Child Language Development Theories and Research

Imitation Theory

Skinner believed that children learn language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear. He also believed in the importance of operative conditioning - the use of praise and reward, or criticism and correction, in helping children to learn how to use language.

Innate Theory

Chomsky argues that children have an LAD - they are born with a Language Acquisition Device - a part of the brain that gives them the ability to learn language, so children can learn the rules of the grammar of language independently.

Social Interaction Theory

Bruner argues that high quality interaction with caregivers is extremely important for children to learn language. He stresses the need for what he called a rich Language Acquistion Support System. Conversations with others during daily activities such as reading, meal time and bath time all help children to develop their language skills.

Fis Study

Berko and Brown's research shows that there is a big difference between what children hear and what they can say- so a child may say "fis" but know that the word is "fish". Children get frustrated if adults imitate them, or patronise them by using language incorrectly (such as if an adult said "fis").

Clarke-Stewart

Found that children whose mothers talk more have larger vocabularies than those who have quieter mothers.

Katherine Nelson

Found that 60% of children's words in the holophrastic stage are nouns. First words typically also include simple verbs, everyday adjectives and social words like "ta" and "bye bye". Also found that children whose mothers corrected them actually advanced more slowly than those who were not corrected.

Aitchison

Identified the stages of lexical and semantic development:1. Labelling-labelling words to objects. 2. Packaging-linking words to other applications: over/under extension. 3. Network building-making connections between words using similarities and differences.

Wug Test

Created by Jean Gleason to determine whether children can apply rules of grammar to unknown words - her research suggests that they do.

Bellugi

Identified the stages in which children learn pronouns. To begin with they use names, then mix up subject and object pronouns, before using them correctly. This linguist also identified the stages in which children formulate negatives: "no" and "not" are used first; then "can't" and "don't" and then more varied forms like "didn't" and "won't".

Patricia Kuhl

Babies can distinguish the sounds of all languages well until the age of one. Babies listen very carefully to the languages that they hear and take statistics on the frequent sounds, so they become increasingly familiar with these languages. Human interaction is vital for this process though - they cannot learn from watching TV.

Vygotsky

Emphasises the importance of social interaction with MKOs but also the value of play.

Lenneberg

Developed the Critical Period theory - the idea that children must learn to speak as young children otherwise they never be able to learn. The case of the neglected child Genie can be used as evidence to support this idea.

Piaget

Children can only learn different aspects of language once they have developed an understanding of the relevant concepts. For example, they can only learn to use the past tense when they can process time. Similarly, children's language development reflects their stage of development (sensorimotor or preoperational).