Ch 1 - Development of Language

Internalized Representation of Language

Mental / inner cognitive image or map of external reality

Linguistic Competence

Inner knowledge one has of language and its rules and structures

Communicative Competence

Knowledge of the social rules of language use

Child-Directed Speech (CDS)

Special speech register used when talking to kids

• Short sentences

• Greater repetition + questioning

• Higher and more variable intonation vs talking with adults

Down Syndrome

Congenital condition, caused by trisomy of 21st chromosome, characterized by short stature, typical epicanthic eyefolds, and intellectual disability of varying degrees

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Broad term relating to developmental disorders that share some of the same characteristic of autism, such as:

• Asperger syndrome

• Rett syndrome

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Neurologically-based, often inherited childhood difficulty in learning/using language skills

• NOT due to hearing impairment, limited language exposure, or physical difficulty

Discourse

Extended conversation or writing, as contrasted with single utterances or sentences

• Anything longer than a sentence

Decontextualized Language

Language that makes reference to people, events, and experiences that aren’t a part of the immediate context

Phonetics

Study of speech sounds

Phonology

Study of the sound system of language, the sounds the language uses, and rules for combination

Phonemes

Speech sound that can signal difference in meaning

• Similar sounds of “p” and “b” but are different especially used in the word pet vs bet

Morpheme

Minimal meaningful unit of language

• Like dog or cat

Free Morpheme

Morpheme that can stand alone

• Cat

Bound Morphemes

Morpheme that must be attached to another morpheme and cannot stand alone

• “s” in cats

Derivational Morphemes

Morpheme that can be used to derive new word

• Complex word that has a base morpheme and then has attached stuff to it

  • Unhappiness = derived from “happy” then “un-” and “-ness” added

Inflectional Morphemes

Bound morpheme that changes word’s grammatical form, but doesn’t create new word meaning

• Like adding “s” onto something else

Referential

Speech that references the outside world

• Naming objects vs speech that’s expressive or social

  • “the rain” (referential) vs “it is raining” (non-referential)

Productivity

Regular forms of a language that are used in the formation of new words

• Such as regular plural endings

Semantics

Study of the meaning system of language

Displacement

Feature of human language that permits its users to talk about things not in the immediate environment

• Talking about your dog at home while on a night out

FOXP2

Forkhead box protein P2- protein or the gene encoding for it

• Necessary for proper development of human speech ability

Mirror Neurons

Fires both when performing an action and when observing the same action performed by another

Lateralized

Process where one side of the brain becomes specialized for a particular function

• Left side of the brain is for language

Broca’s Area

Area of left hemisphere in front region of brain

• Damage can lead to aphasia

  • Difficulty in producing speech ad agrammatic expressive language

Wernicke’s Area

Speech area in posterior region of left hemisphere

• Damage leads to aphasia

  • Can produce speech but jumbled and doesn’t make sense

Psycholinguistics

Study of how language is processed, understood, produced, and learned

Event-related Potentials (ERPs)

Changes in electrical voltage at scape that is time-locked to presentation of a particular experimental event

• like the presentation of an unexpected word

• Used to examine phonological, semantic, and syntactic processing

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Brain imaging that measures tiny magnetic changes that occur along electrical changes caused by cortical activation

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Imagining that reveals neural activity in the brain by measuring accompanying changes in blood oxygen levels

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)

Brain imaging that measures cortical activity by detecting changes in hemoglobin levels

Cross-Sectional

Research design to explore age-related changes

Longitudinal

Small group or single child followed over time

Elicitation

Testing or therapy technique where the child is led to supply a form

• “Here is a wug, now I have two, I have two ____”

Clinical Method

Research where investigator asks open-ended questions

3 Month Year Old

• Begins to babble

• Brings hand to mouth

• First smile

7 Month Year Old

• Babbles chains of sound

• Can tell emotions by tone of voice

• Develops full color vision

• Responds to own name

• Transfers object from hand to hand

1 Year Old

• Make discriminations among speech sounds heard

• Communicate nonverbally

• Bangs 2 objects together

• Crawls forward on belly

• Cries when parent leaves

• Finds objects even when hidden under 2 or 3 covers

• Finger feeds self

• Reaches sitting position w/o help

• Responds to “no”

• Says “dada” and “mama”

• Walks holding on to furniture

2 Year Old

• Begins make-believe play

• Begins to run

• Begins to show defiant behavior

• Begins to sort by shapes and colors

• Says 2-4 word sentences

• Turns over container to pour out contents

• Walks alone

• Walks up and down stairs holding on to support

3 Year Old

• Can ride a tricycle

• Expresses affection openly

• Sorts objects by shape and color

4 Year Old

• Cooperates with other kids

• Uses scissors

• Walks up and down stairs w/o support

5 Year Old

• Dresses + undresses w/o help

• Uses fork, spoon, and (sometimes) knife to eat