Week 2-RF lecture

Question 1

How many words do English adult speakers know compared to 6-year-olds?

Answer 1

A=60,000 words
6 year olds=14,000
(Carey 1978)

Question 2

How do we make speech sounds?

Answer 2

-energy source comes from lungs
-airflow obstructed/released via vocal folds or articulators e.g., tongue/lips=sounds produced

Question 3

How are children’s early sounds made?

Answer 3

-the unintentional result of breathing
-however, over time have intentional control over movements shaping these sounds

Question 4

Bates, Camaioni and Volterra (1975): Define Perlocutionary acts (birth- c.10 months)

Answer 4

children’s behaviours have consequences but not intended as communicative.

Question 5

Bates, Camaioni and Volterra (1975): Define Illocutionary acts (10-12 months)

Answer 5

children intentionally communicate in unconventional ways

Question 6

Bates, Camaioni and Volterra (1975): Define Locutionary acts (12 months on)

Answer 6

children intentionally communicate using conventional forms e.g. prelinguistic vocalisations, pointing etc.

Question 7

What are the stages of speech sound development?

Answer 7

1. Crying and involuntary sounds of bodily functions.
2. Cooing and laughter (from about 8 weeks)
3. Vocal play (squeals, yells, raspberries and vowel sounds; from about 16 weeks)
4. Reduplicated babbling (from about 36 weeks)
5. Nonreduplicated babbling (from about 48 weeks)

Question 8

Define reduplicated (or canonical) babbling

Answer 8

produces adult-like syllables in repetitive sequences e.g., dada, baba etc.

Question 9

Define non-reduplicated (or variegated) babbling

Answer 9

produces adult-like syllables in non-repetitive sequences sounding like speech and prosody (rhythms of speech) becomes clearly apparent for the first time.

Question 10

Does babbling play a role in children’s development of
words?

Answer 10

• Leonard, Newhoff and Meselam (1980) studied the initial consonant sounds in the first 50 words produced by English-speaking children.
• They found that the most common sounds used in babbling were also most commonly used in words.

Question 11

When does pointing start in infants?

Answer 11

-between 9-14 months
-infants begin to point imperatively (to tell someone to do something) declaratively (to inform someone else about something) or interrogatively (to request information about something)
-pointing is “the royal road to language” (Butterworth, 2003)

Question 12

What are the research findings to pointing?

Answer 12

• In a study of 59 children (Lüke et al 2017) 47 were found to index-finger point at 12 months of age.
• These 47 were found to have better language abilities at 2 years of age, than the children who did not point
• Interestingly, the kind of pointing used was found to be important as twelve-month-olds who pointed only with their open hand but never with their index finger at risk for primary language delay at 2 years of age.

Question 13

How do infants do gaze following and gaze coordination?

Answer 13

Early in infancy infants begin to follow other people’s line of regard (Scaife & Bruner, 1975, Hood et al. 1998)