Play and Language Development

Question 1

What are the 4 main areas of language competence?

Answer 1

• Phonology – study of the rules of sound in a language (a/b/c…)
• Sounds are called phonemes, babies can say all sounds but lose it later on depending on how much they hear it
• Semantics – meanings encoded within the language
• Child learns that phonemes, words and utterances refer to people, events, objects etc and that they convey meaning
• Syntax - grammar (how words are combined in a sequence correctly)
• “Yasmin hit Jane”
• “Jane hit Yasmin”
• Pragmatics – the ways in which context contributes to meaning and communication, eg not saying a man is fat in a cafe

Question 2

What are the functions of communication, why do children communicate?

Answer 2

To show emotion, to share how they are feeling

Question 3

How does language develop?

Answer 3

• Language development steadily builds on the solid foundations that are established in the early years

Question 4

what is the typical language pathway?

Answer 4

• Children develop at different rates but there is a typical pathway that indicates what to expect at different ages
• Knowing the typical pathway helps identify children who are not developing language skills as expected
Difficulties could be a “delay” or “disorder”

Question 5

How does a newborn baby communicate?

Answer 5

signals through crying

Question 6

How does a one month old communicate?

Answer 6

• at 1 month old starts to make “oooo” sound which seem to grow out of pleasurable social interactions with caregiver

Question 7

what is a mutual dialogue?

Answer 7

• the parent builds on the biological rhythms of the baby to develop a mutual dialogue – this will form the basis for the communication patterns

Question 8

what did Stern 1990 find?

Answer 8

interaction is distinctively different from adult-adult as:
• close proximity,
• exaggerated facial expressions,
• more eye contact and much repetition

Question 9

what happens at 6-9 months?

Answer 9

• more vowels and consonants develop

Question 10

what is echolalia?

Answer 10

• frequent repetition of sounds (“dadadad” or “mummmummm”), often made when alone

Question 11

explain how first words form

Answer 11

• From about 1 year old
• Often missed as not in the dictionary! But are considered words if used consistently in presence of object or situation
• Child uses words to name and label people and objects
• The single words have condensed meaning -variations in context, intonation and gesture mean different things
• Gesture is important and enhances communication
• Signing (e.g. makaton) has been used to build on this
• can take 3-4 months after first words for other words to be used but then very rapid development
• 18 months - 20 words
• 21 months - 200 words!
• at about 18 months child combines 2 words to form two-word sentences
“That car.” “Push truck.” “Man hat.” “In bath.” “Teddy car.”

Question 12

explain how short sentences form

Answer 12

• by 24-27 months child is producing 3 or 4-word utterances
• many are in a strict sense “ungrammatical’ but child is using grammatical rules of syntax, making ‘logical errors’ as child is applying a basic set of rules
• e.g. “mouses gone away”

Question 13

what happens at 3-5 years?

Answer 13

• vocabulary now about 1000 words!
• length and complexity of utterances has increased,
• can carry on a reasonable conversation (though still in immediate present) and speech is largely understandable to adults, even outside the family
• still perfecting some linguistic systems eg pronouns and passive tense

Question 14

what happens beyond 5 years?

Answer 14

• can understand and express complex sentences (e.g. “I am older than you so I will go first.” )
• use of language is very similar to that of an adult
• can adjust speech in a number of ways to suit different listeners
• some specific areas of syntax remain a problem and may make logical errors (e.g. “That one’s the bestest“)
• still learning some phonology (e.g. r/j ay 6 years old)

Question 15

What does Chomsky propose?

Answer 15

Chomsky (1965) proposed we have a
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Chomsky proposed that
• Humans have innate properties to learn language (through an LAD)
• Because
• Across cultures the sequence is broadly similar
• Children have the ability to apply ‘rules’ within their language/culture
e.g. children’s ‘errors’ such as ‘sheeps’
• The LAD that is constructed so it can ‘perceive’ these regularities in the utterances the child hears, and it generate hypotheses about these regularities
• These are then tested against more utterances and accepted or rejected

Question 16

How is Chomsky now questioned?

Answer 16

• Chomsky’s work has been very influential
• The idea that children are pre-disposed to learn language is accepted but his claim that they have an innate knowledge of language that is not influenced by environment (adults etc) is highly controversial
• Now more integrated views exist
• Chomsky now agrees that learning language probably involves more of the psychological processes

Question 17

why is environment vital?

Answer 17

• Whatever the contribution of any innate language abilities, we know that the environment is vital to promote language development;

e. g. case studies such as children with deaf parents or with a different species
e. g. areas with social and economic deprivation can be characterised by young children with poorly developed language skills

Question 18

what environmental factors can support development?

Answer 18

• great interest in rhymes and will sing songs
• imaginative play reflects developing language - conversations or commentaries acted out with objects contribute to expressions of ideas and experience
• pre-sleep monologues appear to be important too for processing the interpersonal experiences and their subsequent organisation in memory (Shank, 1982) (Nelson, 1989)
• Actively constructing experience, not just reflecting it
• But develop from what they hear!

Question 19

how does the language disadvantage gap open early?

Answer 19

• Language difficulties are a defining factor in disadvantage. By the age of five, 75% OF CHILDREN WHO EXPERIENCED POVERTY persistently throughout the early years are below the average in language development, COMPARED TO 35% WHO NEVER EXPERIENCED POVERTY.
• In school-aged children the likelihood of being identified as having SLCN is 2.3 TIMES GREATER for children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and living in areas of disadvantage.