language development€¦ · word production •some sounds are harder to pronounce than other...

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Language development


Child language studies•Herodotus is a Greek historian called the father of history,

lived around 484 – 425 BCE

•In his book History, he relates the story of Psammetichus-

an ancient Egyptian king

•The king wanted to prove that the Egyptians were the

original human race and asked a shepherd to raise two

children, carrying for their needs but not to speak to them.

The king believed that the children will develop the language

of the oldest group of humans all by themselves

•This is a version of an innatist theory of language

development: babies are born with a specific language wired

in their brains


Cont'

•The first word pronounced by the children was “becos”

•Because the word was not known in their language, the king

found out that becos meant bread in Phrygian language and

accepted the second place after Phrygians.

•The systematic study of children’s language is relatively new to

our time; Noam Chomsky (1957)- provided new models of

language to be explored by researchers; B.F. Skinner ( 1957)

inspired investigators to test learning theory;1980-1990 studies

include phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics;

cross-cultural language studies ( helpful in helping adopted

children)

•Research can be cross-sectional or longitudinal in design,

observational and/or experimental; techniques:imitation,

elicitation, interview, high amplitude sucking


Biological bases for language

•Language is unique to humans and very similar in all

humans ( Lenneberg, 1976; Paabo, 2003)

•Researchers concluded that language is species specific

and species uniform

•Animals posses communication systems and are able to

communicate to some levels but very limited ( bees,

chimpanzees, cats, dogs, parrots, etc)

•Human language enables its users to communicate and to

describe experiences using past, present and future tense

and to imagine..

•Communication systems studied in animals do not meet

these criteria of language


Language and the brain

•Infants show interest in human faces and there is evidence that

the infant brain contains neurons that are specialized in identifying

human faces and recognizing emotions in faces ( Locke, 1993)

•Paabo discovered recently (2003) that gene FOXP2 is related to

language

•Language areas in the brain: Broca's area is involved in the

programming of speech for production; Wernicke's area is

involved in the comprehension of language we hear. In order to

repeat a word we hear, we process it first in Wernicke's area then

a representation of it is sent via the Arcuate fasciculus to Broca's

area where its spoken form is organized

•Humans poses specialized structures in the brain and in the

neurological system that are language specific


The development of Language

•Research shows that newborns prefer to listen the language

they heard while in utero

•During the first months infants acquire the communicative

skills necessary to develop language later on

•It starts socially: they show attention to emotional speakers,

gaze into the eyes of parents, caregiver, take turn in

conversation, respond to social motivation, etc

•Physiologically, infants are able to process incoming speech

signals and to make fine distinctions

•Around 6 months, babies start to categorize the sounds of

their spoken/exposure language/s


The prelinguistic period

There are two categories:

•Reflexive vocalization- cries, coughs, involuntary sounds,

burping, sneezing, vowel-like sounds may occur

•Nonreflexive vocalization- cooing, babbling- nonautomatic

responses, productions, containing phonetic features found

in adult languages.

Engage infants and toddlers in vocal play, use facial

gestures, puppets, felt board, concrete materials


Cont'•By 11 months, most babies understand 50 + words

•They point to the right person when are asked

•Around the time infants start walking they start pronouncing

first words

•This word production happens in all cultures and languages

around the world

•Infants begin to babble, playing with sounds-this is

considered by researchers early speech

•Language development seems to have universal

characteristics

•Infants start with concrete words, simple in pronunciation,

use props (mental images, focal colours- blue and red)


Cont'

•Some constraints consist in child's comprehension and

word production

•Some sounds are harder to pronounce than other

•Combinations of consonants may be problematic to

pronounce for some infants, even preschoolers

•In terms of semantic development, there are limits;their

vocabulary reflects their interests, names of objects they

use, meaningful people in their life, etc

•Later on in preschool years children gain metalinguistic

awareness.


Emergence in responses to sound and speech in the

first year

•Newborn--> alerted by loud noises; turns head to look in the

direction of sound; is calmed by a familiar voice; prefers

familiar voice over a stranger's; discriminates many of the

sounds used in speech

•1-2 months → smiles when spoken to

•3-7 months → responds differently to different intonations

•8-12 months → responds to name, “no”; recognizes games

and brings objects; follows routine; recognizes some words


Intentional communication

This criteria often applies:

•The child makes eye contact with the partner while

gesturing, vocalizing

•Consistent and ritualized gestures and vocalization

•Waiting for a response

•Persisting if not understood

this criteria will emerge in children between 8-10 months

( Carpenter, Nagell, Tomasello, 1998; Lagerstee & Barillas,

2003)


Imperative communication

•Rejection when the child pushes away a toy meaning” I

want something else, I am done!”

•Request- “ I need help!” in acquiring a goal

→ request for social interaction;

→ request for an object;

→ request for action

(Wetherby, Cain, Yonclas, &Walker, 1988)


Declarative communicative Function

•Gestures and vocalization are used to capture joint attention

the baby points not to obtain the object but to direct the

partner's attention to that object

•Pointing is important when reading to infants and toddlers,

this is related to beginning to understand words ( Butterworth

& Morissette, 1996)

•Vocalization is view as the link between prelinguistic

communication and speech; consistent sound patterns in

vocalization = protowords ( “bubu” used for bottle)


Baby talk

Class discussion

•What is your view in regards to baby talk?

•What strategies should we use?

•How adult speech influences children's semantic

development?

•Why is the social cognitive development important for

language development?

•Research brings into attention depression and the

impact it has on speech- please discuss!


Speech

•Conversation “Talk to me!”--> short, simple, concrete,

meaningful, interactive, adult to child speech very important,

going to influence language development

•Attention “ Look at me!” → joint attention is based on

responsive, positive, affectionate relationship between the

infant and caregiver

•Child initiated interactions are very important, follow their

direction and cues to enrich their experience, label for them,

give them enough time to respond, model pronunciation in a

natural way, avoid correction in special with toddlers. WHY?

•Make sure you embrace a responsive, sensitive

interactional style


Early words 1-20 months

•Sound effects: baa, moo, ouch, meow, yum

•Food and drink: apple, banana, milk, juice, cracker, water

•Animals: bear, bunny, dog, cat, bird, cow, pig, fish, puppy

•Body parts and clothing: diaper, ear, eye, foot, hair, hat,

mouth, nose, toe, tooth, shoe

•House and outdoors: blanket, chair, cup, door, flower, keys,

outside, spoon, tree, tv

•People: baby, daddy, mommy, gramma, grampa, names

•Toys: ball, baloon, bike, boat, book, bubbles, plane, truck,

toy

•Actions: down, eat, go, sit, up


•Games and routines: bath, bye, hi, night-night, no,

peekaboo, please, shhh, thank you, yes

•Adjectives and descriptives:all gone, cold, dirty, hot


•By 3 years, most children can produce all the vowel sounds

and nearly all the consonant sounds but may not be 100%

accurate but correct at least in a few words

•Stress out the importance of parental role in language

development; reading for pleasure, make it interactive, helps

with attention span and focus

•Prepare workshops for parents

•Ideas for workshops?

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