SLP 329 Final Study Guide

Speech is

a motor act and a mode of communication, but not the only one.

Language is

the code used in communication. More specifically, it is a set of symbols and the rules for using them.

Communication is

is the act of transferring information between two or more

people. Speech and language are two of the tools used to communicate.

Characteristics of language. Language is

1 A social tool

2 Rule-governed

3 Generative

Language has five parameters:

1 syntax

2 morphology

3 phonology

4 semantics

5 pragmatics

Pragmatics is

considered by some sociolinguists to be the organizing

principle of language that determines the other four aspects when communicating

We all speak

a dialect of the language ideal.

A dialect is a

language-rule system spoken by an identifiable group of people that varies from the ideal language standard.

The deficit approach to dialects assigns

status based on the amount of variation from the standard. In contrast, the sociolinguistic approach recognizes all dialects as valid and related forms of a language with no relative status assigned.

Factors related to dialectal differences are

1 geography

2 socioeconomic level,

3 race and ethnicity

4 situation or context

5 peer-group influences

6 first- or second-language learning. Examples include African American English, Latino English, and "Asian English"

Dialectal considerations affect

1 education

2 employment

3 perceived status

Generativists/Nativists assume that

children learn language with the aid of innate rules or principles related to the structure of human language.

Generativists/Nativists characterize language as

a set of abstract algebraic rules and a set of meaningful linguistic elements or words that children learn and then link back to language universals.

Constructionists assume

that children learn language from the input to which they are exposed using general brain processes

Constructionists believe

language structure emerges from language use.

Constructionists characterize language as

a set of meaningful rules and a set of meaningful linguistic elements or words

Four goals of child language research are as follows:

1 To confirm general linguistic principles

2 To discover principles of language development

3 To clarify the relationship of language to development in other areas, such as cognition

4 To provide a more or less theoretical description of language development

Research requires

careful consideration of many variables including the method of data collection, sample size and variability, naturalness and representativeness of the data, and collection and analysis procedures.

The goals of cross-language studies are as follows:

1 To determine what aspects of language are universal

2 To determine whether development is the result of universal cognitive development or unique linguistic knowledge

3 To identify underlying language-learning strategies

It's difficult to pinpoint the

neurological location of cognitive processes. most are diffusely located

The left temporal area is

specialized for linguistic processing.

Sound entering each ear is divided;

1 60% crosses to Heschl's area on the other side of the brain

2 while 40% is sent to Heschl's area on the same side

Each Heschl's area sends

1 paralinguistic acoustic information to the right hemisphere 2 and linguistic information to the left hemisphere.

In the left hemisphere

incoming language is held briefly in Broca's area while processed by Wernicke's area with assistance from the supramarginal gyrus and the angular gyrus

Outgoing language is

conceived in Wernicke's area

after outgoing is conceived in the Wernicke's area, it is transferred

below the surface via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca's area, which programs the motor cortex to signal the muscles for speech.

Information processing consists of four steps:

1 attention

2 discrimination

3 organization

4 memory

Sensory abilities change little at birth

But the level of stimulation greatly increases.

Perception is

the search for patterns in sensory information.

Although newborns are capable of detecting every phoneme contrast found in human language

this ability has been lost by 10 months as a child focuses on

her or his native language.

Motor speech production passes through

1 babbling

2 reduplicated babbling

3 and variegated babbling on the way to first words.

Other prespeech behaviors

Include jargon and echolalia.

Genetics contributes to

brain structure and developmental timing.

During the first year, there are major cognitive changes i

1 memory

2 processing

3 speed

4 attention

5 representational competence.

Cognition and learning involve

the formation of concepts or schemes and adaptation or the comparing of these schemes with incoming information

Adaptation consists of two subprocesses:

assimilation and accommodation

assimilation

in which incoming information confirms the scheme

accommodation

in which the scheme must be modified to conform to incoming information

Learning consists of

adaptation and organization.

During the first year

memory moves from recognition to retrieval

Parents mediate

the environment to help children make sense and be

successful

Children become communicators because

we treat them that way

Language is acquired

to fill the intentions initially expressed in gestures.

There is a mutual modification

in the behavior of the infant and the mother in that changes in the baby's behavior result in changes in the mother's which in turn affect the infant.

Newborns seem

to prefer the human face and voice over other stimuli.

Of particular importance for later communication are the early patterns of

1 gaze coupling

2 turn taking

3 stimulus-response bonds

4 routines, and games.

Routines teach

the child that behavior is predictable and facilitate a child's participation, while games have many of the attributes of conversations.

Intentions go through stages of development

1 pre-intentional

2 intentional

3 symbolic

During the intentional stage a child learns

to signal intent via gestures, first showing itself, then showing objects, and finally with an array of gesture

Initially, each gesture

is silent, then vocalization is added, and finally a word or verbalization accompanies the gesture.

Mothers modify their

behavior to facilitate interactions.

Cultural differences

exist and signify only difference. There are many ways to

help children acquire language.

Of particular importance for early communication are

joint or shared reference and joint action.

In very general terms, children's early language follows

a pattern in which they "know" something, then comprehend its name, and finally produce the name

Several assumptions by an infant may be behind learning a word, including the following:

1 People use words to refer to entities.

2 Words are extendable.

3 A word refers to the whole entity, not the parts.

4 Names refer to categories of things.

5 Novel names refer to previously nameless entities.

6 Adults refer to entities in consistent conversational ways.

Expressive strategies of toddlers include evocative utterances

1 hypothesis testing

2 interrogative utterances

3 selective imitation

Selective imitation is

at the growing or developing edge of a child's language and helps stabilize new forms.

Bootstrapping

a strategy of preschoolers, is using what you know, such as

semantic categories, to figure out what you don't, such as syntactic units

Preschooler learning principles are as follows:

1 Pay attention to the ends of words.

2 Phonological forms can be systematically modified.

3 Pay attention to the order of words and morphemes.

4 Avoid interruptions and rearrangement of linguistic units.

5 Underlying semantic relations should be marked overtly and clearly.

6 Avoid exceptions.

7 Grammatical markers should make semantic sense.

Adult speech to toddlers includes

1 modeling (CDS)

2 prompting, and responding (reformulations, expansions, extensions, and imitations) that collectively facilitate language learning

Adult speech to preschoolers includes

turnabouts that facilitate the child's turn in a conversation by prompting the child's next response.

Play is

an important area for language growth and trial.

Cultural differences vary

widely but contribute to a child's language learning.

Words are acquired

to fulfill intentions within the well-established communication system of child and caregiver.

First words can

express a wide range of intentions.

First words have predictable sound

(/p, b, d, t, g, k, h, m, w, n/) and syllable (VC, CV, CVCV-reduplicated, CVCV patterns.

Nouns predominate

in the first 50 words.

Some children analyze communication into words

while others prefer to use whole phrases (formulas).

Word meaning may be based on

1 on static attributes

2 or functions of the referent

3 or may be constructed with a best example of the meaning at the core

Words are initially

fast-mapped, formed in a fast, sketchy, tentative way, and may underextend or overextend the adult meaning.

Early multiword utterances follow predictable patterns represented by

1 word combinations

2 pivot schemas

3 item-based constructions.

The relationship of phonology and semantics is

dynamic, and children avoid words they cannot pronounce, even when they know the word.

Phonological patterns include

1 reduplication

2 assimilation

3 CVCV constructions

4 open syllables

5 consonant cluster reduction

Bilingual children

learning two languages simultaneously are not at a

developmental disadvantage.

Preschool conversational advances include

1 increasing use of registers or styles of talking after age 4

2 limited conversational repair

3 rapid topic shifts with two to three turns on a topic

4 increased consideration of the listener and use of presupposition

5 some forms of indirect request

6 deictic terms

The number of different intentions expressed by preschoolers

increases and the frequency changes, most notably in a big increase in representational uses and a decline in the use of tutorial uses, especially imitation

The overall organization of narratives moves from

centering to chaining.

Temporal chains appear

at age 3 and causal chains by age 5.

A child learns

two to three new words each day by first fast mapping the

meaning, then slowly refining it over time.

New words include (All will influence the development of syntax)

1 relational terms such as interrogative words

2 temporal terms

3 physical descriptors

4 locational prepositions

5 kinship terms.

Development of Theory of Mind (ToM)

greatly enhances the conversational skills of preschool children.

An interrelatedness exists with

the different aspects of language. This is demonstrated by the effect of both semantics and pragmatics on syntax

Semantic and syntactic development are

interdependent.

Much of preschool syntactic and morphologic development

can be described with MLU

Morphologic learning is

influenced by the difficulty of the underlying concept, the grammatical and pragmatic functions, and the phonological variations.

Noun phrases rarely go

beyond article + adjective + noun, although children can do more

Verb phrases increase with

added auxiliary or helping verbs and use of phrases

Sentences become more

adultlike through the preschool years.

Declaratives add

first one, then two, auxiliary verbs, and then indirect objects.

Negative forms develop

1 as the negative element moves from the first position (No night-night)

2 to a position between the subject and verb

(Mommy no eat cookie).

3 Other negative forms are added (couldn't, shouldn't)

4 and later indefinite forms (nobody), resulting in double

negatives (Nobody don't)

Interrogatives also become more

adultlike at about 29 to 32 months of age with the inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb or the subject and the copula.

various wh-words are added throughout the preschool years

1 beginning with what and where

2 and ending with when, how, and why

Embedded clauses first

1 fill the object function in a sentence (I know what you did)

2 then modify the object (I like the one you have)

3 finally modify the subject (The boy who hit me is mean)

Although some conjunctions develop early

conjoining does not occur until age 3 ½ and will continue a slow development into early adolescence as new conjunctions are added.

Syntactic structures seem to be learned in a word-specific way

Thus, children learn to embed clauses following I know before they generalize to other verbs and pronouns and begin to form a rule

Clausal conjoining and embedding

occur in the same sentence late in preschool but only rarely

Most speech sounds are acquired

by age 5, although some consonant blends will remain difficult.

Most phonological processes will disappear but include

1 deletion of final consonants and unstressed syllables

2 reduplication

3 reduction of consonant clusters

4 assimilation

5 substitution

Narratives develop internally

with the emergence of story grammar.

Intentions or uses increase

especially with the demands of school.