Toddlerhood - Language Development

Question 1

Infinite generativity

Answer 1

ability to take word symbols of a language/combine them in an infinite number of ways

Question 2

Milestones of Toddler Language

Answer 2

first 6 months of toddlerhood: develops at slow but steady pace
12-18 months: learn to speak 1-3 new words a week
15 months: 10 words
18 months: 50 words

Question 3

holophrases

Answer 3

12-18 months: single word used to represent a whole sentence

Question 4

underextension

Answer 4

applying a general word to specific object

Question 5

overextension

Answer 5

use a single word to represent a variety of related objects

Question 6

production lags behind comprehension

Answer 6

toddlers don’t reach 50 word milestone in production until 18 months but 50 word comprehension reached by 13 months.
comprehension is better predictor of later verbal intelligence

Question 7

naming explosion

Answer 7

18-24 months: vocabulary spurt; pace of learning new words doubles to 5/6 words per week

Question 8

fast mapping

Answer 8

learning and remembering a word after one time exposure; able to infer meaning based on context and related words; girl’s vocab increases faster than boys

Question 9

Telegraphic speech

Answer 9

18-24 month: two word phrases that strip away connecting words: mommy gone, more cookie

Question 10

Syntactic bootstrapping

Answer 10

using syntax to figure out new words

Question 11

24-36 months

Answer 11

becoming more adept at language and can communicate with others

Question 12

Overregularization

Answer 12

applying grammatical rules to words that are exceptions to the rule