Language, Language Acquisition, and Cognitive Development

Variables impacting the timing of lang dev- Innate characteristics of the child

Ex: The childs attention span, cognitive functioning

Variables impacting the timing of lang dev- The child's enviornment

Ex: The amount and frequency of language stimulation the child receives from caregivers, and the consequences the child has for comm attempts, including praise and/or punishment

Variables impacting the timing of lang dev- Cultural background

Ex: Cultural norms vary with regard to type, amount and frequency of adult-child interactions

Psycholinguistics

Analyzes the psychiological processes that allow humans to understand languages, such as how babies exposed to more than one language differentiate the two as they learn

Sociolinguistics

How social factors such as culture, ethnicity, gender, social class, and geographical location shape the way language is used and interpreted.

It also examines how language is used to signal identity, social status, and power relations, as well as how language use varies according to different contexts and situations

Historical linguistics

Study of how languages evolve and change over time, also how social factors have impacted language over time

Computational linguistics

Study of spoken and written language in the context of technology via computer programming.

Also involves analysis of tools such as speech recognition devices, text to speech, and language instruction materials.

Applied linguistics

Studies real-life applications of linguistics, such as improving communication between people, translation services, and treating speech and language disorders

Aspects of language- form

relates to the structure of a language and the rules that govern it (phonology) (morphology) (syntax)

Aspects of language- Content

Relates to the meaning of the words used in a language (Semantics)

Aspects of language- Use

Relates to social rules that govern communicaiton in different contexts (Pragmatics)

Child directed speech

Known as "baby talk" or "motherese"

- slower speech, exaggerated intonations, includes longer pauses than regular speech with infants and very young children

- With toddlers, adults use standard prosody, longer utterances, more complex words and grammatical structures, and increased back-and-forth conversations

If child directed speech is used for too long......

Can delay the acquisition of more mature speech patterns

Receptive language birth to 3

- Startles in response to loud noises

- recognizes basic and distinct sounds

- Calm's to parent's voices

Receptive language 3 to 6 months

- Recognizes specific sounds

- Calms to parents voices

Receptive language 6 to 12 months

- Begins to comprehend and respond to simple words and phrases

- Responds to own name

- Understands no

- Begins to follow simple directions

Receptive language 1 to 2 years

- Understands and responds to simple wh questions

- Points to pictures when labeled

Receptive language 2 to 3 years

- Can follow more complex 2-step directions with cues

- Begins to understand verbs

Receptive language 3 to 4 years

- Understands basic concepts (colors, shapes)

- Comprehends simple wh- questions and other questions pertaining to immediate enviornment

Receptive language 4 to 5 years

- Can follow most commands involving other objects and people

- Comprehend and answer questions about stories

- Understands simple time concepts (yesterday, tomorrow)

- Interprets complex sentences correctly

Receptive language 5 to 6 years

- Can follow 3-step directions

- Understands sentences with greater complexity

Expressive Language birth to 1 months (phonation stage)

- Vegetative sounds and reflexive vocalizations

- Crying, burping, hiccups, coughing

- Different cries indicate specific needs

Expressive language 2 to 3 months (cooing and gooing stage)

- When cooing, the child phonates and makes a CV or VC shape with velar consonants

- Usually emitted when the infant is content/comfortable

- Laughter, gurgling, and long vowel sounds emerge during this stage

Expressive language 4 to 6 months (exploration/expansion stage)

- Engages in vocal play and begins to take some control over vocalizations

- Varies pitch, volume, and rate of vocalizations

- Makes speech like sounds "aahh"

- Vocalizes when happy or upset

Expressive language 6 to 10 months (canonical babbling)

- Involves repetitions of simple consonant and vowel sounds with more adult-like timing

- Reduplicated babbling "bababa"

- Non reduplicated babbling: "mam" "ooo"

Expressive language 8 to 12 months (Variegated babbling and expressive jargon stage)

- Variegated babbling involves different combonations of CV syllables "Padama"

- PCFs

- expressive jargon continues until first word (around 12 months). May overlap with a child's first word.

Acquisition of speech sounds (ASHA) by 3 years

p, b, m, h, n, w

Acquisition of speech sounds (ASHA) by 4 years

k, g, d, f, y

Acquisition of speech sounds (ASHA) by 6 years

t, ng, r, l, s

Acquisiton of speech sounds (ASHA) by 7 years

ch, sh, j, VL th

Acquisiton of speech sounds (ASHA) by 8 years

s, z, v, zh, voiced TH

Free morpheme

A free morpheme carries meaning when standing alone. For example, "glad" is a free morpheme

- Includes base (root) morphemes

Bound morphemes

A bound morpheme has no meaning when standing alone

- Meaningful unit that attaches to free morphemes and changes its meaning (un-, dis-, pre-, -ly, -ism)

Derivational affixes

Serve to change the meaning of a word by building on a base

- Adding the prefix un- to the word happy that CHANGES ITS MEANING (unhappy)

Inflectional affixes

Serve a grammatical function when added to certain types of words.

Ex: -s noun, plural, -'s noun possessive, -ing verb, present participle

Morphological Development : FIRST 3 MORPHEMES DEVELOPED

Present progressive (-ing)

Preposition in

Preposition on

Morphological Development: SECOND 3 MORPHEMES DEVELOPED

Regular plural inflection (-s) "my toys"

Irregular past tense verbs "I drank juice"

Posessive 's "Daddy's shoes"

Morphological Development: THIRD 4 MORPHEMES DEVELOPED

Uncontractible copula (used as main verb; phrase cannot be contracted) "This is nice" "The blocks are big"

Articles (the, a)

Past-tense regular (-ed) "We baked cookies"

Regular third person (-s) "Andrew eats"

Morphological Development: LAST 4 MORPHEMES DEVELOPED

Irregular third person "Grandpa HAS a dog"

Uncontractible Auxillary (phrase cannot be contracted)

Contractible copula (It's hot)

Contractible auxiliary (We're hiding)

Operational reference: Nomination

Identifies a particular person or object by using a demonstrative word (e.g., this, that, those, these) "That ball" -> That is a ball

Operational reference: Recurrence

Refers to something that is already known or has already been discussed. "More cake" -> There is more cake

Operational reference: Negation (denial)

The act of denying something that has happened or has been said "no spill" -> i didn't spill it

Operational reference: Negation (rejection)

The act of denying or rejecting something that has been offered or implied "no more" -> I don't want more

Operational reference: Negation (non-existence)

The act of indicating something that is not present or does not exist "kitty go" -> The kitty is not here anymore

Simple sentence

a sentence that contains a single independent clause "He ran home"

Complex sentence

A sentence that combines an independent clause with a dependent clause (also known as subordinate clause) "Because I am running late, we will have to reschedule our meeting until later"

Compound sentence

A sentence that is made up of TWO independent clauses that are joined by a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) "Max colored a picture, and rob did his math homework"

Active sentences

The subject of the sentence is PERFORMING the action "Beth was painting"

Passive sentences

The object becomes the recipient of the actions "The picture was painted"

Negatives

Includes words like "not" or "doesnt" to negate the meaning of the sentence "I don't like your shirt"

Embedded relative clauses

A clause that is used in the middle of two other clauses. An embedded clause adds information to the main idea and is usually separated by commas "My teacher, who is normally very kind, gave us a lot of homework"

Declarative sentence

Provides a statement: "I like this shirt"

Interrogative sentence

Asks a question "Where is the soap"

Exclamative sentence

A phrase used to express suddent strong feelings "WOW!"

Holophrastic (one word) stage

12-18 months

- Emerges when child speaks his/her first words

- Child uses single words to express whole phrases and sentences. Ex: A child may be thinking "I want more milk" but is only able to say "milk"

Telegraphic (two word) stage

18-24 months

- Children start putting two word phrases together

- Most utterances contain high frequency nouns, verbs, and adjectives and lack grammatical elements such as plural markers or conjugated verbs

Telegraphic (three word) stage

24-30 months

- Children use more descriptive words to clarify their messages, but ideas are still expressed semantically, with little focus on grammar.

- Parents often model telegraphic speech, simplifying phrases to reduce cog. load on child and increase chances of their child imitating them

Multi-word stage

Beyond 30 months

- children begin producing increasingly complex sentences such as plurals, articles, present progressive, and prepositions