Speech language communication and literacy development in children Flashcards
What is child development? 4 points
Changing through the span of childhood
- Growth by maturation (linked to biology, not controlled)
- Learning through experience (interactions with people affects actions and feelings)
- Cognitive development
How do you become an expert in child development? 5 points
Describe observation
Apply strategies to promote children’s development, keeping relevant to skill level
Explain cause and effects of why children grow and behave as they do, acknowledging complexity
Understanding interrelated systems
Holistic development and child as a whole person
What are the 6 inter-related systems within child development?
Motor sensory and physical development (gross and fine skills)
Sensory
Lang and comm development
Cognition
Emotional + personality
Social + morality
Define speech
Physical sounds made, intelligibility, fluency
Define expressive language
How language is used (verbal or written)
Define receptive language
Understanding and comprehension
Define communication
Information transmitted/received in a social context, giving words meaning
Define phonology
Study of the system of meaningful sounds (how they are organised and used to encode meaning)
What is phonological awareness?
Ability to identify and manipulate sounds in spoken language
Define semantics
Words used in combination for meaning
Very broad, children make + find meaning
Define grammar
Structure of language needed for constructing ambiguous sentences
Includes syntax and morphemes
Define pragmatics
Understanding and using language appropriately in different social contexts
Define syntax
How words + morphemes combine to form larger units (phrases/sentences)
What are the 2 components of speech?
Speech
Phonological awareness
What are the 7 components of language?
Vocabulary
Categories
Concepts
Phrases/sentences
Comprehension
Inference
Extended sentences
What are the 3 components of social communication?
Turn taking
Friendship skills
Conversation skills
What are the 2 different models of communication in children?
Content form and use
Means reasons and opportunuties
What is ‘content’ in the content form and use model?
Using the right words to convey a message
- concepts
- links
- sequencing
What is ‘form’ in the content form and use model?
Intelligibility, putting words together in a grammatical sentence
What is ‘use’ in the content form and use model?
making use of language for a purpose in context
- eg: greeting, debating
What is the means, reasons, and opportunities model?
Means: how we communicate
Reasons: why we communicate
Opportunities: where, when and with whom we communcate
What does the communication chain do?
Breaks down all of the steps involved in communicating and receiving a message
What are the 8 steps in the communication chain?
Receptive lang
1. Looking and interpreting non-verbal communication
2. Listening/hearing
3. Auditory memory
4. Understand words
5. Understand sentences
Expressive lang
6. Use of vocab
7. Use of grammatical sentences
8. Articulation
What are the 7 blocks of the speech pyramid?
What is Bloom’s model of intentionality?
Effort and engagement motivates language acquisition
What is Tomasello’s usage based approach?
Have inventory of constructions linked to pragmatic + semantic functions, which is communicated
Meaning is use- structure of language emerges from use
How do constructions in Tomasello’s usage-based approach vary?
Range from abstract + flexible, to concrete and inflexible
What does Tomasello say the slow process of construction is driven by?
Intention reading (pragmatics)
Pattern finding
What is Chapman’s interactionist approach?
Motor + cognitive + social learning = precursors to new linguistic forms
Acquisition of language leads to development in other spheres
- new meanings expressed by existing behaviours/ language
- new forms of communication emerge to express known meanings
What is Chomsky’s nativist approach?
Children uniquely preprogrammed to learn language, as have language acquisition device- can recognise structure + grammar
What are the 8 stages of Erikson’s psychosocial theory?
What happens at each stage of Erikson’s psychosocial theory?
Has a different psychosocial crisis of 2 conflicting forces
Unresolved challenges resurface as problems later
What does the trust vs mistrust stage (1) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Are basic needs (safety, comfort, care) met by the caregiver
What does the autonomy vs shame/doubt stage (2) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Do children have a secure base from which they can assert independence
What does the initiative vs guilt stage (3) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Are children encouraged to make appropriate choices, or dismissed as silly
What does the industry vs inferiority stage (4) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Are children praised, or ridiculed/punished
What does the identity vs role confusion stage (5) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Do teens develop identity, or have an identity crisis, in the turning point from childhood to adulthood
What does the intimacy vs isolation stage (6) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Are young adults ready for LT commitment to intimate + reciprocal relationships, if identity is established
What does the generativity vs stagnation stage (7) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Do adults contribute to society or are they self-centred
What does the integrity vs despair stage (8) of the psychosocial theory look at?
Do adults feel accomplished and successful, or unaccomplished and unproductive
What is Watson and Skinner’s behaviourist theory concerned with?
Directly observable and measurable aspects of human behaviour
All behaviour learned / unlearned
How the world shapes people
What is classical conditioning?
Learning when a NS becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a behaviour
What is operant conditioning?
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Punishment
What is Bandura’s triadic reciprocal determinism?
Behaviour influences the person and environment, in turn affecting behaviour and each other
What is Bandura’s social cognitive theory?
Learning by observing and interacting with others
Encompasses attention, memory, and motivation in learning
When observing a model performing a behaviour and consequences, sequence of events is remembered, and guides subsequent behaviours
What does Piaget’s cognitive theory look at?
First to conduct systematic observation of children to study cognition
Genetic epistemology: study of origins and development of knowledge
What is adaption (Piaget)?
Building schemes via direct interaction with environment
assimilation - use current schemes to interpret world
accommodation - create/adapt schemes if it doesn’t match
What happens as children progress through Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
Children demonstrate new intellectual abilities and increasingly complex understanding of the world
Can Piaget’s stages of cognitive development be skipped?
No, a precise sequence
But can exhibit behaviours of >1 stage at a time
What are the 4 stages proposed by Piaget in his cognitive theory, and the approximate ages at which they occur?
Sensorimotor: 0-2y
Preoperational: 2-7y
Concrete operational: 7-11y
Formal operational: 11+y
Describe the sensorimotor stage of development
Intelligence is practical
All interactions are sensory or motor
Constant experimentation and learning through trial and error
Develop object permanance
Describe the preoperational stage of development
Logic based on personal knowledge, not conventional knowledge
Egocentrism: unable to take perspective of others
Advances in mental representations: make-believe play, drawings, naming objects, symbols
Describe the concrete operational stage of development
Deals with abstract concepts
More organised thinking
Employs memory strategies
Understands conservation
Decentration
Increased awareness of hierarchies of classification
Spatial reasoning
Describe the formal operational stage of development
Systematic + logical reasoning -> formulate hypotheses (hypo-deductive reasoning)
Improved decision making
What is Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory?
Emphasis on rich social/cultural contexts, need interaction with adults/older peers to advance development
Language as a foundation for higher cognitive development
According to Vygotsky, how is language linked to profound changes in cognition?
Private speech / egocentric speech
- self-guidance during challenging tasks
- internalised as silent inner speech when older
What is the zone of proximal development (ZPD), by Vygotsky?
Difference between child’s existing abilities, and what they can learn under guidance
What is intersubjectivity, according to Vygotsky?
Process of 2 people who begin a task with different understandings, arriving at a shared understanding
What is scaffolding (Vygotsky)?
Adults guiding children through ZPD
Eventually withdraw support
What is guided participation (Vygotsky)?
Assisting children in activities
Why did Vygotsky believe about make-believe play?
Vital force for cognitive development
Influential ZPD as children advance by tryng out challenging skills (eg: social roles)
What is Case’s neo-Piagetian theory?
Changes within and between stages of development
Continuum of acquisition
Accounts for unevenness in development
What is Siegler’s model of strategy choice?
Highlights experimentation + selection of mental strategies
Accounts for diversity and changing nature of children’s thinking
What does Maslow’s humanistic theory look at?
Examines the whole person and their uniqueness
What does Maslow’s hierarchy of needs say?
People are motivated to meet needs, but some take precedence
Needs lower must be satisfied before needs higher up
What are the 5 needs in Maslow’s hierarchy?
Physiological needs
Safety needs
Social/love/belongingness needs
Esteem needs
Self-actualisation needs
What are the 3 extra stages in the revised hierarchy of needs?
Cognitive needs- knowledge + understanding, curiosity, purpose
Aesthetic needs- appreciation + search for beauty
Transcendence needs- motivated by values beyond personal self (eg: religion)
What is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory?
Human development influenced by different types of environmental systems (contexts)
What are the 5 different systems in Brofenbrenner’s ecological theory?
Microsystem
Mesosystem
Exosystem
Macrosystem
Chronosystem
What is the mesosystem (ecological theory)?
Relationships between environments
What is the microsystem (ecological theory)?
Immediate envrionemnt, direct social interactions
What is the exosystem (ecological theory)?
Indirect environments
What is the macrosystem (ecological theory)?
Social and cultural context
What is Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences?
9 types of intelligence…
- Verbal/linguistic
- Logical/mathematical
- Visual/spatial
- Bodily/kinaesthetic
- Musical
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Naturalistic
- Existential
What is the chronosystem (ecological theory)?
Transitions and shifts overtime
What is Bloom’s taxonomy?
Different levels of thinking
What is Dweck’s mindset theory?
Mindset: theory people hold about themselves
Fixed or growth
What are 2 other words for pre-linguistic development?
Pre-verbal
Pre-lexical
How does newborn feeding change?
Gradually changes from a reflexive to a learnt behaviour along a developmental continuum
Involves a complex interplay between motor + sensory + cognitive + social & emotional development, and mealtimes + feeding environment
Describe the communication development of newborns
- eye contact with caregivers
- facial gestures (imitation / spontaneous)
- recognises mothers voice and native language (from 26w in utero)
- can distinguish between human-language sounds
- quietens when picked up
Describe the sensory development of newborns
- using all of senses to explore
- hearing developed in womb (startle reflex to loud sounds)
- turns eyes to continuous sound, large + diffuse light source, moving objects
- near sighted, fascinated by human faces at arms length
Describe the motor development of newborns
- motor skills developed in utero (newborn reflexes) promotes formation of mother-infant dyad
What is an example of a newborn reflex?
Moro reflex
- head is dropped
- abduction of arms, hands open
Describe the play development of newborns
- likes high contrast patterns + shapes
- likes moving things
Describe the cognitive development of newborns
- perceptual skills developed in utero
Describe the social and emotional development of newborns
- relaxed + settled + happy as recognises caregiver
- enjoys skin-to-skin (stroking rubbing etc)
When are preterm babies born?
37 weeks or earlier (usually 40)
What are the challenges with preterm newborns?
Increases vulnerability to health threatening conditions
May need special care + attention
- SLT role in establishing feeding
Where are the countries worst-affected by preterm birth?
65% of all preterms in sub-Saharan Africa
Highest in Bangladesh
Also high in high-income countries (Greece, USA)
Describe the communication development of babies 4-6 weeks
- proto-conversations with adults (looking, listening, vocalising)
- start to coo + gurgle
- social responsiveness (smiling, gazing at faces)
- eye contact during interactions
Describe the sensory development of babies 4-6 weeks
- follows moving objects with eyes, eg: wind in trees
- enjoys sound of bells/music/voices
Describe the motor development of babies 4-6 weeks
- primitive reflexes still present (eg: grasp reflex, opens hand to grasp finger)
- enjoys kicking and waving arms
Describe the social + emotional development of babies 4-6 weeks
- signs of a temperament (excited, relaxed etc)
- easily overstimulated (lacks self-control of emotions)
- sleeps mostly when not fed
Describe the communication development of babies 3 months
- cooing + gurgling + chuckling
- reciprocal interactions, responsive vocalisation (proto-conversations)
- cries loudly to express needs (intentional)
- smiles in response to speech
- loves cuddles + attention
- fixes eyes when feeding
Describe the sensory development of babies 3 months
- visual following of face/toys
Describe the motor development of babies 3 months
- clasps hands together, can hold toys
- kicking vigorously
- head control in supported sitting
Describe the play development of babies 3 months
- more interest in playthings (eg: textures)
Describe the cognitive development of babies 3 months
- starting to show c+e (eg: shaking toy makes a noise)
Describe the social + emotional development of babies 3 months
- closes eyes / sucks thumb to self-soothe
- enjoyment of routines (eg: bathtime)
- awake for longer periods of time
Describe the communication development of babies 6 months
- monosyllabic babbles (eg: ga-ga)
- then double syllables (eg: goo-ga)
- talks to self tunefully
- squeals of delight
Describe the sensory development of babies 6 months
- can see further distance
- turns to carer’s voice at distance
Describe the motor development of babies 6 months
- primitive reflexes diminished, protective reflexes appear
- starting to eat solids: tongue-thrust reflex (pushes food out) gone
- supports own head
- rolls from tummy to back
- can lift head and chest on their arms/hands
- weight-bearing on supported standing
- one hand grasping, passing objects between hands
- raises arms to be picked up
Describe the play development of babies 6 months
- enjoys stacking bricks
- explores with hands and mouth
- plays with rolling ball whilst sitting
Describe the cognitive development of babies 6 months
- searches for toy out of visual field (object permanence)
Describe the social + emotional development of babies 6 months
- stranger anxiety
- separation anxiety
- some understanding of emotional state of carer’s voice
How is development supported for babies at 6 months?
- provide rattles + toys around baby and just out of reach
- toys that are safe to orally explore
- build towers and knock down
- picture books
- pointing + naming objects
- explore animal noises
Describe the communication development of babies 9 months
- imitating adults’ talk + gestures
- babbles tunefully + communicatively
Describe the sensory development of babies 9 months
- pleasure in songs + rhymes
Describe the motor development of babies 9 months
- crawling, shuffling
- bounce to music
- sitting, leaning forward + pulling objects towards them
- can pull to stand from sitting
- pincer grasp for smaller objects
Describe the play development of babies 9 months
- social games (eg: peek-a-boo)
- can play on their own (due to causal knowledge)
- banging noisy toys
- enjoys pointing
Describe the cognitive development of babies 9 months
- causal understanding + means-end relations
- searches for hidden object (object permanence)
Describe the social + emotional development of babies 9 months
- may have comfort object
- prefers to be near adult (stranger wariness)
How is development supported for babies at 9 months?
Build on their loves…
- peekaboo / hide-and-seek
- picking up tiny objects
- bath toys
- picture books
- mess
- rollin
- stacking and nesting
- serve and return
- nursery rhymes
What are the 2 communicative gestures used by infants around 1 year?
Protodeclarative (for others to notice, joint attention)
Protoimperative (others to do something)
- often combined with vocalisations
What are 2 motor developmental milestones for infants around 1 year?
Mature finger grasp
Walks around furniture, independent walking occurs
What is the care-seeking aspect of Bowlby’s attachment theory?
Child making every attempt to be physically + emotionally close to attachment figure
Level of closeness required depends on: age, temperament, developmental history, emotional state
What is the care-giving aspect of Bowlby’s attachment theory?
Secure, stable attachment enabled by responsive care, and emotionally attuned interactions (facial expressions, posture, tone, movement)
What are the 4 stages of attachment in attachment theory, and the approximate ages at which they occur?
Pre-attachment (0-2m)
Attachment in the making (2-7m)
Attachment (7m)
Goal-directed partnership (2.5-3y)
What happens in the pre-attachment stage?
Infant highly responsive to human contact, and orients to humans without discrimination
What happens in the attachment in the making stage?
Growing familiarity with faces + voices + smell + touch of important people- orients to them, more likely to smile + be comforted by them
What happens in the attachment stage?
Infant seeks to be close to primary and secondary caregivers, protests at seperation, wary of unfamiliar
What happens in the goal-directed partnership stage?
Gradually able to think about + accommodate carers’ position - develops reciprocal relationship
What did Ainsworth say that being responsive and available provides a child with?
A secure base from which to go out and explore the world
What are the 4 attachment patterns
Secure
Insecure-avoidant (auto-regulating)
Insecure-ambivalent (interactively-regulating)
Disorganised (mix of need to be close and distant)
- BUT don’t fit into boxes (socialcultural context of theory is post-war Britain)
What are 4 examples of factors that can disrupt early attachment?
Consistency of care
Abuse/neglect
Trauma
Natural disasters / refugee experience
What is trauma-informed practice?
Places emphasis on centrality of safe, secure relationships as a medium for healing
What are treasure baskets, devised by Elinor Goldschmied?
For babies who can sit but not walk (8-12m)
Everyday objects with a variety of texture
Can explore independently or socially
What does it mean for someone to be bi/multilingual?
Ability to speak/understand >1 language
What is EAL?
English as an additional language
What is BFLA?
Bilingual first language acquisition
Hear 2 languages spoken from birth, no chronological difference
What is MFLA?
Monolingual first language acquisition
Hear just one language from birth
What is ESLA
Early second language acquisition
Language environment changes and children start to hear a second language regularly over and above first language
What is a balanced bilingual?
Comparable proficiency in 2 languages
What is a dominant bilingual?
Uses 1 language significantly more, and with greater proficiency, than the other
What is a dominant / majority language?
Main language of a country/region, spoken by dominant social group
What is a minority language?
Language spoken by a social/ethnic minority group
What is a functional bilingual?
Operates in 2 languages with/without being fully fluent
What is a simultaneous bilingual?
Learning 2 languages from brith
What is a successive bilingual?
Second language introduced before the age of 3
What is a sequential bilingual?
Second language introduced after first language is well established (after 3)
Often happens at school
What is a heritage language?
Language of one’s ancestors / ethnolinguistic group
What is a home language?
Language spoken in the home, can be >1
What is L1?
First, native language/s learnt from birth
What is L2?
Second, non-native language of wider communication
What is the mother tongue?
Language…
- learnt first
- identifies with as a native speaker
- knows best
- uses most
Is multilingualism rare?
No- more bi/multilingual in the world than monolingual
Which language are most children educated in?
Second/later-acquired language
Do more people speak English as a native or second language?
Second language
How is multilingualism changing?
Increasing due to worldwide increase in migration + refugees (particularly in Europe + Asia)
How is multilingualism changing in the UK?
Growing number of children enter primary schools with EAL (21.2%), mostly concentrated in London
Over 300 different languages spoken
How many languages are spoken in Pakistan
6 major, over 57 minor languages
How many languages are spoken in Singapore?
Over 20
English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil are official languages
Are bilinguals equally proficient in both languages?
No
Bilinguals know their languages to the level they use/need them
Most have a dominant language- but can change with age and circumstances
Some can’t read/write in one language, some only have passive knowledge of a language
Should parents attempt to speak majority language instead of home language?
No…
- may not feel natural
- parents may not be proficient enough
- no evidence that second language in home is essential for second language development
- without home language, child can become isolates from family
- strong foundation in home language can help learn second language
What are 3 examples of methods for raising kids bilingual?
One-parent-one-language
Minority language at home
Time and place
- strict rules can be challenging for parents
- no evidence children confused when parents switch languages
Does bilingualism cause language delay?
No- children learning 2 languages simultaneously go through same developmental milestones as monolinguals
May start talking slightly later, but within normal range (8-15m)
What are the milestones in bilingual language development?
What is the variation within bilingual language development?
May develop at dif rates
Temporary reversal is possible (ie: visits other country)
Vocab in each language may be smaller than monolingual, but total vocab at least same size
Describe bilingual speech language learning
Can detect and learn regularities for both languages
Recognise both as native, but can discriminate between them via surface acoustic cues (eg: intonnation)
Using English and Turkish, explain how phonological systems differ
Turkish doesn’t have consonant clusters at the beginning of sentences
eg: can say felower instead of flower
How are bilingual infants able to differentiate their languages early on?
Babbling adjusted to language of the speaker
Switch languages according to conversation partner
What have multilingual children been found to be less accurate in?
Realisations of vowels
- vowel distortions
- low PVC (% vowels correct) score
More phonological variations or infrequent variants
- keep in mind as SLT (ie: may not be a SSD)
What is a normal bilingual acquisition phenomena?
Children show interference/transfer between languages
- transfer can be in one/all languages
- transfer direction dependent on exposure + similarity
What may initially happen to children going through sequential bilingual acquisition?
Use home language
Go through ‘silent’ phase when first exposed to second language (younger child = silent for longer)
Begins to use short / imitative sentences
What will eventually happen to children going through sequential bilingual acquisition?
Begin to produce own sentences
Become more fluent
- continues to make grammatical mistakes as missing rules
What is subtractive bilingualism?
As children learn additional language, lose skills + fluency in first if not reinforced/maintained
What is additive bilingualism?
Children learn additional language whilst first language/culture maintained + reinforced
What is social language?
Context-embedded
Everyday language between conversational partners
What is academic language?
Context-reduced
Language of academics required for qualifications eg: GCSEs
What is the different timeline for learning social + academic language for a sequential bilingual?
Up to 2y to develop Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS)
5-7y to acquire full range of aCognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
BICS-CALP gap results in difficulties with literacy → false assumptions re: language-learning disabilities
What is code mixing / code switching?
Using both languages within the same sentence
- expected in children
- adults do when they talk to other bilinguals
How is code switching seen as a sign of bilingual proficiency?
Adjust amount of code switching to match conversational partner
Know a word in one language but not other
Emphasises, expresses emotion
When are bilingual children able to respond as expected in the correct language (dep on: person, context)
3
In what ways can language mixing for bilinguals occur
Lexicon (EIN big cow)
Morphology (PFEITing)
Syntax (a house pink)
If bilingual children have speech/language disorders, will it show in both languages?
Yes, but may look different in each language
How to decide if a bilingual children should see an SLT?
Why do multilingual children face considerable challenges in receiving adequate assessment + intervention for SL disorders
Mismatch between child language and SLT language
Support + resources often only in English
How is the number of children entering primary school speaking EAL changing?
Increasing, though level of exposure prior to school entry varies
Describe communication at 1 year
- 1-3 words with degree of consistency
- talks to people/toys in long, tuneful stretches
- understands object names
- can respond to verbal requests, with gestures + vocalisations
How has independence developed by the time a toddler is 1 year?
Holds limbs out to help dress
Holding cutlery + drinks (though messy)
How have cognitive skills of toddlers at 1 year developed?
Initiates coordinated joint attention b/w adult & object
Describe communication at 18 months
Range of single words (6-20)
Understands + obeys simple commands/ gestures/ questions
Still babbling (has a tuneful intonation)
Phonological simplification
How have cognitive skills of toddlers at 18 months developed?
Focuses on self-directed activities: attention is single channelled
Awareness of self-identity, can now recognise themself in the mirror
Describe play at 18 months
Early symbolic play: use of toys to enact familiar situations
Can squat to pick up toy
How does the number of communicative acts /min change from 18m to 2y?
18m → 2/min
- requesting object/action
- establishing joint attention
- gestures + vocalisations
2y → 5-7/min
- requesting info
- answering questions
- achknowledging
- words, some non-verbal
At what age do toddlers start to join 2 words?
18-20m
At 24-36m…
- 98% 2-word sentences
- 90% 3-word sentences
- 84% 4-word sentences
How does the average expressive vocabulary size change between 18m and 24m?
50-100 words at 18m
to
200-300 words at 24m
What is the vocabulary spurt?
Rapid increase in words used (imp for joining words together, making connections)
Words beyond nouns
When does the vocabulary spurt happen?
Around 18m-2y
Around 6m after first words
How do toddlers learn new words fast during the vocabulary spurt?
Syntactic bootstrapping: using syntax around word to figure out word
Fast mapping: hearing word less times before its known
What are holophrases
Single word sentences used by toddlers
eg: mine (stop playing with my toy)
What is overextension (toddlers)?
Taking a word and applying it beyond its contextual referent
eg: mum for all older woman
What is underextension (toddlers)?
Not applying a word as far as it can
eg: mum is only theirs, fish not an animal
Describe communication of 2y
- 2-3 word utterances
- understands more complicated sentences
- more symbolic understanding of words
- turn-taking
- asking questions
- saying no/not
- echolalia
- early gramatical development (pronouns)
Describe play of 2y old
Can now use >1 action in play
eg: dinosaur fed, then dinosaur to bed
How many words can a toddler say at 3?
Around 700 (more booms of language occur)
Between 2.5-4.5, how many new words do children acquire /day?
~ 2-4 /day
Describe play by 3 years
Imagination
- make-believe play
- imaginary items have properties (eg: toy dinosaur is hungry)
Playing with peers > caregivers: allows for observation + imitation
How is play by 3 years linked to other development?
Use of social interactions skills in play to form friendships
Assists in cognitive + social + emotional development
Imagination closely linked to language (recognising + using symbols)
Describe motor development by 3 years
Walks up stairs
Cuts with toy scissors
Hold pencil near point, can copy shapes
Riding tricycle/bike
Describe a child’s conversation by 3 years
Language as main means of communicating
Turn-taking
Starts conversations
Can maintain topics in conversations
What are 8 of the functions/uses of language for children between 3-5?
Requesting explanations
Requesting information
Requesting clarification
Suggesting actions
Expressing emotions
Stating rules
Politeness markers
Humour/silliness
Describe a child’s speech by 3 years?
Largely intelligible
Varies in volume + pitch
Some substitutions/simplified grammar
Describe a child’s receptive language by 3 years?
Understands common nouns + verbs + adjectives
Understands who/whose/why/how many ?s
Follows instructions containing 3 (maybe 4) key words
Understands lots of concepts (eg: big/small)
Can identify object by function (eg: which do we eat with)
Describe a child’s expressive language by 3 years?
Tells short (sometimes jumbled) stories
Uses grammatical structures (pronouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions)
Uses externalised language for assistance in difficult tasks
What are some of the early numeracy literacy skills around 3-4 years?
Count up to 5 objects
Recite numbers up to 20
What are the different levels of attention called?
Reynell attention levels
What are the 6 Reynell attention levels?
Level 1 (0-1) → distractible, attention fleeting
Level 2 (1-2) → rigid attention, attends to activity of choice but cuts self off from all else
Level 3 (2-3) → single-channelled but attends to others
Level 4 (3-4) → flexible attention, single-channelled but more controlled, can shift attention
Level 5 (4-5) → gradual integrated attention
Level 6 (5-6) → fully integrated attention
What is a strategy to support a child’s attention at Level 1 (0-1)?
Incorporate child’s motivators into activity
What are strategies to support a child’s attention at Level 2 (1-2)?
Give child time for their activity of choice
Call child’s name to get their attention
What is a strategy to support a child’s attention at Level 3 (2-3)?
Call child’s name before speaking
What are strategies to support a child’s attention at Level 4 (3-4)?
Tell child it’s time to listen
Visual prompts to gain attention
Tell child they can continue working whilst listening to you
What are strategies to support a child’s attention at Level 5 (4-5)?
Use introductory phrases/gestures
Give information clearly
Praise good listening
What is a strategy to support a child’s attention at Level 6 (5-6)?
Encourage active listening + processing
How many minutes can a child attend an activity based on their age?
3-5 minutes for each year of life
note: keep this in mind when designing therapy sessions
Describe speech development at 4 years
Intelligible
Phonological awareness skills emerge
A few sound substitutions / consonant cluster simplifications
May hesitate/ use fillers
Describe language development at 4 years
Grammatically correct
Understands sentences up to 6 pieces of info
Understands abstract concepts eg: before/after
Asks questions
Describe communication development at 4 years
Can account recent events
Can gives personal details
Enjoys jokes
Knows several nursery ryhmes
What skill emerges at age 4?
Literacy skills
note: linked to spoken language competence!
What are 3 communication support strategies for preschoolers?
Linguistic responsivity
Language facilitating behaviours
Language developing behaviours
- expansion
- recasting
What is linguistic responsivity (communication support strategy for preschool)?
Child-led, following their interests
What are language facilitating behaviours (communication support strategy for preschool)?
Behaviours adults use to create + sustain children’s participation in conversations and joint engagement
eg: looking at child expectantly, asking open-ended questions
What’s the difference between conversational expansion and recasting?
Expansion: adult responds to child with more SEMANTICALLY complex form
eg: ‘doggy run’ → ‘the doggy is running fast’
Recasting: Expansion: adult responds to child with more SYNTACTICALLY complex form
eg: ‘go park’ → ‘let’s go to the park’
What are the 5 steps to creating a language-rich preschool classroom?
Identify a team
Develop a philosophy (principles)
Design physical space
Design daily language plans (content form use)
Ensure quality adult-child conversations
What kinds of jokes develop around age 7?
Ones that involve figurative language
Sarcasm
Why are researchers less interested about language in older children?
More focused on literacy (reading + writing + spelling)
In terms of pragmatics, by 5y, what are the 6 new language functions that emerge?
Reporting on past events
Reasoning
Predicting
Expressing empathy
Imaginary roles + props
Maintaining interactions
In terms of pragmatics, by 6y, what can children do?
Can hint without mentioning the intention in the request
Ability to address specific requests for clarification
Narratives developing, increasing complexity
When does the use of conjunctions emerge?
Around 5/6y
Describe semantic development from 5y
Vocabulary size continues to increase
Knowledge of taxonomies (classification) 5-7: children use superordinate terms (hypernyms) in speech
Relationships between words more firmly established
What is research supporting that primary school aged children have more firmly established relationships between words? What is this ‘shift’ called?
Word association games…
<7 produce sentence like responses, heard in everyday talk (eg: car → drive)
> 7 produce semantically related responses (eg: car → van)
- increased word finding fluency!
This is called the syntagmatic paradigmatic shift
At the primary school age, describe development in expressive grammar
Complex sentences → 2+ verb phrases with conjunctions
Noun + verb phrases expand within sentences
Complex verbs eg: ask, promise
In terms of receptive grammar, which sentences are easier for young children?
Active > passive
Reversible passives are the hardest as can’t use semantics to understand syntactics
How do narratives / storytelling change throughout development?
Decentre
What are the 5 stages of narrative development and the ages at which they occur? (Stadler & Ward)
Labelling (4)
Listing (4.5)
Connecting (5)
Sequencing (5)
Narrating (5.5)
What are some of the language demands in a Year 5 class (age 9-10)?
Verbal reasoning + negotiation
Meta-linguistic analysis of writing
Tempering feedback to others’ feelings
Verbally presented info, no visual scaffolding
Subject specific, academic language
How are communication supporting classrooms created at primary school age?
Communication supporting environments
Communication supporting opportunities
Communication supporting interactions
What are 2 other names for dialogic reading?
Interactive storytelling
Shared storytelling
What does dialogic reading do?
Allows children to actively participate in reading + practising language
- adult feeds back on child’s correct language use
- adult adapts reading style to child’s developing linguistic ability
How do you do dialogic reading using PEER method?
Prompt
Evaluate
Expand
Retreat
How do you do dialogic reading using CROWD method?
Completion
Recall
Open-ended questions
Wh- questions
Distancing
What theories does dialogic reading align with?
Social interactionist theories of child language acquisition
Child actively drives forward language learning from their interests, in scaffolded/socially supported interactions
What can be used alongside dialogic reading?
Story sacks: toys around a story
What is speech in relation to linguistic levels?
Speech is an element that makes up language
Speech and language impact on each other, and are very intertwined
What are the 3 linguistic (language) levels?
Sound structure (phonetic + phonology)
Word/sentence structure (morphology + syntax)
Meaning (semantics + pragmatics)
What is phonetics?
Study of speech sounds: physical production + acoustic transmission + perception of sounds
What is articulation?
Part of phonetics concerned with the movement of speech mechanisms to produce sounds
What are the 3 traditional theories of speech acqusition?
Behaviourist
Structuralist
Biological
What is the behaviourist theory of speech acquisition?
Behaviour shaped through models + reinforcement
From a speech perspective: children learn they get what they want with correct pronunciation
What is the structuralist theory of speech acquisition?
No external influences, we have an innate pre-determined mechanism to develop speech
What is the biological theory of speech acquisition?
Born with innate pre-determined mechanism to develop speech
BUT: physical/biological factors can impact on this (eg: deaf/cleft/genetic conditions)
What do linguistic theories of speech acquisition look at? What are the 2 linguistic theories
Looks at speech as an element of language, how they impact on each other
Generative phonology
Natural phonology
What is generative phonology?
Phonological rules need to be fully understood + acquired by child to influence output/use
What is natural phonology?
We can map speech development to say
- what sounds develop when
- natural speech sound errors vs when a child may have a disorder
What does the psycholinguistic model look at?
Processes involved in perception, storage, and production of speech
What is the input signal in the psycholinguistic model?
Speech signal heard by the child, usually from adult
What is the output signal in the psycholinguistic model?
Utterance produced by the child
What is the focus of the psycholinguistic model?
Lexical representations- unseen psychological events that occur between the arrival of an input signal and the production of speech to comprise information about a word
What are the 5 lexical representations in the psycholinguistic model?
Semantic representation
Phonological representation
Motor programme
Gramatical representation
Orthographic representation
What is semantic representation (psycholinguistic model)?
Info about what the word means, attributes of the word, what category its in
What is phonological representation (psycholinguistic model)?
Info about how the word sounds, allows discrimination of the target word from other similar words
What is motor programme (psycholinguistic model)?
Stored set of instructions for how to pronounciate the word
What is grammatical representation (psycholinguistic model)?
Info about…
- word class
- how it can be used in a sentence
- plural forms
What is orthographic representation (psycholinguistic model)?
Info about what word looks like written
What is the box and arrow model by Stackhouse & Wells for speech processing?
How are newborns ‘linguistic citizens of the world’ and how does this change?
Can discriminate almost all phonemes in world’s languages
After first year, they lose this ability as to analyse sounds commonly heard, they have to ‘let go’ others
At what age is an embryo’s inner ear fully developed?
20 weeks
Baby has been hearing for approx 5m by the time they’re born
What sounds do newborns recognise and prefer?
Mother > other females
Native language > other language
Story heard in womb > other stories
What is baby babble?
Important developmental milestone children need to pass to achieve clear speech development
Sounds before first feel words as babies’ experiment with tongues/lips/palate
Broader range of speech sounds enter baby babble as their mouth cavity grows relative to the size of their tongues
What type of babble do babies use between 0-6m?
Vegetative babble, little meaning
What type of babble do babies use between 6-12m?
Canonical babble (reduplicated)
- parents can assign meaning to babble
What are 6 internal factors that may affect speech?
Anatomy + physiology
Social interest + knowledge
Hearing + vision senses
Neurological + cognitive ability
Language processing skills
Motivation + intent
What are 6 external factors that may affect speech?
Secure, affectionate relationships
Models
Interaction opportunities
Language at their level
Routines
Play
What are the 3 positions phonemes could be in a word?
Initial
Medial
Final
What are the ‘early’ phonemes? (McLeod & Crowe)
2;0-3;11
What are the ‘middle’ phonemes? (McLeod & Crowe)
4;0-4;11
What are the ‘late’ phonemes? (McLeod & Crowe)
5;0-6;11
Between 3;0-3;11, how many UK vowels should be acquired?
96.39%
By what age should children be inteligible?
3 for familiar people
5 for strangers
What are the 2 types of typical speech processes?
Structural: impacts structure of the word
Systemic: one sound changes to another (substitution)
What is reduplication? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Structural
One syllable repeated for another
3;0
What is consonant harmony? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Systemic
Sound replaced by a sound that is same/similar to another in the word (eg: dod for dog)
3;0
What is final consonant deletion? What is this common with? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Structural
Final consonant omitted
Common with hearing loss/glue ear as final consonant is usually quietest
3;3
What is fronting? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Systemic
Target sound is produced further forward in mouth
3;6-3;9
What is stopping? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Systemic
Fricative/affricate changes to plosive
3;0 for initial
5;0 for final
What is weak syllable deletion (WSD)? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Structural
Omission of unstressed syllable (eg: mato for tomato)
4;0
What is cluster reduction? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Structural
Omission of cluster element (eg: poon for spoon)
4;0
What is gliding? At what age should this typical speech process be resolved?
Systemic
Liquid consonants replaced by glides
5;0
Are our brains evolved for reading?
No- have to explicitly learn as reading is only a recent cultural development
What is the broad definition of literacy?
Ability to identify + understand + interpret + create + communicate using printed and written materials
What do SLTs focus on regarding literacy?
How children engage with ‘text’ information
What are the different types of literacy?
Traditional
Multimodal
What is using text abbreviations/emojis a sign of?
Superior language skills as requires good executive function
- as long as can shift to formal language when needed!
What effect does literacy have on our language system?
Taxes it because…
- books may be in dif culture/time
- increased sentence complexity
How is vocab developed via literacy?
Learn to read, then read to learn
What literacy skill is verbal comprehension associated with?
Reading comprehension
What literacy skill is expressive language associated with?
Expressive writing
Spelling
What literacy skill is speech associated with?
Phonological awareness
What literacy skills are motor skills associated with?
Handwriting / typing
What is early success in spoken language a foundation for?
Later reading development
What can written symbols represent?
Sound
- phonetic approach to learning to read, teaching letter-sound associations
Meaning
- logographic / ideographic
- eg: symbol for a book
What is an example of a country with 3 written languages?
Japan
- sound
- meaning
- international symbols
Why is English less phonetic now?
Old language: spoken language is dynamic and has diverged (subconscious process)
Written language less dynamic
Why is reading important (bigger picture)?
Gateway to employment
What is an early stage of literacy development?
Knowledge on the spatial orientation of books
- covers and backs
- left -> right
- right-side-up
What happens at later stages of literacy development?
Learn concepts of print
- sentences read left -> right (may follow with finger)
- words have boundaries
- spoken counterpart to orthographic symbols
- words tell stories
What is the basis of decoding? (Wren et al)
Why is English orthographically deep?
Same symbol dif sounds
- eg: ‘ou’ in rough and through
Dif symbols same sound
- eg: ‘ee’ ‘ea’
Why is English a challenging language in terms of literacy?
Some of the most common words are irregular, kids just have to learn
eg: ‘the’ ‘is’ ‘wh-‘
What are concepts of print the basis for?
Basis for knowledge of letter + alphabetic principle
What is phonological awareness (literacy)?
Ability to reflect on and manipulate the structure of an utterance as distinct from its meaning
- size of linguistic unit
- level of explicitness of operations
What are the different sizes of linguistic units
What are the levels of explicitness of operations
- Identification → recognise linguistic units
- Segmentation → recognise + break up units
- Blending → recognise + put together units
- Manipulation recognise + break up + add/delete/exchange units
What is letter knowledge?
Knowing letters that represent phonemes in alphabetic writing systems
What characteristics for each letter do children learn when acquiring letter knowledge?
Graphic form in upper + lower case
Letter name
Letter sound
What is alphabetic principle?
To read words effectively, a child needs to understand letters represent phonemes
- not automatic, relationship is taught
Who developed the model on literacy development: becoming a skilled reading/writer? What are the 4 stages of progression?
Ehri
Pre-alphabetic
Partial alphabetic
Full alphabetic
Consolidated alphabetic
What are the central aspects of Ehri’s model on becoming a skilled reading/writer?
Child develops knowledge of writing system
Child develops knowledge of relations b/w oral + written language
What is the pre-alphabetic phase?
Little-no knowledge of letters
Know symbols have meaning
Some reading ability for signs
Cannot read knew words
What is the partial alphabetic phase?
Some letter-sound knowledge to read words eg: initial/ final letters
Differentiation of vowel sounds particularly hard as phonologically indistinct
What is the full alphabetic phase?
Acquisition of full knowledge of alphabet + letter-sound correspondences
Words sounded out
Common words stored in memory, read w/o sounding out letters
Use of decoding + prediction strategies
What is the consolidated alphabetic phase?
Increased knowledge of orthography
Frequent exposure + memory of common spelling patterns
Letter strings become consolidated units
Use of decoding + prediction + analogy + sight strategies
What is involved in the complex activity of reading a passage?
Decode + comprehend words
Move eyes across lines, fixating on individual words
Combine words into meaningful clauses/sentences
Integrate ideas presented in successive sentences
Make sense of text as a whole
What 2 largely independent skills is reading comprehension a product of?
Written word decoding
Oral language/linguistic comprehension
What is the continuum of reading ability?
How many words do adolescents know (approx) at…
10
15
25
10: 20,000
15: 30,000
25: 50,000
The journey from childhood to adulthood through adolescence is marked by a combination of which categories of transitions…
Biological
Psychological
Social
What are 4 key changes that occur during adolescence?
Puberty
Neuro-maturation
Thinking/cognitive development
Identity
What is puberty?
Hormonal changes resulting in the development of primary + secondary sex characteristics
What does puberty co-occur with?
Parental changes eg: menopause, can result in conflict
What is neuro-maturation?
New synapses + neural connections are made, then pruned
Size of cerebellum increased, linked to descision making
White matter volume increased
Limbic system develops
What elements of thinking and cognition changes in adolescence according to developmental psychology?
Selective attention
Memory
Processing speed
Executive function
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning / critical thinking
Metacognition
Social metacognition / interpretive diversity
What is identity?
Constructing self and world views: figuring out who you are
What are 3 things one’s identity may be based off?
Personal
Social/ risk behaviours
Academics
How does identity develop?
Experiment with identities
Shed
Settle
What do adolescents use and manipulate language for? Give 4 examples
To create unique social meanings
- non standard ‘were’
- tag questions ‘isn’t it?’
- right dislocation ‘it was new, that skirt’
- negative concord ‘i didn’t say nothing’
What can language and social meaning contribute to creating?
Social identities
Group membership: dif social groups use linguistic features to create separate styles
How is language prevalent in the secondary school classroom?
In curriculum
How you access the curriculum
Increased:
- figurative language
- abstract concepts
- complex teacher talk (multiple meanings, idioms)
What are the 5 areas of language development in secondary school?
Understanding + reasoning
Vocabulary + word finding
Refined grammar + syntax
Sentence structure + narration
Social interaction
What is derivational morphology that develops during adolescence?
Understanding + using suffix ‘-ly’ to switch between adverb and adjective
What verb production develops during adolescence?
Metacognitive verb production
- eg: ‘believe’ instead of ‘know’
How do adolescents define words as they develop?
Increasing mention subordinate category classification
More subtle aspects of meaning
How do figurative expressions develop in adolescence?
Understand + explain + reflect on increasingly abstract eg: metaphors + idioms
How does ambiguity + sarcasm develop in adolescence?
Increased understanding even without contextual cues/intonation
How does the length of each clause change from 10 /15/ 25?
10= 7+
15= 8+
25= 9+
- 2x longer during expository discourse (conveying information)
What are linguistic challenges transitioning to secondary school?
Word meaning is harder across all aspects of the curriculum
- technical + specialist terms
How do adolescents engage listeners during convos / narratives / expository discourse?
Humour
Drama
Elaborate stories
Collaboration with peers for joint narratives