Language Development Milestones Flashcards
3 variables that impact language development
- Innate characteristics - IQ, attention span
- Environment - caregivers, amount of stimulation, SES
- Cultural Expectations - Americans encourage children to talk, not all cultures do as well
Motherese aka Child-Directed Speech (CDS)
Speech that is slower, higher pitch, with dramatic changes in intonation.
Designed to increase child’s attention.
Shorter utterances with concrete language.
Caregiver Role during Infancy
- Turn-taking (ex: peek-a-boo) - foundational for pragmatics
- Eye contact - also for pragmatics
- Motivation: if caregiver responds immediately to cry it increases baby’s motivation to communicate. This leads to more frequent & varied interactions
- Quality of interaction (higher quality increases occurrence)
Locke’s Model Phase 1
Vocal Learning
Prenatal - 5/7 months
Familiarize selves with vocal cues that identify people, social behavior, & expression
Dependent on: Outside Stim (aud/vis/tactile)
Systems: Phonology, Prosody, Pragmatics
Locke’s Model Phase 2
Utterance Acquisition 5/7 months - 20/37 months "Tax box" & Holphrastic Dependent on: Phase 1 & outside stim Systems: phon, pros, prag. + SEMANTICS
Locke’s Model Phase 3
Analysis & Computation
20/37 months - 3 yrs
Vocab explodes! No longer holophrastic - have grammatical rules. Able to correct speech
Dependent on: Phase 1, 2 & outside stim.
Systems: phon, pros, prag, sem, + MORPHOLOGY & SYNTAX!
Locke’s Model Phase 4
Integration & Elaboration
3 yrs +
Fully functioning system with new ability to “layer on” new material. New words & concepts go into “bins”
Dependent on: Phase 1, 2, & 3 + outside stim.
ALL SYSTEMS!
Birth to 3 Months
Language Development
- Startles to sound
- Visually tracks to sound source
- Turns head to voice
- Smiles reflexively
- Cries for assistance
- Quiets when picked up
- Stops or coos back when person talks
- Produces mostly vocalics
4 - 6 months
Language Development
- Raises arms when mom says “come here!”
- Looks toward family members when they’re named
- Begins to produce adult-like vowels
- Vocal play: growl & raspberries
- Marginal babbling
- Varies pitch/volume/rate
- Responds to name at 5 months
- Vocalizes pleasure/displeasure
7 - 9 months
Language Development
- Looks at objects when they’re labeled
- Understands “no”
- Uses gestures - head shake
- Uses variety of sound combos
- Uses inflected vocal play
- Imitates intonation & speech of others at 9 months
- Object permanence develops
10 - 12 months
Language Development
- Understands < 10 words
- Relates symbol & object - FIRST WORD!
- Obeys some commands
- Gives block/toy upon request
- Looks in correct place for hidden toy
- Uses all consonants & vowels in vocal play
- Gestures & vocalizations to indicate wants/needs
Pragmatics Birth - 1 yr
- Perlocutionary Behavior: “signals” have an effect on listener, but lack communicative intent (reflexive smile)
- Illocutionary Behavior (9-10 months): intentional communication (pointing)
- Locutionary Stage: ( ~ 12 months): word use
- Joint Reference: Focus attention on event/obj as directed by another person
1 - 2 yrs Syntax
- Holophrastic, single-word phrase. 1 word represents an idea: “UP!” means “pick me up already!”
- Between 18 months - 2 yrs: combine words!
- 51 % of utterances are nouns
- 2 yrs: 50% responses: 3-4 words, other 50% are 2 words. Uses “and” to form conjoined sent.
Pragmatics 1 - 2 yrs
- Presuppositions emerge. Use expressions with shared meaning.
- Begins to understand dialogue rules. Child takes speaker & listener roles.
Halliday’s 7 functions of Communicative Intent
9 - 18 months
- Imaginative: Play-acting
- Heuristic: Organize & Investigate environment
- Regulatory: Control others’ behaviors
- Personal: Express Feelings
- Informative: Communicate experiences
- Instrumental: Getting assistance from others
- Interactional: Initiate interaction with others
Dore’s Early Words to Signal Communicative Intent
1 - 2 yrs
Practicing Protesting Greeting Calling/Addressing Requesting Action Requesting an Answer Labeling Repeating /Imitating Answering
1 - 2 yrs Semantics
- 3 - 20 words & gestures
- Most frequent lexical categories: nominal (ball, mommy) + verbs
- Uses semantic relations
18 months - 2 major Language Development milestones!
Produce 10-50 words!
Understands ~ 200 words!
2 - 3 yrs Syntax
- MLU: 2-4 at 36 months with avg. sentence of 3-4 words
- Subj + Verb + Obj : “Daddy throw ball”
- Telegraphic Speech
- Asks Wh- & yes/no questions
- Expresses negation by adding “no” or “not” in front of verbs: “Me NOT do it”
2 - 3 yrs Semantics
- Comprehending precedes production
- 30 months comprehends up to 2400 words
- 36 months up to 3600 words
- Expressive vocab: 200-600
- Meanings learned in sequence: Obj -> event -> action -> adj
- 1st pronouns are self-referents (I, me)
- Answers simple Wh- questions
- Carries out 1-2 part commands
2 - 3 yrs Morphology
- Bound morphemes explode & these develop:
- inflections (-ing), spatial relationships in/on, plurals, possessives, articles, pronouns)
- Simple, irregular past tense (were)
- Is + adj: “that is pretty”
- Reg past tense (walked)
- Overregularizes past tense inflections
- Overgeneralizes plural morphs (feets)
- Contractions (don’t)
2 - 3 yrs Pragmatics
- Utterances generally have communicative intent
- Rapid topic shifts: 3 yr old can maintain topic ~20% of the time
- Uses criticisms, commands, requests, threats, questions & answers
- Interpersonal communication expands - learns to express own opinions & personality
3 - 4 yrs Syntax
- Learns clause-connecting devices (and, because)
- Complex Verb Phrases - Modal verbs (could, should)
- Tag questions
- Embedded forms (“the man who came to dinner stayed for a week”)
- Passive Voice
- Mostly complete sentences
- Negation in speech
- Complex/Compound sentences
3 - 4 yrs Morphology
- Irregular plurals
- 3rd person singular, present tense (he runs)
- Simple past & present progressives (is running)
- Negatives (not)
- Simple plurals
- Uses “and” as a conjunction
- Possessive Markers
- Reflexive Pronouns (myself)
3 - 4 yrs Semantics
- 42 months: comp. s
- Understands common antonyms
- Knows full name
- Labels most things in environ.
- Tells experiences in sequence
- Recites poems/songs from memory
- Completes cloze phrases
- Understands agent-action
3 - 4 yrs Pragmatics
- Topic Maintenance
- Code switches to diff. partners
- Requests with Y/N & Wh- Q’s
- Uses greetings
- Uses ‘politeness markers’: please & thank you
- Makes jokes
- Role-plays
3 - 4 yrs Brown’s Morphemes
Morpheme type & age
- Present Progressive -ing @ 19-28 m
2/3. Prepositions in, on @ 27-30 m - Regular Plural Inflection -s @ 24-33 m
- Irregular Past-Tense Verbs (came, ran) @25-46 m
- Possessive -s @26-40 m
- Uncontractible Copula (Here it is) @ 27-39 m
- Articles @ 28-46 m
- Past-Tense Reg -ed @ 26-48 m
- Regular Third-Person -s (daddy cooks) @ 26-46 m
- Irregular Third Person (does, has) @ 28-50 m
- Uncontractible Auxiliary (She was working) @ 29-48 m
- Contractible Copula (He’s nice) @ 29-49 m
- Contractible Auxiliary (Mom is coming) @ 30-50 m
4 - 5 yrs Syntax
- 6-6.5 words/sentence
- MLU 4.5 - 7
- Complete sentences
- Complex sentences
- 8% of sentences are incomplete
- Future tense
- Uses “if, so” sentences
- Passive voice
4 - 5 yrs Semantics
- Concrete meaning words
- Expressive vocab: 1500-2000 words
- Name items in categories
- Uses why + how
- Tells long stories accurately
- Asks meanings of words
- Can define 10 common words
4 - 5 yrs Morphology
- Uses comparatives (biggER)
- Uses “could”, “would” in sentences
- Uses irregular plural
4 - 5 yrs Pragmatics
- Judges grammatical correctness
- Egocentric monologue ~1/3 of the time
- Tells jokes/riddles
5 - 6 yrs Syntax
- Avg. MLU 6-8
- Past, present & future tenses consistently
- Asks “how” questions
- Uses auxiliary “have” correctly occasionally
- Decreases grammatical errors as sentences & vocab become more sophisticated
5 - 6 yrs Semantics
- Spatial relationships (top, behind)
- Knows right from left
- Knows complete address
- Comp. 13000-15000 words
- Answers inferential Q’s
- Knows yesterday/tomorrow
- Compare/Contrast
- Knows 1st & last
5 - 6 yrs Morphology
- Passive forms of main verbs
- Indefinite pronouns (any, anything)
- Irregular plurals, possessives, negatives, pronouns
- Superlatives (-est)
- Starts using adv.
5 - 6 yrs Pragmatics
- Understands humor/surprise
- Corrects potential errors by modifying the message
- Recognizes socially offensive message & rewords so it’s polite
- Ask permission
6 - 7 yrs Syntax
- Uses “if” & “so”
- Uses reflexive pronouns (himself)
- Begins to use perfect tense forms (have, had)
- MLU 7.3
6 - 7 yrs Semantics
- Comp. 20k-26k words
- Knows seasons
- Forms letters left to right
- Prints alphabet from model
- Rote counts to 100
- Tells time related to daily schedule
6 - 7 yrs Morphology
- Uses markers fairly consistently
- Uses irreg. comparatives
- Gerunds (noun form with -ing on verb affiinitive: fishing)
6 -7 yrs Pragmatics
May use slang & mild profanity
7 - 8 yrs Syntax
- MLU ~ 7-9
- Uses predominantly complex sentence forms
7 - 8 yrs Semantics
- Interprets jokes & riddles literally
- Anticipates story ending
- Uses some fig. lang.
- Creates conversation gen. by picture
- Retells story, keeping main ideas in sequence
7 - 8 yrs Morphology
- Most irreg. verb forms
- Superlatives
- Reg. uses adverbs.
7 - 8 yrs Pragmatics
- Initiates & maintains conversations in small groups
- Theory of Mind
- Uses non-linguistics behaviors appropriately
- Typically concrete topics
4 Literacy Skill Areas
- Phonological Awareness
- Print Knowledge
- Reading
- Writing
Literacy Milestones
Pre-K: Exposure to reading & alphabet.
Kind: Strengthen oral lang skills. Address reading & writing
1st G: ** predictive of future success & prime-time to swoop in for Early Intervention** focus on reading & writing. Add & Sub
2nd G: Spelling. More abstract material
3rd G: “go from learning to read to reading to learn.” Cursive. Proofread & correct own work
4-6th G: Science & Social Studies. Write reports. Understand 50k words. LLD kids identified.
3 Threats to Language Development Process
- Neurobiology - abnormal structure/function
- Etiology - preemies, disease, hx of OME
- Psycholinguistic Processes - prob. with perception, memory, gramm. rules
