Lecture 6: Academics Flashcards
the wug test
- Jean Berko-Gleason
- The child is shown a picture of a single imaginary creature and told: “This is a wug.”
Then, they are shown a picture with two of the same creatures and asked: “Now there are two…?”
Most English-speaking children naturally respond: “Wugs.” - The test shows that children do not just memorize word forms but learn and apply rules (in this case, adding -s to form a plural).
It provides evidence for generative grammar—the idea that humans have an innate ability to understand and create language rules.
holophrase=
using one word to express a meaning, a belief or a desire
“milk”
telographic speech =
using only short simple sentences (only content words)
“want cookie”
morpheme
smalles sound, that changes the meaning of the word
plato’s paradox
Already know something → Then we don’t need to learn it.
Don’t know it at all → Then we wouldn’t even know where to start looking.
How is it possible to learn? If you ask a question, how can you judge the answers’ accuracy if you don’t know the answer?
different perspectives on how children learn languages
- statistical learning
- nativist theories
- behaviourists (learning based on environmental feedback)
- connectionist (networks, like chatgpt -> nodes are connected in the brain)
Keil:
language learning appears automatic, unintentional, effortless and successful, despite:
- poverty of stimulus (environment produces incorrect sentences, we make errors, change our mind, etc. and still children pick up the rules and recognize when something is wrong)
- children get minimal feedback on errors
learning acquisition through statistical learning
- when we hear a text, we do not hear pauzes. how do children learn when a word starts and when it ends? sometimes parents help them by pointing to an object. but often they dont, if you hear a whole sentence.
- in english: in two syllable words, the stress is on the first part. in NL ook. kingdom vs guitar -> bij guitar op het laatste gedeelte.
- exp: strong/weak words = kingdom, weak/strong words = guitar. infants were familiarized with kingdom. then they heared two stories at the same time: one with kingdom and one with unfamiliar words. children turned their heads more towards the familiar words like kingdom. this was not seen with guitar. therefore children knew that the kingdom word was regular, and guitar was irregular.
parents contribute to their childs speech development
- Input
- Feedback
- Joint attention
- Point-and-say
- Child-directed speech
- Responsiveness
- Sensitivity
- Recasting
- Their own vocabulary
recasting=
paraphrasing what a child says
“cookies” -> “ah, you want a cookie”
language acquisition: nativist account (Chomsky)
if:
- no one explicitly teaches language to a child
- a child cannot be stopped from learning language
- universal grammar seems to exist
there must be an innate deep structure, underlying understanding of language, enabling the child to learn a language
specific language determines the surface structure of it (dus daardoor de verschillen: op surface level anders, maar deep down is het dezelfde structuur)
language acquisition device (LAD) -> body for language acquisition
evidence for sensitive/critical period for language acquisition:
- second language learning is the easiest up to 7 years. daarna gaat het naar beneden
- deprivation of language as a baby/toddler: language deficiency that cannot be made up
- quality of sign language is also best when learned in the first 7 years
arguments against this critical period
- children recieve simpler input than adults, therefore easier to process
- children are more motivated to learn a language to communicate than adults
- grammar and vocabulary can still be learned later by adults, so how large is this difference actually?
- we think that pronounciation is easier for kids, but is this true? because the ability to distinguish universal sounds reduces before year 1. (bv japanese babies can differentiate between r and l, but in japan they dont use these sounds. therefore hard to distinguish between rice and lice).
experiment distinguishing universal sounds
baby hoort da en dá (Hindi), lijkt voor ons hetzelfde. tijdens dá komt een konijn dansen. kind kijkt na een aantal rondes al naar de plek waar het konijn zou moeten zijn. dus zij kunnen differentieren.
then two different sounds used in Hindi. baby immediately turned his head when they switched from dá to dä. na 10 maanden is dit niet meer te zien.
grapheme=
A grapheme is a written symbol that represents a sound (phoneme).
child factors important in learning to read
- phonological awareness (distinguishing sounds, rhyme)
- reading and long term memory influence each other. working memory as well
- letter knowledge
- motivation
- self confidence
home literacy environment
home literacy = quanity and quality of literacy experiences at home
- formal literacy: alfabet oplezen, schrijven, woorden lezen -> parent child interaction is focused on print
- informal literacy: aantal boeken in huis, voorlezen, how important it is for the parents that the child can read -> spontaneous use of print
early predictors of math
- enumeration: determining the number in a set of units (it is handy to do that quickly, also from an evolutionary point of view).
- subitizing: quickly and accurately determine the number of small set of units
- counting
- estimating
- combinations - principles of counting
- 1-to-1 principle (if you count a set of units, every unit gets a number)
- child needs to know the fixed, correct sequence of numbers (1,2,3,4,etc)
- cardinality principle: the last number is the quantity
- principle of abstraction: you can count anything that is a unit
- order-irrelevance: you can count the units in any order - ordinality (knowing what is more/less/equal)
- conservation of number: the child knows that the number stays the same if the items are rearranged or if their appearance changes
- number line
- executive functions
- ordering, not only numbers but also days of the year, events in the year, etc
experiment showing events in the year
they made pictures of events (hartje voor valentijn, birthday is cake, christmas is tree) -> perfomance on this was predictive for math performance
Is it useful to know the relation between early
and late performance?
- Perhaps: interventions can target the early skills
- No, it’s a correlation and a third variable may explain the relation (Genetics, family environment, intelligence); intervening is useless
- Yes, delay in early skills can be a signal and teachers can act on it
-> differs per task, het zou handig zijn om number line te leren (hoewel het dan niet generaliseert naar andere tasks). maar voor andere dingen misschien minder useful
voorbeelden van home numeracy environment
I help my child learn simple sums (e.g., 2 + 2)
I encourage my child to do math in his/her head
We talk about time with clocks and calendars
I help my child weigh, measure, and compare quantities
We play games that involve counting, adding, or subtracting
I teach my child to recognize printed numbers
We sort and classify by color, shape, and size
I ask about quantities (e.g., How many spoons?)
We play board games or cards
I encourage collecting (e.g., cards, stamps, rocks)
I help my child to recite numbers in order
We sing counting songs (e.g., Five Little Monkeys)
I encourage the use of fingers to indicate how many
home numeracy=
quantity and quality of numeracy experiences at home
- informal numeracy experiences: spontaneous use of numbers, counting, operation in parent child interaction
- formal numeracy experiences: focus of the parent child interaction is on time telling, numbers, counting, operations, comparisons, etc
Example informal home numeracy: Board
games
- Participants: 36 children from low-income backgrounds (4-5 years old)
- Played “The Great Race”, 4 15-minute sessions, 2 weeks
- Condition:
– Experimental condition: count steps
– Control conditioin: name color - Experimental condition most progress in (early) numeracy skills
how the environment may think about math
- In many cultures, it is accepted to say one is bad at math
- In the U.S., math is very much considered a fixed entity
- It is easy to make mistakes, and answer is either correct or false, no in between -> which may cause a fear to fail
- Parents AND teachers can suffer from math anxiety. Parents can model anxiety; if anxious, helping with math homework can be counterproductive (but other causes of math anxiety as well)
