Lecture 6 - Language Development Flashcards
High Amplitude Sucking Procedure
Used on Infants 0-4 months old.
Utilities infant’s sucking reflex.
Infants hear a sound and sucking reflex is recorded.
More strong sucks= More Interest
HASP - Discrimination
Used to tell if infant’s can differentiate between two sounds.
Same principles as habituation paradigm.
Record how much infants such to one sound until habituated, Then hear a new sound and see if sucking increases.
HASP - Preference
Different stimuli are presented in one minute intervals, sucks recorded, stronger sucks indicated higher preference.
What have HASPs Demonstrated?
Infants prefer speech over artificial sound
Prefer mother’s voice over other woman’s voice
Prefer Native Language
This means that infants can start learning language prior to birth
What is used to distinguish similar speech sounds and why is this important?
Voice Onset Time: Length of time between when air passes through lips and when vocal cords start to vibrate. Important in differentiating similar speech sounds.
What is unique about human perception of speech sounds?
It is categorical despite speech sounds being on a continuum.
Why do humans have categorical speech sound perception?
Helps us focus on linguistically relevant sounds.
Using a HASP Discrimination Test, Researchers found that the ability to categorise speech sounds is innate, True or False?
True
How is infant speech discrimination different in native language then compared to adults?
Infants can recognise speech sound difference in non-native languages whilst adults can not.
How Does perceptual Narrowing Play a role in Speech Sound Discrimination in Native VS Non-Native languages?
Before 8 Months, easily distinguish between speech sounds in both native and non-native language.
by 12 months, ability becomes refined to only native language.
What is Word Segmentation and When does it Begin?
Around 7 months, the ability to decipher where words begin and end. (lookatthecutepuppy)
What are two methods used for word segmentation in Native Language via Statistical learning?
Stress-Patterning
Distribution of Speech Sounds
Stress Patterning
Different Languages emphasise different parts of a word.
English= First Syllable
French= Second Syllable
Distribution of Speech Sounds
Sounds that appear together more often are likely to be words
Sounds that appear together less often are more likely to be boundaries between words
Speech Development Timeline
Cooing= 2 Months
Babbling= 7 Months
First Words= 12 Months
50 Words Known= 18 Months
Cooing
2 Months,
Mainly consists of Drawn out vowel sounds
Helps infants familiarise themselves with motor movements for speech
Elicits caregiver responses for back and forth cooing (early conversations)
Babbling
7 Months,
Repetitive consonant vowels (papapa)
Not culturally or language bound
Deaf Infants and Babbling
Deaf Infants still babble,
Meaning babbling is innate
However deaf Infants exposed to ASL can throw up portions of ASL words meaning that some parts of babbling are based on language exposure.
2 Main Functions of Babbling
Social Function: Practising Dialogue and Turn-Taking in speech
Learning Function: Babbling signals that the infant is active and ready to learn. (Labelling a word after babbling VS labelling without).
Can Infants Understand Words Before the Speak?
Yes, high frequency words are identified more times than chance.
First Words
First Word=First Year
Any specific utterance consistently used to refer to/express meaning.
Why are first words difficult to identify?
Since babbling often sounds like words (mamama)
Since the meaning of first words can differ from their standard meaning
What are common ways that first words are mispronounced?
Omitting Difficult Parts of the Word
Substituting Difficult Parts of the Word
Re-order words to put easy sounds first
What do all first words share in common despite cultural differences?
The fact that they relate to family members, pets or objects interacted with on a daily basis.
Limitations of First Words
Expression using one word utterances is unclear
Overextension= using a word for a broader context than appropriate
Under extension= Using a word in a more limited context than appropriate
Mutual Exclusivity Assumption
A given object/Person only has one name. If shown a teddy bear and cup (they don’t know cup) hearing the word Fred (name of teddy bear) will prompt them to look at cup since they already know teddy bear is teddy so Fred must be the Cup.
Assumption doesn’t hold as strong in bilingual children.
Whole Object Assumption
A word refers to a whole objects rather than a part/aspect of it.
Pragmatic Cues
Social Context in order to infer meaning of a word.
Largely influenced by Adult Gaze, When an adult says a new word, child assumes that it belongs to whatever the adult Is looking at, even if the child can’t see it.
Adult Intentionality
If an adult uses a new word for an object that the child already has a name for, the child will adopt the adult’s version so long as it was said with confidence.
Grammatical Form
Grammatical Form of a word influences whether it is interpreted as noun, verb or adjective.
Shape Bias
Children will apply a noun to a new object of similar shape even if it is of a different colour, size or texture.
Cross Situational Word Learning
Determining Word meanings by tracking labels and objects across contexts.
What are 3 Caregiver Factors Influencing Children’s Speech
Infant Directed Speech
Quantity of Speech
Quality of Speech
Infant Directed Speech
Special way of talking to infants that is common across most culture but not all. Characterised by a simpler and more friendly way of talking.
Infants prefer this and pay more attention, hence better learning outcomes.
Quantity of Speech
The more words that children hear, especially Directed towards them, predicts better learning outcomes.
Link between SES and Quantity of Speech
Children from higher SES hearing more words hence have a more developed vocabulary.
Part of the achievement gap between low and high SES is due to language gap.
Quality of Speech
Richness of dialogue from parents predicts child’s language capabilities through 1) Joint Engagement 2) Fluency 3) Stressing new words 4) Playing word Games 5) Naming objects that toddlers are interacting with
Grocery Store Intervention for word gap
Signs in low SES grocery stores that prompted parents to ask kids to name foods and ingredients + increase quality and quantity of speech towards children.
Peer influence on language
Children with poor language ability fair better in classroom where peers are more advanced and so is the teacher.
Telegraphic Speech
Short utterances that leave out non essential words (mommy cake) (knee hurt)
Learning Grammar
Age 5,
Allows for expression and comprehension of more complex ideas.
How can we tell that children have learned the grammar of their native language?
By applying grammatical rules to newly learned words, seen through: adding “s” to plural words and overregularisation
Overregularisation Errors
Treating irregular forms of the word as if they were regular. Evidence that they have learned grammatical rules but not their exceptions. (Mans, Goed)
What is a caveat of parent and caregiver grammatical teaching?
They model grammatically correct speech but don’t usually correct grammatical errors.
How does statistical learning play a role in grammar learning?
Infants (8 months) can pick up on re-occuring patterns (ko-ga-ga)
Grammar and Sentence Timeline
Initially Private and Egocentric Speech.
Age 2, learn 2-3 word sentences
Between 2-5, Extend patterns (adding “s”) and overregularisation
5+, Able to engage in sustained conversation using emotional tone.
