a property of characteristic of an event, person, object (BIG doggy, CLEAN dolly)
What is action?
Child requests or labels an action; indicates movement relationships between objects and poeple (open box, kitty, run)
What is locative action?
child refers to change in an objects location(ball up, there doggy)
What is existence?
child is attending to item or object present in the immediate environment, especially a novel one (What’s that? This kitty)
What is nonexistence?
An action or object is expected to be present but is not, something was present but disappeared (all gone juice, bye bye Mommy)
What is denial?
child denies a statemetn or previous utterance (is this a kitty? no kitty)
What is rejection?
The child does not want something to happen, child refuses an object or action (no bath)
Whart is reccurrence?
An event happens again, (more cookie)
What is possession?
Child identifies something as belonging to him or her, or to another person (his block, doll mine)
What is a presupposition?
have shared meaning for the speaker and listene, used between 1 & 2 years of age.
What did Halliday coin?
seven functions of communicative intent
What is the imaginative function?
pretend or do play acting, use language to create an environemtn
What is the heuristic function?
children attempt to have their environment and events in their environment explained, they organize and investigate (why?)
What is the regulatory function?
children attempt to control the behaviors of others (do as I tell you)
What is the personal function?
Children express their own feelings and attitudes, awareness (says yummy)
What is the informative function?
children can tell someone something, communicate experiences (I have something to tell you)
What is the instrumental function?
children attempt to get assistance or material things from others (I want ball)
What is the interactional function?
children initiate interactions with others (Hi Daddy)
What did Dore focus on?
the 12-24 month period in which children use early words to signal communicative intent, focusing more on intentions and less on listeners reactions
What are some of Dore’s functions?
practicing, protesting, greeting, calling/addressing, requesting action, requesting and answer, labeling, repeating/imitating, answering
What is the MLU level observed at 36 months?
2.0-4.0
When does beginning phrase and sentence structure emerge?
2-3 years.
At 2-3 years, what is the structured of sentences formed?
subject-verb, subject-verb-object
When does a child start to use wh- questions?
2-3 years
How does a 2-3 year old express negation?
Me no do it
At 30 months approx how many words does the child comprehend?
2400
What is typically expressive vocabulary at 30 months?
425 (200-600)
Word meanings are learned in what sequence?
object, events, actions, adjectives, adverbs, spatial concepts, temporal concepts
What are the first pronouns used?
self referents- I and me
what is the order of acquisition of the 14 grammatical morphemes?
present progressive -ing, prepositions, regular plural inflection, irregular past tense verbs, possessive ‘s, uncontractible copula, articles, past-tense regular -ed, regular third person -s, irregular third person, uncontractible auxillary, contractible copula, contractible auxillary
When does use of embedded forms emerge?
3-4
When do children begin to use complex and compound sentences?
3-4
When can the child use irregular plural forms?
3-4
What is MLU at 36 moths?
2.0-4.0
What is MLU at 48 months?
3.0-5.0
What is MLU at 5-6 years?
6.0-8.0
When are spatial relations and prepositions developed?
5-6 years
What is avergae MLU at 6-7
7.3 words
What are the areas of literacy skills?
phonologiacl awareness, print knowledge, reading, writing
What is phonological awareness?
a child’s specific ability to detect and manipulate sounds and syllables in words. It accompasses the ability to be aware of sounds and syllables apart from whole words
What is print knowledge?
a child’s emergent knowledge about functions and fors of written language
Children who have poor auditory-oral skills have difficulty often with?
reading and writing
What does research show is a critical age for intervention?
1st grade
When is independent reading expected?
2nd grade
What is the behavioral theory of language development?
It does not explain the acquisition of language because it is a mental system, Skinner’s system explains the acquisition of verbal behavior, which are acquired under appropriate ocnditions of stimulation, response, and reinforcement
what do behavioral scientists suggest plays a major role in acquisition of verbal behaviors?
learning, not innate mechanisms, they offer that caregivers perform a variety of actions that promote language learning
What do behavioral scientists believe about language observation?
They don’t believe that children at a young age have innate language deivces, it is only the child’s environment and social interactions that are important. They only learn the language they are exposed to, social deprivation results in labgauge deprivation
According to behavioral scientists, when is verbal behavior produced?
characteristically under social situations, audience is necessary, verblal behavior is defined as a form of social behavior shaped and maintained by the members of a verbal community, social reinforcement increases verbal behaviors
How do behavioral theorists look at verbal behaviors?
they are broken down into cause and effect function units, not structures of language
What are the functional units of behavior theory?
mands (demands/commands-invovle requests motivated by biologically satisfying events), tacts (describe and comment on things, reinforced socially), echoics (imitative verbal responses), autoclitics (comment, clarify), intraverbals (
what do clinicians operating under the behavioral theory do?
believe one can teach language by targeting any observable behavior and manipulating the elements of a stimulus, a response, and some type of reinforcement, clinician selects specific target responses, creates appropriate antecedentevents, and reinforces correct responses
What is the nativist theory?
an influential theory of syntax proposed by Chomsky, states that syntactic structures are the essence of language and that language is a product of the unique human mind. He said there are universal rules of grammar that apply to all languages`
What does the nativist theory state?
children are born with a language acquisition device, assumed to be a specialized language processor that is a physiological part of the brain. The LAD knows about languages in general because it contains the universal rules of lanaguage, the child’s environment provides information about the unique rules of language to which the child is exposed. The LAD then integrates the universal rules and the unique rules of that language and thus helps the child learn language in a relatively short time
What do nativists believe children are born with?
an innate capacity to learn language and because this knowledge is present at birth, language is not learned through environmental stimulation, reinforcement or teaching.
What are comptence and performance as described by Chomsky?
competence is the knowledge of the rules of universal grammar and is innate. Performance is the actual production of language, and is imperfect because of fatigue and distraction
What is surface and deep structure according to Chomsky?
surface is the actual arrangement or words in a syntactic order. Deep structure is the rules of sentence formation
What is a transformation according to Chomsky?
an operation that relates the deep and surface structures and yeilds different forms of sentences, it is the process by which one arranges and rearranges words to change sentences. These involve deleting, adding, substitution and rearranging.
What is Chomsky’s theory often called?
transformational generative theory of grammer, with the knowledge of the rules of grammar and the use of transformations, speakers can generate and endless variety of sentences
What did Chomsky present his theory as?
the minimalist program
What do Chomskyan therapists do?
focus heavily on syntax in selecting treatment goals, reinforcement is unnecessary,rearranging the environemtn is often unsuccessful, however these are sometimes necessary with children
What is the cognitive theory?
a variant of the nativist theory, emphasizes cognitive theory or knowledge and mental processes such as memory, attention, and visual and auditory perception. This focuses on the child’s regulation of learning and on internal aspects of behavior.
According to the cognitive theory, how is language acquisition made possible?
by cognition and general intellectual processes. Language is the only one expression of a more general set of cognitive activities, and proper development of the cognitive system is a necessary precusor or linguistic expression
A child must first acquire concepts before what?
producing words
Cognitivists believe what?
cognitive abilities are essential prerequistis to language skills, language skills are dependent on cognitive abilities, children pass through the same stages, but the rate at which they pass through these may vary, certain language skills develop at the same time as certain cognitive skills
What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
sensorimotor (0-2 years), preoperational-preconceptual (2-4), intuitive (4-7) perceptions guidethoughts, concrete operations (7-11) less egocentric, formal operations (11+) displays lack of egocentricity
What do cognitivists believe?
language is neither innate nor learned through environment, they view it as emerging through cognitive growth
What are clincial implications for the cognitivist theory?
clinicians must assess cognitive precursors and facilitate the development of those before working on langugae itself, Language will not improve until cognitive precursors developed,
What are proponents of the information processing theory?
concerned with cognitive functioning, not cognitive structures or concepts, they are interested in HOW longuage is learned
how do information-processing believers view the human information-processing system?
a mechanism which encodes stimuli from the environment, operates on interpretations of those stimuli, stores the results in memory, and permits retrieval of previously stored memory.
What is the primary concern of information processing theorists?
the steps involved in handling or processing incoming and outgoing information. steps include organization, memory, transfer, attention, and discrimination. Long and short term emory are especially important. Language learning relies on information processing mechanisms, also called cognitive collectionism
What do Weismer and Evans suggest are the two broad categories of information processing related to children’s language disorders?
phonological processing and temporal auditory processing
what do children with problems in temporal auditory processing have problems with?
Remembering and following long and complex directions, repeating back sentences verbatim, repeating lists of real and nonsense words, other tasks hat tap the ability to hear, remember, and give back the information they heard
what are components of auditory processing?
auditory discrimination, attention, memory, rate, and sequencing
Information processing theorists target what primarily?
auditory processing
What is the social interactionism theory?
it does not focus on innate linguistic competence (nativism), instead this theory stipulates that the structure of human language has possibly arisen from language’s social-communicative function in humans. It explains language learning in a similar way to the behavioral view that language is only possible through interactions
What do proponents of social interactionism emphasize?
language function, not structure. They give credence to the situations in which social interactions occue, believing that interactions vary depending on the situation
What do social interactionists believe language develops from?
because people are motivated to interact socially with others around them. For example, infants seek out human faces and respond to them, the environemtn and social experiences are crucial to the emergence of language
who believed that language is a tool for social interaction?
Vygotsky
According to Vygotsky, language is acquired how?
through social interaction with more competent and experienced members of the child’s culture. He emphasized the importance of verbal guidance and modeling. Parents adjust linguistic input
What do therapists who operate under social interaction focus on?
focus on children’s motivation for communication. In other words, treatment sessions are built around increasing children’s motivation to communicate.
Who proposed the behavioral theory?
Skinner
Who proposed the nativist theory?
Chomsky
