Week 8: Language Development Flashcards
What is critical in the first 1000 days in terms of language development?
Communication, it’s important to keep talking to a baby as it impacts the architecture of their brain - neural connections form rapidly in this period
It’s important how you speak -> don’t just give commands - converse expose the child to words it wouldn’t otherwise have heard
What is the difference between the number of words some children have heard by age 4 compared to others?
By the age of 4 some children have heard 30 million words more than others
Is there a ‘word gap’ between higher and lower income families?
This is an outdated study that said there was a difference in the number of words that children from low income families knew compared to high income families
Critics say this is an outdated study. A new version of the study at MIT was conducted with a lot more participants were they recorded conversations and analyzed MRIs
They found that conversations helps brain development independent of SES I.e. lots of conversations -> lots of development regardless of what background you come from
What are some examples of factors in modern life that are influencing language development?
-Phones -> interrupt face to face interactions
-Prams being faced away from the parent
-How early some children go into preschool
List the components of language… What are each governed by?
*Phonology
*Morphology
*Syntax
*Semantics
*Pragmatics
-> all of these are rule systems
Phonology
The sounds used by the speakers of a particular language
Phonemes
-Subset of Phonology
-The smallest sound unit in a language
* Can affect the meaning of a word e.g. substituting the phoneme
/p/ for /b/ in the word bit changes the meaning of the word.
Morphology
The rule system that governs how words are
formed
How many phonemes are there in the world? How many are used by english?
There are approximately 2000 phonemes in languages around the word
English language only uses about 45 Phonemes
First challenge in learning a language (whether that is in adulthood or childhood) is to learn what phonemes are used. Phonemes are not the same across all languages
Morphemes
A word or a part of a word that cannot be
broken into a smaller meaningful part
- e.g. the word “view” = 1 morpheme BUT the word “review” = 2 morphemes
-e.g Happy = 1 morpheme, Unhappy = 2 morphemes – un and happy, Unhappiness = 3 morphemes – un, happy and ness - These have an important role to play when it comes to grammar e.g. convey past tense with ed, plural with s
Syntax:
Rules specifying how words can be combined to form meaningful
sentences
Semantics
The aspect of language centring on meanings
The bicycle talked the boy into buying a chocolate bar!!!
* Syntactically correct/incorrect?
* Semantically correct/incorrect?
Semantically incorrect but syntactically correct
Pragmatics
The rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication
Includes things like facial expressions, gestures, turn taking. Pragmatics are the glue that hold conversations together.
The exercise used to demonstrate this in class was to turn our backs to each other and try have a conversation without some of these essential communication cues
Prelinguistic development : What are babies aware of before they start talking? Do they lose any abilities in terms of language as they progress? What can they do from about 6 months?
- Babies acquire a great deal of language specific information before they begin talking.
- Young babies are sensitive to a wider range of phonemes than the ones that exist in their own first language(s)
- By 6-8 months babies begin to STOP paying attention to the sounds that will not assist them with mastering their own native language(s). -> this is an example of pruning
- From 6 months babies begin to detect the internal structure of both sentences and words.
Think of all the terms that are used to describe what is informally known as ‘baby talk’?
-Infant directed speech
-Child directed speech
-Parentese
-Used to be called motherese but that term has gone out of favour
What is infant directed speech or Parentese?
-The term used to describe how adults commonly talk to a baby differently than you would a adult
-Parents across the world do it, it’s a very natural thing that we seem to be able to slip into
What are the features of Infant directed speech or parentese? What is the purpose?
high pitch
short sentences
sing song voice
clear pronunciation
vowels drawn out
animated facial expression
distinct pauses
lots of repetition
All of these things help the baby to learn language faster as they are more interesting for the baby to pay attention to
Brain scans of babies study in relation to parentese
This study investigated what happens in babies’ brains as they listen to “parentese”—the sing-song style of speech adults often use with infants.
It found that babies stay engaged with parentese but lose interest in normal adult speech.
This is because parentese contains a strong, synchronized rhythm that enhances the acoustic landmarks the brain uses to process speech. Interestingly, the babies’ brain activity synchronized with this rhythm.
How does statistics have a place in language development?
From a very young age—even in the first year of life—babies’ brains are like little data analysts. They’re constantly listening to the sounds in the language(s) around them and picking up on patterns. This includes:
Which sounds occur most frequently
(“ba”, “da”, “ma” might come up a lot in English)
Which sounds tend to appear together
(like “pre” often followed by “tty” = “pretty”)
Over time, babies start to:
-Pay more attention to the sounds they hear often – These frequent sounds become more familiar and easier to recognize.
Ignore or “prune” the sounds they rarely hear – If certain sounds don’t show up often (like click sounds in Xhosa or tonal shifts in Mandarin), the brain treats them as less relevant and becomes less sensitive to them
So, in a nutshell:
Babies use statistics to figure out which sounds matter in their language, and their brains rewire accordingly.
What are examples of early sounds in babies? What are their function?
Crying
Burps
Grunts
Sneezes
-> have a role and exercising vocal cords (2 muscles that join and vibrates together)
-> Help the child learn how air flow and different mouth positions effect sounds
Does the development of non-speech sounds happen similarly across cultures? Why is this?
From birth to around 18 months, non-speech sound development follows a similar pattern across all languages.
This early vocal development is influenced by physical changes in the baby’s mouth, throat, and larynx. At birth, babies don’t have much control over these structures, so most of their sounds are reflexive—like crying, grunting, or fussing.
As they grow, the larynx gradually drops and the vocal tract lengthens, giving babies more control over their sound production.
When do babies begin cooing?
-6-8 weeks
-Cooing = soft, vowel-like noises often associated with comfort or pleasure. These coos are different from cries, as they often happen when babies are content or responding to a caregiver’s soothing or happy voice.
-Turn taking can be present from here i.e. parent talks -> cooing -> parent talks -> cooing
When do babies begin producing consonant sounds?
3-4 months
When do babies begin babbling?
By 6 months
Repeating consonant-vowel combinations such as babababa and dadadadada
What language milestones are reached by 8 months
-Restrict their sounds to phonemes in the language they are hearing
-pick up intonation patterns of that language
How does language progression differ for hearing impaired babies and what factors effect this progression?
Even babies with hearing impairments typically begin to babble by around 6 months, following the same early vocal milestones as hearing babies.
This is considered part of typical development and is largely driven by motor maturation.
However, after this point, auditory input becomes crucial for continued language development. Without access to sound, deaf children often begin to fall behind in speech and language skills.
This is why the timing of cochlear implantation is so important—the earlier the device is implanted, the better the chances of supporting typical language development.
Importantly, early exposure to sign language can help reduce the negative impacts of auditory deprivation, offering a rich, accessible language input during a critical time for development.
This is a strong example of a sensitive period in language development—an optimal window when the brain is especially responsive to language input, whether spoken or signed.
What is present at birth in terms of a babies ability to be a communicator?
Babies arrive prepared for aspects of
conversational behaviour. E.g. initiating
interaction by making eye contact.
What is present at 3-4 months in terms of a babies ability to be a communicator?
Babies start to gaze in the same general direction as adults are looking. This
skill, which becomes more accurate by 10–11 months, facilitates joint
attention
What is joint attention + why is it important for language development? When it is present?
Joint attention is when two people (usually an adult and a child) focus on the same object or event at the same time, while also being aware that they’re sharing that focus. It usually involves gestures like pointing, showing, or eye-gazing, and happens alongside social cues like smiling or vocalizing.
This is important for language development as it’s important for understanding others intentions, holding conversations, supporting vocabulary growth and connection objects with their meaning
Present at 10-11 months
What is present at 12 months in terms of a babies ability to be a communicator?
Babies start to use pointing to communicate and employ two communicative pointing gestures:
The protodeclarative gesture: In which they point to, touch, or hold up an
object to draw others’ attention to it.
The protoimperative gesture: In which the baby gets another person to do
something for them by pointing to or reaching for an object (often with
accompanying sounds).
protodeclarative gesture
the baby points to, touches, or holds up an
object to draw others’ attention to it.
protoimperative gesture
the baby gets another person to do
something for them by pointing to or reaching for an object (often with
accompanying sounds).
What is a common debate in the field of language development
the respective roles that nature and
nurture play when it comes to language acquisition.
Who is famous for the navisit perspective in language development ?
Chomksy
What are the key ideas of Chomsky’s nativist perspective?
Emphasises the role of nature
- Universal Grammar: “A built in storehouse
of rules common to all human languages”
(Berk, 2013, p. 361). - Common components or properties of language include:
-The notion that words can be classified into different groups, e.g. nouns and
verbs
-The notion that sentences will follow a particular structure. For example: - Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) in English
- Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) in Japanese
What is ‘LAD’ in Noam Chomsky’s navisit perspective?
- Language Acquisition Device (LAD): “A set of
linguistic processing skills believed to be innate … that enables a child to infer the rules governing others’ speech and then use these rules to produce language”
In other words, it’s a built-in mental structure or storehouse of universal grammar—the basic principles shared across all languages.
When sensory input/exposure to language interacts with the LAD, it leads to the development of the child’s grammatical competence—their ability to understand and produce language according to grammatical rules.
Support for the nativist perspective?
- The “learnability factor” = Children acquire a very complex communication system very rapidly without formal instruction (you don’t sit down and tell a child of 18 months syntax rules but they have inferred them)
- A universal sequence = Language development appears to follow a species wide maturational plan (all children seem to progress through the same stages at the same time)
- A sensitive period for language development
- E.g. Those who learned ASL in adolescence or adulthood never became as
proficient at any aspect of language as those who learned in childhood
e.g. Jeanie (extreme deprivation case) -> never learnt grammar, could only learn vocab
Limitations of a Nativist Perspective
No agreement on universal grammar rules across languages
Contradicts observation of development
* More experimentation and learning involved in language development than Chomsky assumed (development of language in children is not as simple as unfolding an inborn grammar blueprint)
- Theory lacks comprehensiveness
- Ignores quality of language input (richness and clarity of input - how much and how adults talk to children matters a lot)
- Ignores role of social experience (children learn best in social settings through shared attention, back and forth conversation + emotional connection).
Interactionist perspective
“Children’s biologically based competencies and their language environment
interact to shape the course of language development”
Social Interactionist Theories
Language learning is the product of:
* A strong desire to understand others and to be understood by them (nature), AND
* Immersion in a rich language environment (nurture)
Broca’s Area
A structure located in the left frontal lobe that of the cerebral cortex
that supports grammatical processing and language production.
Wernicke’s Area:
A language structure located in the left temporal lobe of the
cerebral cortex that plays a role in comprehending word meaning
(mental dictionary -> matches input with store)
When do most children make their first utternaces?
1st birthday
What is the idea of modularity? Is this true in language development?
specific parts of the brain have distinct functions
Yes and no. Broca’s and Wernicke’s both have distinct function but communication between the areas is also vital
Intonation
convey meaning by the way you say words
e.g. up at end of sentence to make question
Phonological development : early phase
12-18 months
- First recognisable words appear at around 12 months
- These first words:
- Reflect the sounds a child is able to produce
-Often start with a consonant and end with a vowel, e.g. ma, da
-Often include repeated syllables, e.g. mama, dada - Use the same consonant syllables used in earlier babbling
- Holophrase: A single word used to express an entire
sentence’s worth of meaning.
Holophrase
A single word used to express an entire
sentence’s worth of meaning.
Can often be interrupted by the listener in many ways
Phonological Strategies
From about 18 months, children tackle challenging words by using strategies that
enable them to utilise their limited pronunciation capacities to produce words that
resemble adult utterances.
E.g.
Final consonant deletion: Gi me my du ba →Give me my duck back
E.g. weak syllable deletion - child often articulate only the weak part of word i.e. nana instead of banana
What is the typical progression for children in terms of phonological strategies ?
Minimal words, focus on:
* Stressed syllable & its vowel consonant
combination
Add ending consonant
Adjust vowel length
Add unstressed syllables
Produce full word, correct stress pattern
Semantic Development - comprehension + production and production time lines
- Children’s comprehension
develops ahead of production -> this reflects a difference in memory processes i.e. the difference between recognition and recall - comprehension only needs recognition whereas production requires both
Production
* Initially vocab gains are slow (1-3 words per
week)
* Rapid vocab gains between 18-24 months
(1-2 words per day)
Types of early words and how they differ in development
Object and action
-More objects than actions
-Objects are easier concepts, adults rarely name verbs
-Influenced by culture and language (i.e. Asian countries tend to use more action words than nouns/ objects so action words develop faster)
State
-Modifiers or labels for attributes –
size, color, possession
-Learn general distinctions before
specific
Examples of early object words
. bottle, car, digger, shoe
Examples of early action words
ta, up, cuddles, out
Examples of early state words: modifiers
. red [car], big [dog], my [bag],
dump [truck]
Overextension:
Using a word to refer to a wider set of objects, actions,
or events than is appropriate.
* E.g. A toddler calling all furry, four-legged animals “doggie”
-Very common
Underextension:
Using a word to refer to a smaller set of objects,
actions, or events than is appropriate.
* E.g. A toddler using the word “doggie” only to refer
to a particular type of dog – schnauzers for example.
What is the reason for overextension?
Children may overextend word meanings
not because they misunderstand but
because they only have small vocabularies.
* By 2 ½ -3 these types of semantic errors → less common
i.e. children just want to communicate and dont have the vocab so it’s better to do it even its wrong
According to Steven Pinker how fast are children learning new words at 18 months?
Steven pinker -> leader in language acquisition
Children learning new word every couple of hours (at 18 months)
What is over and under extension and example of
assimilation from Piaget’s theory
- Using existing concepts to explain new stimuli
What can variation in vocab size development be due to?
Gender (girls slightly ahead than boys due to faster physical maturation meaning better coordination of head jaws and mouth)
Temperament (if shy might hold back on speaking and can effect how much interaction you get)
Language environment (quality of home literacy experiences - enriched better than insufficient and things like reading books has a huge impact because it exposes children to language that they don’t normally get to experience in everyday life)
Language style
* Referential = A style of early language learning in which children use language
mainly to label objects -> fast acquisition of words, vocab grows fast
- Expressive = A style of early language learning in which children use language
mainly to talk about their own
and others feelings -> means the child is highly sociable
Semantic Development During the
Primary School Years
Big vocabulary increase (exponential from grades 1 to 3 to 5)
* Due to Fast-mapping: The process
whereby children begin to
understand the meaning of a new
word after only hearing it once (this ability disappears in adulthood)
* The role of reading which also grows vocab fast beyoung the words that we hear everyday
Use words precisely, understand
multiple meanings – metaphors,
puns
Grammatical development -> when do we get first-word combinations?
18–24 months
This is known as telegraphic speech _>
Early 2-word sentences that consist primarily of content words and omit smaller, less important one. E.g. more milk, all gone,
no juice
* Similar to holophrases: The same telegraphic phrase can convey a variety of messages
* Used by children all over the world
By the third year what happens in terms of grammatical development?
-Three-word sentences appear.
-From 2 ½ –3, children’s speech indicates that they have begun to master the grammatical categories of their language.
-* Foots and goed (shows that children have begun to recognise grammatical rules like adding s for plural and ed for past tense) -> these are exceptions to the rules (overregularisation)
Overregularization:
- The over
application of regular grammatical patterns to words that patterns to words that require irregular irregular modification.
Jean Berko Gleason: The Wug Test
Gleason devised the Wug Test to gauge children’s acquisition of
morphological rules.
Target word Is paired with plausible sounding word that carries a morphological rule– they are not real words though which means they can’t have memorized the pairs
For example, this is a wug, now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two ______ answer is wugs
Complex Grammatical Forms (negatives)
Nonexistence
* No biscuit; All gone chips
Rejection
* No wash hair; No eat carrots
Denial
* That not my dog
Appear from
2 ½ –3 years
Complex Grammatical Forms:Questions
Rising intonations
Subject–auxiliary verb inversion
* The dog is here. (Statement)
* Is the dog here? (Question)
Correct yes–no questions precede wh- questions
Other Complex
Constructions
Connectives
* I got up and then I had my breakfast.
Tag questions
*You’re John, aren’t you?
Passive sentences
*The window was broken by Sarah.
Appear between
3 ½ –6 years
Communicative Support
Recasts: Adult responses that restructure children’s grammatically incorrect speech into correct form (Berk, p. 389) e.g.I Gotted new shorts -> I got new shorts
- Expansions: Adult responses that elaborate on children’s speech, increasing its complexity (Berk, p. 389) e.g. Daddy home -> Daddy is home
→ Often used in combination
