Language Acquisition - Test 2

Voice Onset Time (VOT)

the amount of time that elapses between the bursts of air and when the vocal folds in the larynx start to vibrate.

What was the finding of the HAS technique for Categorical Perception in Infants?

• when 40 msec was introduced to the child, their sucking rate increased

• when there was a change in 40 msec into 60 msec there was no change since 40 and 60 VOT sounds the same.

Draw the VOT scale:

What was the finding between lower SES kids and higher SES kids?

• by 3 years old higher SES children had heard 30 million more words than lower SES kids.

• by 3 years higher SES children had 1000 words and lower SES kids had 500.

• higher SES kids were exposed to more words and richer vocab.

What was some criticisms of Hart and Risley (1995) study (SES)?

• ignores variation within SES groups

• does not take into account speech from other caregivers

• doesn’t take into account ‘overheard’ speech

BUT “quantity” doesn’t matter, “quality” matters.

Why do Infants prefer infant directed speech?

they like everything about it, especially the pitch contour that occurs.

what is the benefit of infant directed speech?

• prosodic bootstrapping (bringing the child into language acquisition 

• accessible content

Syntactic Bootstrapping

cues to identify nouns and verbs

Prosodic Bootstrapping

• intonation and pausing - phrase and clause boundaries 

• stress differences for content and function words

• stress difference for nouns and verbs.

What is the maternal responsivity in environmental supports?

mothers treat babies as conversation partners.

• language skills of infants wih responsive communication partners are more advanced.

Components of Language: Form

phonology, morphology, syntax

5 stages of Prespeech Vocal Development

1. Reflexive Crying and Vegetative Sounds (birth)

2. Cooing and Laughter (2 months - 16 weeks)

3. Vocal Play (4 months)

4. Reduplicated Babbling (6-9 months)

5. Non Reduplicated Babbling (12 months)

Why is the stages of pre speech vocal development universal?

all infants in different cultures go through these stages.

Components of Stage 1 of Preschool Vocal Development

• sounds: vibration and stop/start airflow

• crying: some vowel-like sounds 

• vegetative sounds

Components of Stage 2 of Preschool Vocal Development

• sounds: single long vowel - series of vowels sounds strung together separated by intakes of breath, back vowels, some back consonants.

• learned through social interaction

Components of Stage 3 of Preschool Vocal Development

• range of vocal qualities; loud + soft, high + low, bilabial trills, sustain vowels, marginal babbling

• also known as the experimental phase because the baby is starting to experiment with their sounds.

Components of Stage 4 of Preschool Vocal Development

• sequences of identical CV syllables with adult-like timing 

• environment is important

Components of stage 5 of preschool vocal development

• syllable strings with varying consonants and vowels

• greater range of consonants and vowels'

• jargon 

jargon

string of sounds and syllables uttered with rich variety of stress and intonation.

• mimics adult conversation

vegetative sounds

sounds accompanied by biological functions i.e., breathing, eating, sneezing, etc.

Movement through Vocal stages is due to:

1. Physical growth of vocal tract, oral cavity, head and neck

2. Nervous system maturation 

3. Experience: 3 part

• being exposed to the speech of other ex. babbling drift

• hearing themselves talk (their own onset - deaf babies do not get these babbling)

• social feedback/interaction 

parental responsivity 

the more the parents responds to the babbling the more the baby will continue to babble

protowords + what does it show

• “invented” words used recurrently with an intended meaning (ex. ‘na’= give)

• shows: voluntary control vocalization + recognition that sounds have meaning

Factors that influence Order of Acquisition

1. Motor complexity - stops sounds vs. fricative and affricates

2. visibility - front sounds (bilabial and alveolar)

3. frequency 

4. functionality 

What does word accuracy depend on?

• word position 

• neighbouring sounds