CH9: Language Development in Sociocultural Contexts

PSYC 207 Unit 3 exam material

language

Complex system of communication

• Uses symbols in regular, creative, & self-perpetuating ways

• Other components:

  • Phonemes

  • Morphemes

  • Syntax

  • Semantics

phonemes

The fundamental building blocks of language — smallest unit of sound

• subject to perceptual narrowing

morphemes

The smallest unit of meaning in a language

• Composed of one or more phonemes

• Include prefixes and suffixes

syntax

Set of linguistic rules which determine sentence construction

semantics

The meaning attached to words

pragmatics

Facilitates effective, appropriate communication with others

• Turn-taking, Staying on topic, Volume & tone, Maintenance of eye contact

contextual information

The surrounding circumstances that influence the meaning of words (particularly important)

• Social cues

• Shared knowledge

• Nonverbal communication (facial expression, posture, gesturing)

  • Often absent in textual communication

linguistic development domains

Describes changes across multiple domains of language

• Phonological Development: changes in physical properties of the sounds produced, perceived & recognized

• Morphological Development: changes in the ways meaning is constructed within a language

• Syntax Development: changes in use of rules in organizing language

• Semantic Development: changes in the meaning attached to words

• Pragmatic Development: changes in the social use of language

language in infancy

• Specialization first 4 months — preference for mother’s own voice & discrimination between native/non-native morphemes

• Speech is not processed in the same way as other auditory stimuli

  • Relies on development of intermodal perception

    • Requiring the integration of: auditory info, visual info, social context

• Demonstrated by early preferences for facial synchrony

visual prosody

Visual information that accompanies speech

early vocalizations

Primarily composed of involuntary, physiological sounds

• Emerge shortly after birth (crying, smacking lips, gurgling)

• Accompanied by non-verbal communication (posture, facial expression, gesturing)

• By 2mo. intentional vocalizations emerge

  • Cooing — 1 syllable combinations of consonants & vowel sounds

  • Opportunity to practice foundations of functional communication

    • Experiment w/ speech sounds

    • Differentiate own vocalization from others

protoconversations

Early caregiver infant vocal interactions

• Rhythmic resemblance to native language

  • Pacing, pauses, turn-taking

infant directed speech

• Orients infants’ attention toward caregiver

• Facilitates both…

  • Protoconversation

  • Affective interactions

• Culturally universal

babbling

Intentional vocalizations lacking specific meaning

• Composed of repeated sequences of consonant vowel sounds (“ba-ba”, “ma-ma”, “da-da”)

• By 4-6mo. vocalizations become more elaborate

  • Integrating native language-specific sounds

    • Reflecting perceptual narrowing

    • Practicing for later, functional language

• By 10mo.

  • babbling is primarily composed of native speech sounds

  • adopts a conversational tone & cadence

receptive language

The capacity to comprehend and understand language

• Precedes expressive language

expressive language

The capacity to express oneself through language production

expressive; development

Early _______ Language _______

• 1st words typically emerge ~12mo.

  • Initially takes the form of holophrasic speech (1 word expressions)

  • Relational Relativity Hypothesis

relational relativity hypothesis

• Nouns are more accessible to infants relative to relational terms such as verbs

• Reflected in early errors in conjugation

• Observed cross-culturally

  • Noun-friendly languages

    • Caregivers emphasize object labels & properties

  • Verb-friendly languages

    • Caregivers emphasizes object relationships — effect typically less pronounced

sentences; telegraphic

Two-Word ____ and _____ Speech

• Vocabulary spurt occurs between months 18-24 mo.

  • Although rate varies at individual level

• Sentence complexity develops as a function of vocabulary

  • Two word sentences emerge around 200 words

• Telegraphic Speech

telegraphic speech

Composed of essential words, typically omitting objectives and articles

• Signals healthy language development

  • Allows communication of thoughts

  • Fosters syntactic experimentation

• Optimal caregiver responses affirm effort & progress

  • While modeling more complex, grammatical sentence structure

gestural communication

Relatively simple motor activity possessing symbolic meaning

• General role in adult language — Enhances communicatory ability

• Vital role in toddler language development

  • Supplements early holophrasic speech (single word + gesturing)

  • Steppingstone to greater sentence complexity

  • Predict later qualitative milestones

• Can be leveraged by caregivers

  • Aids modeling of complex sentences

childhood language development

• Vocabulary expansion continues through childhood

• Between 2-6 years…

  • Vocabulary grows from 200 to 10,000 words

  • Builds on existing language through fast-mapping

• Caregiver verbal interaction continues to play a role

  • Language development may be fostered through…

    • Modeling complex sentences

    • Open-ended questions

    • Reading & singing

    • Regularly exercising labeling abilities

fast mapping

Eases vocabulary acquisition by leveraging connections with existing concepts

• Follows relational relativity hypothesis

  • Increased rate for nouns

critical periods

Developmental phase or time during which learning can easily occur

• Sometime between infancy & adolescence for language

  • Case-studies of severely abused/neglected children

    • Poor understanding of nuance, grammar, & typically do not develop functional language

  • Hearing impaired children — timing of detection & intervention vital

  • Failure to intervene prevents vital language exposure

    • Often impairing development across several related domains (social, language, literacy)

linguistic; childhood

Common ______ Errors of ________

• Phonological errors

• Semantic errors

• Grammatical & Syntactic errors

phonological errors

Errors of pronunciation

semantic errors

Errors related to the meaning attached to words

• Underextension

• Overextension

underextension

Overly specific use of a word as a label

overextension

Insufficiently specific use of a word as a label

grammatical/syntactic errors

Errors in sentence structure and organization

• Overregularization

overregularization

Extension of a grammatical rule to a situation in which it does not apply

middle; adolescence

______ Childhood Through ______

• By 8yrs. errors of early childhood become…

  • Increasingly uncommon

  • Spontaneously corrected

• Notable aspects of linguistic development include…

  • Vocabulary spurt outpacing that of early childhood due to…

    • Continued fast mapping & greater conceptual sophistication

    • Metalinguistic awareness

metalinguistic awareness

Awareness of, and knowledge about, the nature & qualities of language

• Greater intention in word choice

• Language tailored to audience

sophisticated; syntactic

Middle Childhood — Adolescence (Cont.)

• Notable aspects of linguistic development include…

  • More ______ sense of semantics, including recognition of…

    • Non-literal sense of words — occurs alongside increased use of wordplay

    • Nuanced differences in roughly equivalent words

  • Increasing ______ complexity

    • Greater use of passive voice

    • Increases in sentence complexity vary as a function of — native language & experimental exposure

pragmatic development

• Increased recognition of dynamic nature of words…

  • Develops alongside opportunities chances for practical language use

  • Use & understanding of irony is an important milestone

• Verbal Irony

• Sarcasm

verbal irony

Communicates the opposite of what is said

• Recognition of behavioral expectations & social conventions

• Comprehension of pragmatic insincerity

sarcasm

Other-directed verbal irony with critical intent

• Affective intent of the speaker toward the target

localizing pragmatic insincerity

• Relevant processing networks include…

• Verbal irony heavily implicates the prefrontal cortex

  • Mentalizing network

    • Involved in inferring mental states & forecasting behavior

  • Semantic network

    • Involved in attaching conceptual meaning to language

• Sarcasm additionally recruits affective systems

  • Amygdala

    • Involved in ascribing emotional meaning & content

pragmatic; adolescence

________ Insincerity & Development

• Considerable changes throughout childhood and __________

  • Cross-sectional research comparing 6,9, & 13 yr. olds

    • 6yr. olds — tended to interpret all remarks as sincere

    • 9-13yr. olds — increasing success discriminating pragmatic insincerity & genuine deception (although often with some difficulty)

  • Adults demonstrate greater competency — potentially reflecting…

    • Greater specialization in neural processing

    • More complex connections of the neural circuits involved

adult language development

• Subtle changes in language are observed in adulthood

  • Gains…

    • Continued vocabulary expansion

    • Counterintuitive = increased risk of blocking

  • Maintenance…

    • Comprehension of spoken language

  • Losses…

    • Most pronounced for pragmatics

      • Inappropriate comments

      • Uncomfortable topics

      • Deviance from topic

      • Decreased comprehension of figurative speech

developmental language disorder

Impacts a person’s ability to learn, understand, & use language

• Reading, Writing, Listening

• Common & Heritable

• Associated w/ poor academic performance

stuttering

• Sounds, syllables, or words are repeated or last longer than typical

  • Most common fluency disorder

    • Impacts the flow, rhythm, & speed of speech

• Further distinctions drawn between…

  • Developmental Stuttering

  • Neurogenic Stuttering

developmental stuttering

• Most common

• Occurs while learning speech & language skills

• Resolves in 75% of cases

neurogenic stuttering

• Occurs following stroke, head trauma, or other brain injury

• No cure — requires treatment by speech pathologist

articulation disorders

Difficulty producing correct phonemes

• Imprecise placement, timing, pressure, or speed of lips, tongue, & throat

  • Includes failure to use some or all speech sounds, as well as…

    • Substitutions, Omissions, Additions

  • Affected individuals may feel self-conscious

    • Social withdrawal

    • Avoiding speaking or reading aloud (avoiding certain words)

• Typical during the course of language acquisition — cause for concern if errors persist past 6yrs.

autism spectrum disorder

Neurodevelopmental disorder impacting 3 domains

• Communication — Complete lack of speech, Echolalia

• Restricted/Repetitive Interests — Repetitive movement & interests, Distress from minor change

• Social Function — Failure to initiate conversation, Avoidance of eye contact, Turning away when spoken to, Preference for solitary play

• May impair functioning & capacity for independence — although highly heterogenous in expression

• More recent discussions emphasize strengths over deficits

detecting autism

• Examined as part of early wellness checks

  • Prompting follow-up diagnostic tests

• In older children & adolescents

  • Common indicators include difficulty with…

    • Nonverbal cues, figurative speech, making friends (often initially observed by teachers or caregivers)

• Difficult to diagnose in adulthood given symptom overlap

  • Some cues include…

    • Highly-attuned nervous system

    • Preference for predictability & structure

    • Hyperfocus on special interests

Causes of autism

• Most prevalent among high SES nations

  • Highly heritable

  • More common among males

• Risk factors include:

  • Advanced paternal age

  • Urban living

  • Insufficient sun exposure — Vitamin D Deficiency

  • Exposure to mutagens (environmental agents which trigger gene mutations)

language development theories

• Popular theories of language development include:

  • Nativism

  • Social Learning

  • Cognitive Functionalist

• Biologically-informed approaches emphasize neural structures

  • Emphasizing the neural basis of language development

nativism

Theory of language development emphasizing universal aspects of cognitive linguistic development

social learning

Theory of language development emphasizing associative learning processes

cognitive functionalist

Theory of language development emphasizing language creation as a collaborative endeavor

nativist; language

______ Perspective on _______

• Frames language development in terms of universal grammar

  • Transformative-generative grammar

    • Proposes an innate cognitive capacity to understand one’s native syntax and apply it in generating an infinite class of potential sentences

    • Deep Structure

    • Surface Structure

  • Acquired unconsciously

deep structure

How an idea is represented in abstract terms of universal grammar — basis for universal grammar

surface structure

How an idea is actually expressed in any one language

criticisms of nativism

• Initial studies supporting nativism examined

  • English & Related Western-European languages

    • False sense of consistency

• Research on over 8,000 diverse languages

  • Greater structural diversity than predicted (ex. variation in noun-verb-object structure)

• Others argue that developmental research more appropriate

  • Adult language already complex

    • Based in regular exposure to linguistic nuance and complexity

social learning/language

• Implicates associationism principles in language acquisition

  • Builds on classical, observational & operant conditioning principles

    • Cognition, Imitation, Reciprocal determinism

  • Concerns how adults reinforce & model language for children

• Criticisms include failure to account for:

  • Rapid pace of childhood language acquisition

    • Occurs through process of fast-mapping

  • Generative nature of language

    • Imitation cannot account for novel language use

  • Spontaneous language creation amongst children

grammar; constructions

Cognitive-Functionalism & Language

• ______ emerges as users co-create linguistic _______

  • Based on recurring sequences of symbols

    • Universal grammar not necessary

    • Social learning insufficient

• Emphasizes social function of language

  • Evidence…

    • Use non-verbal communication by preverbal children to communicate

    • On-the-fly repairs when misunderstood during acquisition

    • Language skills develop through daily interaction alongside — social & pattern cognition

neural; language

• _____ Substrates of Human _______
  As per lateralization, localized to the left hemisphere:

  • Frontal Lobe

    • Broca’s Area — expressive language & some aspects of language comprehension

      • Anterior = semantic expression

      • Posterior = phonological perception

  • Temporal Lobe

    • Wernicke’s Area — receptive language