Child Language Development Quiz 1

what is language?

• a complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols that is used in various modes for thought and communication

specific characteristics of language

• system of symbols

  • morphemes: smallest meaningful units of language

• system of language is conventional

  • users of the language abide by certain rules (ex. dog)

• language system is dynamic

  • changing and in a state of activity

• language is a tool for human communication

  • process of sharing thoughts and ideas with others

language as a module of human cognition

• concept of modularity

  • theory about how the human brain is organized

• domain specific

  • specialized area that is responsible for one input

  • ex. playing chess

• domain general

  • more generalized area of the brain

  • ex. time management

speech vs hearing

• speech describes the neuromuscular process by which humans turn language into a sound signal and transmit it through the air to a receiver

• hearing is a sensory system that allows speech to enter into and be processed by the brain

speech

• involves the precise activation of muscles in 4 systems

  • resonation

    • nasal cavity

    • oral cavity

  • articulation

    • teeth

    • lips

    • tongue

    • jaw

  • phonation

    • vocal cords

  • respiration

    • trachea

    • lungs

model of speech production

• perceptual target

  • abstract representation of speech sound stream is produced

    • /m/ /a/ /m/ /a/

• motor schema

  • neurological brain systems produce a rough plan of the abstract representation

  • general instructions are led forward in syllable chunks to muscle groups involved with speech

    • /ma/ /ma/

• speech output

  • air pressure is modulated as respiratory flow is sent forward

  • articulators and oral cavity are manipulated to produced

    • /mama/

• all of this equals feedback which relates back to the first steps

hearing

• essential to both reception and comprehension of spoken language

• hearing or audition is the perception of sound and it includes both general auditory and speech perception

• sound fundamentals (acoustics)

  • creation of a sound source

    • created by a vibration or distirbance

  • vibration of air particles

  • reception by the ear

    • outer ear receives sound input, sends to middle and inner ear

  • comprehension by the brain

speech perception

• speech perception refers to how the brain processes speech and language

• involves specialized processors in the brain that have evolved specifically to respond to human speech and language

communication

• sender: sending of information to a receiver through speech, sign or writing

  • formulation

  • transmission

• shared means

  • speech

  • sign

  • writing

  • gesture

• receiver

  • reception

  • comprehension

• feedback

  • occurs between sender and receiver

4 basic processes of communication

• formulation

  • put thoughts and ideas into words to share with others

    • involves language

• transmission

  • fluently express thoughts and ideas to others

    • involves speech

• reception

  • receive the communication sent by another person

    • involves hearing

• comprehension

  • interpret the communication sent by another person

feedbacks

• another aspect of communication and is what makes communication active and dynamic

  • linguistic feedback

    • speaking, vocalizing

  • nonlinguistic feedback

    • eye contact, facial expression, posture, proximity

  • paralinguistic feedback

    • use of pitch, loudness, pausing

7 purposes of communication

• instrumental

  • used to ask for something

  • ex. can you pass the butter?

• regulatory

  • used to give directions and to direct others

  • ex. go ahead and sit down over there

• interactional

  • used to interact and converse with others in a social way

  • ex. how was the game last night?

• personal

  • used to express state of mind or feelings about something

  • ex. there is no way I passed that test

• heuristic

  • used to find out information and to inquire

  • ex. do you know how much this book is?

• imaginative

  • used to tell stories and to role play

  • ex. okay lets parties what you’re going to say when you call her

• informative

  • used to provide an organized description of an event or object

major domains of language

• form

  • how words, sentences and sounds are organized and arranged to convey content

• content

  • refers to the meaning of language, the words used and the meaning behind them

  • we humans convey content through our vocabulary system or lexicon

• use

  • pertains to how people draw on language functionally ro meet personal and social needs

components of form, content and use

• phonology (form)

  • refers to the rules of language governing the sounds that make syllables and words

• morphology (form)

  • pertains to the rules of language governing the internal organization of words

• syntax (form)

  • refers to the rules of language governing the internal organization of sentences

• semantics (content and use)

  • refers to the rules of language governing the meaning of individual words and word combination

• pragmatics (content and use)

  • pertains to the rules governing language use for social purposes

features of language

• acquisition rate

  • involves structures, rules and representations

• universality

  • same cognitive infrastuctures used around the world to learn language

• species specificity

  • language is specific to humans

• semanticity

  • can talk about past and future

• productivity

  • producing different words to make meaningful sentences

language differences

• dialect

• bilingualism

• gender

• genetic predisposition

• language-learning environment

language disorders

• heritable language impairment

• developmental disability

• brain injury

phonological development

• involves acquiring the rules of language that govern the sound structure of syllables and words

• phonemes are the individual speech sounds in a language that signal contrast in meaning

  • low/ row

• also involves phonological development also involves developing sensitivity to the phonetic rules of a native language; these rules specify “legal’ orders of sounds in syllables and words and the places where specific phones can and cannot occur

  • /l/ + /h/ → illegal combination of sounds

  • /t/ + /s/ → legal in the final position of a syllable

    • ex. pots

minimal pairs

• words that differ by only one phoneme are called minimal pairs

  • low/ row

  • liver/ river

phonological building blocks

• using cues to segment streams of speech

• developing a phonemic inventory

• becoming phonologically aware

using cues to segment streams of speech

• using prosodic cues

  • these are particularly important for infants as they them segment speech into meaningful units, recognize word boundaries, and begin to understand the emotional and communicative intent of their caregivers speech

• using phonotatic cues

  • early in development, infants become sensitive to the probability that certain sounds will occur both in general and in specific positions of syllables and words

developing a phonemic inventory

• child acquisition of internal representations of the phonemes composing their native language

  • phonological knowledge

• and their expression of these phonemes to produce syllables and words

  • phonological productions

• consonants typically at age 3-4, vowels in the first year of life

phonological awareness

• an individuals ability to attend to the phonological units of speech through implicit or explicit analysis

  • syllable counting

    • how many syllables

  • rhyme detection

  • initial sound indentification

    • what is the first sound in boat?

  • initial sound elision

    • say the word boat without the /b/

  • phoneme counting

    • how many sounds in the word justice

influences on phonological development

• native language

  • influenced significantly by the phonetic composition of the language to which the infants are exposed

  • speech sounds that are phonemic in one language, may not be in another

• linguistic experience

  • children develop phonological representations through their exposure to phonemic contrasts in their language

morphological development

• children’s morphological development is their internalization of the rules of language that govern word structure

morphological building blocks

• morphological developments involves acquiring 2 types of morphemes:

  • grammatical morphemes (inflectional morphemes)

    • plural (cat-cats)

    • possessive ‘s (mom-mom’s)

    • past tense -ed (walk-walked)

    • present progressive -ing (do-doing)

  • derivational morphemes

    • change a word’s syntactic class and semantic meaning

      • the word like, we can add both prefixes (dislike, unlike) and suffixes (liken, likeable, likeness)

grammatical morphemes acquired in early childhood

• present progressice -ing

  • 19-28 months

  • baby eating

• plural -s

  • 27-30 months

  • doggies

• preposition in

  • 27-30

  • toy in there

• preposition on

  • 31-34 months

  • food on table

• possessive ‘s

  • 31-34 months

  • mommy’s book

• regular past tense -ed

  • 43-46

  • we painted

• irregular past tense

  • 43-46 months

  • I ate lunch

• regular third person person singular -s

  • 43-46

  • he runs fast

• articles a, the, an

  • 43-46

  • I want the blocks

• contractile coupla be

  • 43-46

  • She’s my friend

• contractible auxiliary

  • 47-50

  • hes playing

• uncontractible coupla be

  • 47-50

  • he was sick

derivational morphemes

• prefix

  • un

  • dis

  • re

  • pre

  • inter

  • im

• suffix

  • -y

  • -ly

  • -like

  • -tion

  • -er

  • -able

free vs bound morphemes

• free

  • can stand on its own

  • has meaning

• bound

  • has no meaning on its own

influences on morphological development

• second language acquisition

  • exposed to different morpheme languages, have to use the right ones

• dialect

  • different sounds, same language

• language

  • specific language disorder

synatatic development

• children’s internalization of the rules od language that govern how words are organized into sentences

synatactic building blocks

• an increase in utterance length

• use of different sentence modalities

• development of complex syntax

an increase in utterance length

• Mean Length of Utterance

  • calculating the mean number of morphemes per utterance

    • provides a simple proxy for estimating the syntactic complexiticty of children’s utterances, at least in the first 5 years of development

• MLU= Total number of morphemes/ total number of utterances (amount of sentences)

use of different sentence modalities

• declarative sentences

  • subject + verb

  • subject + verb + object

  • subject + verb + complement

  • subject + verb + adverbial phrase

  • subject + verb + indirect + direct object

  • subject + verb + direct object + indirect object

• negative sentence

  • express negation

    • No, not, Don’t

• interrogative sentences

  • why

  • what

  • who

  • where

  • is

the development of complex syntax

• the child’s use of phrase and clause structures

  • phrase: cluster of words

    • noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective, etc

  • clause

stages of grammatical development: Brown 1973

• 1: single word utterances predominate

• 2: two and three word utterances predominate

• 3: emergence of different sentence modalities

• 4 complex sentences emerge

• 5: emergence of coordination conjunctions and adverbial conjuncts

examples of complex syntax

• double embedding

  • “ im not going to think about what happened”\

• infinitive clause with differing subject

  • “Bobby wants mommy to go too”

• object relative clause

  • “that’s the train I lost”

• passive voice sentence

  • “the doll was found after we looked everywhere”

• multi clause sentence

  • “because she didn’t call first, we didn’t know to wait and left without her”

influences on syntactic development

• child directed speech

• language impairment

child-directed speech (CDS)

• refers to the talk directed to children by others, including parents and other caregivers

• higher amount of syntax in children in middle SES, interact more with their children

• CDS characteristics

  • exaggerated intonation

  • higher pitch

  • slower tempo

  • more pauses

  • more repetition

  • simplier syntax

language impairment

• both developmental and acquired language disorders often disrupt syntactic comprehension and production

• specific language impairment (SLI)

  • have significant problems with language but no other disabilites

• secondary language disorders

  • resulting from or occurring at the same time with other disabilities such as cognitive impairment

• Down syndrome

  • show significant difficulties with syntactic development

semantic development

• refers to an individual leaning and storage of the meaning of words

• it encompasses the acquisition and organization of a person’s vocabulary as well as the comprehension and expression of the meaning of words, phrases and sentence

semantic building blocks

• acquiring a mental lexicon of about 60 000 words between infancy and adulthood

• learning new words rapidly

• organizing the mental lexicon in an efficient semantic network

mental lexicon

• a person’s mental lexicon is the volume of words one understands (receptive lexicon) and uses (expressive lexicon)

• vocabulary spurt

  • large amount of words acquired starting before the age of 2+

what is a semantic taxonomy

• one classic semantic taxonomy differentiated children’s lexical items into 5 categories

  • specific nomials refer to a specific object (daddy, fluffy)

  • general nominal refer to all members of a category (those, cats)

  • action words describe actions (up), social action games (peekaboo), and action inhibit (no)

  • modifers describe properties and qualities (big, mine)

  • personal-social words describe affective states and relationship (yes, bye-bye)

new words

• a number of factors influence the rapidity with which a child develops an adultlike understanding of a word

  • concept represented by the word

  • phonological form of the word

  • contextual conditions at initial exposure

    • ostensive word learning contexts

      • present in the context of the word

    • nonostensice word learning contexts

semantic network

• a person’s mental lexicon, comprising the store of words he or she understands and uses, not organized randomly; they are stored in a semantic network

  • the association between the pronouns him and her

    • similarities in syntactic roles

  • the association between pin and pit

    • shared phonological features

  • the association between whale and dolphin

    • because of semantic similarities

influences on semantic development

• gender

  • girls have larger vocabulary, talk more and have larger vocab, known to learn words faster

• language impairment

• language exposure

pragmatic development

• development involves acquiring the rules of language that govern how language is used a social tool

pragmatic building blocks

• using language for different communication functions

• developing conversational skills

• gaining sensitivity to extralinguistic cues

pragmatic building blocks

• instrumental

  • used to ask for something

• regulatory

  • used to give directs and to direct others

• interactional

  • used to interact and converse with others in a social way

• personal

  • used to express a state of mind or feelings about something

• heuristic

  • used to find out information or to inquire

• imaginative

  • used to tell stories and role play

• informative

  • used to provide an organized description of an event or object

developing conversational skills

• initiation and establishment of topic

• navigation of a series of continent turns that maintain or shift topic

• resolution and closure

joint attention

• development of a conversational schematic begins soon after birth as infants engage in increasing sustained periods of joint attention with their caregivers

• joint attention describes instances in which infants and caregivers focus attention on a mutual object

• periods of joint attention, which systematically increase in duration and frequency during the first 18 months of life, provide the child with early schematic representations of conversational organization

gaining centricity to extralinguistic cues

• pragmatic development also involves developing sensitivity to these extralinguistic cues, such as posture, gesture, facial expression, eye contact, pitch, proximity, loudness, and pausing

influences on pragmatic development

• temperament

  • more shy, more inhibited children may use less of pragmatics compared to outgoing counterparts

• social and cultural contexts of development

  • some cultures have more strict pragmatics compared to others

neuroscience

• a branch of science. that focuses on the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, or the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology

neuroanatomy

• focused on the structures of the nervous system

• study the architecture of the central and peripheral nervous systems

neurophysiology

• focused on the functions of the nervous system structures

• neurophysiologists study how the various units of the nervous system work both as a single unit and together as parts of larger systems

linguistics vs psycholinguistics

• linguistics

  • broad field concerned specifically with language as a developmental and ecological phenomenon

• psycholinguistcs

  • focused field dealing with the cognitive processes involved in developing, processing and producing human language

what is neurolinguistics

• focused on human language with a particular interest in understanding how the brain develops and processes spoken, written and sign language

Nervous System

• central nervous system (CNS)

  • brain and spinal cord

• peripheral nervous system (PNS)

  • cranial and spinal nerves

central nervous system

• brain

  • chief executive operator of the entire CNS

  • it initiates and regulates virtually all motor, sensory, and cognitive processes

• spinal cord

  • carrying not only sensory information from the body to the brain but also motor commands from the brain to the rest of the body

peripheral nervous system

• contains 2 sets of nerves

  • cranial nerves

    • run between the brainstem and the facial and neck regions, important for speech, language and hearing

    • 12 pairs

  • spinal nerves

    • run between the spinal cord and all peripheral areas of the human body, including the arms and the legs, mediating reflexes, sensory activity and conscious motor activity

    • 31 pairs

nervous system axes

• organized along 2 axes: horizontal and vertical axis

• horizontal axis

  • runs from the anterior (frontal) pole of the brain to the posterior (occipital) pole

    • top: dorsal

    • right: caudal

    • bottom: ventral (front of spinal cord)

    • left: rostral (back of spinal cord)

• vertical axis

  • extends from the superior portion of the brain downward along the entire spinal cord

    • top: rostral

    • right: dorsal

    • bottom: caudal

    • left: ventral

directional and positional terms

• proximal refers to structures relatively close to a site of reference, where’s distal refers to structures relatively far from a site of reference

  • anterior

    • toward the front

  • posterior

    • toward the back

  • superior

    • toward the top

  • inferior

    • toward the bottom

  • external

    • towards the outside

  • internal

    • toward the inside

  • efferent

    • away from the brain

  • afferent

    • toward the brain

neuron

• billions of highly specialized cells that compose the nervous system are called neurons

• neurons communicate by means of electrochemical nerve impulses that travel along the dendrite of one neuron and into its cell body, then along the axon to the dendrite of another neuron

• neurons are sheathed in a coating called myelin

• the myelin sheath contributes to the rapid relay of impulses, particularly within white matter and also help protects the neuron

• myelinization refers to the growth of the myelin sheath, a slow process that is not complete until late childhood

neurons communication

• the synapse is the site where 2 neurons meet

• neurotransmitters are chemical agents that help transmit information across the synaptic cleft, which is the space between the axon of the transmitting neuron and the dendrite of the receiving neuron

  • known as synaptic transmission

grey and white matter

• grey matter

  • cell body and dendrites

• white matter

  • provide communication between different grey matter areas

efferent and afferent pathways

• efferent pathways

  • descending pathways

  • move away from the brain, carrying motor impulses from the central nervous system to more distal body structures

• afferent pathways

  • ascending pathways

  • move toward the brain, carrying sensory information from the distal body structures to the brain

major structures and functions of brain

• cerebrum

• midbrain

• brainstem

• cerebellum

cerebrum (cerebral cortex)

• the location of the most unique human qualities: reasoning, problem solving, planning and hypothesizing

• consists of 2 hemispheres

  • right and left

  • separated by the corpus collosum

• cerebrum is organized into 6 lobes

  • frontal

  • occipital

  • 2 temporal lobes

  • 2 parietal lobes

frontal lobe

• largest lobe of the human brain

• 2 key functions

  • activating and controlling both fine and complex motor activities, including speech output

  • controlling human “executive functions”

• theory of mind

• prefrontal cortex

  • most anterior portion of frontal lobe

  • sensations like calmness, friendliness

• pre-motor cortex

  • control of musculature and programming patterns of movements, important for human speech

• motor cortex

  • planning, control and execution of voluntary movements

occipital lobe

• comprises the posterior portion of the brain

• specialized for visual reception and processing

parietal lobes

• posterior to the frontal lobe on the left and right sides (above the ears)

• key functions

  • perceiving and integrating sensory and perceptual information

  • comprehending oral and written language

  • performing mathematical calculations

• working memory

temporal lobes

• posterior to the frontal lobe but inferior to the parietal lobes (behind the ears)

• processing auditory information and language comprehension

• Heschl’s gyrus

  • processing speech

• Wernicke’s area (receptive speech area)

  • language comprehension

brainstem

• on top of the spinal cord and serves as a channel between the rest of the brain and the spinal cord

• a key transmitter of sensory information to the brain and of motor information away from the brain

• a major relay station for the cranial nerves supplying the head and face, and for controlling the visual and auditory senses

cerebellum

• oval shaped “little brain” that resides posterior to the brainstem

• responsible for regulating motor and muscular activity

• coordinating motor movements, maintaining muscle tone, monitoring movement range and strength, and maintain posture and equilibrium

connectionist models

broca’s area

• the motor cortex of the left frontal lobe

• engaged in spoken communication

• responsible for the the fine coordination of speech output

• processing porphosyntatic elements of language

• selectively attending to syntax

werknicke’s area

• the left temporal lobe (receptive speech area)

• critical for language comprehension and language production

• important for word recognition and lexical retrieval

broca’s aphasia

• individual with Broca’s aphasia often have difficulty forming grammatically correct sentences and expressing themselves fluently

• while comprehension of language may remain intact, they struggle with the physical art of speaking

wernicke’s aphasia

• when wernicke’s area is damaged by stroke or other brain injury, individuals typically exhibit significant difficulty with processing and producing coherent language in both spoken and written form

semantics

• semantic knowledge is a distributed modality

• semantic knowledge is left-lateralized

• some aspects of semantic knowledge involve right-hemisphere processing

syntax and morphology (morphosyntax)

• the possibility of a distinct morphosyntactic brain module is supported by at least 3 lines of research

  • distinct morphosyntactic brain module

  • specialized morphosyntatic processor

  • increased activation of the language areas of the left hemisphere

phonology

• the human brain has evolved a specialized processor, sometimes called the phonetic module, designed specifically for processing the phonetic segments of speech

  • Broca’s area

    • phonological processing

  • wernicke’s area

    • language comprehension

  • heschl’s gyrus

    • auditory processing

pragmatics

• pragmatic ability draws primarily on frontal lobe functions

• involve the organized, goal-directed and controlled use of language as a means for communication with other people

• an individual who sustains damage to the language areas of the brain that results in significant impairment of semantic, phonological and morphosyntactic abilities may have fully intact pragmatic skills

sensitive periods

• 3 features

  • correspond to a time of active neuroanatomical and neurophysical change

  • a phase not only of opportunity but also risk

  • have a beginning and an end point and the length of period varies for different aspects of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology

synaptogensis

• driven by sensory and motor experiences after birth and occurs most rapidly in the first year of life

• at the end of the first year, the infant’s brain contains approximately twice as many synaptic connections as an adult’s; from this time to adolescence, excess synapses are pruned, a process called synaptic pruning

neural plasticity

• relates primarily to the capacity of the sensory and motor systems to organize and reorganize themselves by generating new synaptic connections or by using synapses for alternative means

• 2 types

  • experience-expectant plasticity

    • acquisition of grammar

  • experience-dependent plasticity

    • learning to play a musical instrument

sensitive periods and language acquisition

• linguistic isolation

• second language learners

plasticity and language

• researchers must consider both experience-expectant and experience-dependent plasticity to understand the capabilities of the brain for language during the life span

brain imaging technologies

• MRI

• PET

• CT

• MEG

• fMRI

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

• noninvasive technique

• maps neural activities to specific neural regions according to changes in blood oxygen levels that correspond to changes in neural activity

• maps brain functioning when individuals are engaged in a specific processing task or in a resting state

who studies language development and why?

• scientists who conducted language-development research are from many disciplines

  • basic and applied research

basic research (theoretical research)

• it focuses primarily on generating and refining the existing knowledge base

• ex

  • the ways children learn the meanings of words

  • the ages by which children typically produce speech sounds

• use-inspired basic research

  • addresses useful applications of research findings

  • might explore how and when children acquire particular language abilities to inform interventions for children lagging in language growth

applied research

• scientists who study language development for applied purposes respond to societal needs by determining why some individuals progress relatively slowing in language development

• they do so in 2 ways

  • by learning how to identify persons at risk for disordered language development

  • by developing ways to remediate delays and disorders in language when they do occur

• applied researchers test language-development practices relevant to comes, clinical settings and school

approaches to studying speech perception

• methods

  • digital techologies: recorders

  • measuring heart rates and kicking rates

  • head-turn preference procedure

  • high-amplitude nonnutritive sucking (HAS) procedure

  • behavioural testing

  • brain imaging techniques

• these technologies allow researchers to conduct direct, real-time investigations of speech perception by presenting individuals with specific speech sounds and identifying the exact areas of the brain where speech perception occurs

• researchers can develop tonotopic maps that link the brain areas to the types of auditory stimuli they process

digital recorders

• used to capture natural speech samples that can serve as stimuli in experiments

• LENA (language environment analysis)

  • considered a type of recorder but it is more specialized than a tractional audio recorder

  • specifically designed for studying speech and language development

measuring heart rates and kicking rates

• heart rate

  • changes in heart rate can indicate how much attention an infant is paying to a speech stimulus

  • when infants hear something novel or interesting, their heart rate often decreases slightly as a sign of focused attention

• kicking rates

  • can reflect the infant’s reaction to speech stimuli such as interest, excitement or recognition

head turn preference procedure

high-amplitude nonnutritive sucking (HAS) procedure

• the infant is given pacifier connected to a pressure-sensitive device that measures sucking intensity and rate

• pacifier detects changes in sucking behaviour which are interpreted as indicators of the infant’s interest or attention