ch 5: infancy (exam 3)

infant speech perception

attention to prosodic regularities, attention to phonetic regularities

prosodic characteristics of speech

frequency, duration, intonation and stress, intensity

frequency

how fast air particles move back and forth during the creation of sound. pitch. one of the three prosodic characteristics of speech

duration

in terms of speech, the length of sounds. one of the three prosodic characteristics of speech

stress

in terms of speech, the prominence placed on certain syllables of multisyllabic words

intonation

the prominence placed on various parts of sentences

intensity

how far apart air particles move when they go back and forth during the creation of sound. Loudness. One of the three prosodic characteristics of speech

attention to phonetic regularities

categorical perception and perceptual narrowing-

infants can distinguish among sounds of all world languages,

develop ability to recognize permissible combinations of phonemes in their language (phonotactic regularities- help them segment words)

categorical perception

an ability that allows humans to categorize speech in ways that highlight differences in meaning and ignore variations that are nonessential or not meaningful in their language

perceptual narrowing

process by which infants start to focus more on perceptual differences that are relevant to them (such as the difference between two native phonemes) and focus less on perceptual differences that are not relevant to them or that they encounter less often (such as the difference between two nonnative phonemes)

categorical perception abilities

our perception of speech is categorical- we categorize input in ways that highlight differences in meaning

variations of sounds in the same category are called allophones

allophones do not signal a difference in meaning between two words

hierarchical structure of categories

superordinate level, basic level, subordinate level

superordinate level

most general concept/basic part of category, later words children acquire

ex: furniture

basic level

general concepts within a category, learned first

ex: lamp, chair

subordinate level

specific concepts within a category, later words children acquire

ex: floor lamp, desk chair

perceptual categories

infants form on the basis of similar-appearing features such as color, shape, texture, size, etc.

infants learn at a very young age ( by age 3 months they can distinguish bt cats and dogs)

conceptual categories

requires infants to know what an object does ( balls roll, animals move and eat)

infants can use this knowledge to make inferences (predictions) about new objects/entities (an ostrich moves and acts bc it is an animal)

perceptual

relating to the ability to notice something or come to an opinion about something using your senses:

early vocalizations

reflexive, control of phonation, expansion, basic canonical syllables, reduplicated babbling, nonredublicated babbling/variegated babbling, advanced forms, jargon

reflexive

0-2 mo

sounds of discomfort and distress and vegetative sounds

adults respond as if reflexes are true communication attempts

control of phonation

1-4 mo

cooing and gooing

combine vowel-like segments with consonant-like segments

isolated consonant sounds and raspberries, trills, and clicks

expansion

3-8 mo

infants produce isolated vowel sounds and vowel glides

experiment with loudness and pitch

may squeal

may use marginalized babbling

basic canonical syllables

5-10 mo

single consonant-vowel syllables

canonical babling emerges

reduplicated babbling

nonreduplicated/variegated babbling

advanced forms

9-18 mo

beging producing diphthongs

more complex syllable forms: VC, CCV, VCV and multi syllable strings with and without varied stress intonation patterns

jargon

reduplicated babbling

babbling that consists of repeating consonant-vowel pairs

"da da da"

nonreduplicated/variegated babbling

babbling consisting of non repeating consonant-vowel combinations

"da ma goo ga"

occurs at around age 6-10 mo

jargon

a special type of babbling that contains the true melodic patterns of an infants native language

such babbling resembles questions, exclamations, and commands, even in the absence of recognizable words

infant-directed speech

the speech adults use with young language learners

paralinguistic features of infant-directed speech

high overall pitch

exaggerated pitch contours

slower tempo

syntactic features of infant-directed speech

shorter MLU

fewer subordinate clauses

more content words than function words

discourse features of infant-directed speech

more repetition

more questions

joint attention

attention focused on a mutual object. for infants, maintaining joint attention required them to coordinate their attention between the social partner and the object. prerequisite to development of conversational schema

phases of joint attention

1: attendance to social partners

2: emergence and coordination of joint attention

3: transition to language

phase 1 joint attention: attendance to social partners

birth to 6

infants value and participate in interpersonal interactions

interested in looking at peoples faces

caregiver responsiveness is important

infants engage in rituals of body movement and joint attention with others

infants also react to emotional support others provide and others reactions to their actions

phase 2 joint attention: emergence and coordination of joint attention

6 mo- 1 year

infants take more interest in looking at manipulation objects

children who engage in longer periods of joint attention have larger vocabularies at 18 mo

supported joint engagement: adults may speak with an animated voice

use of redirection strategies is negatively related to an infants ability to engage in sustained attention

imperative and declarative pointing

phase 3: transition to language

1 year beyond

begin to incorporate language into communication with other ppl

us language to represent events and objects

mothers verbal encouragements of infants attention at age 1 year is positively related to infants language development

imperative pointing

pointing by an infant to request an adult to retrieve an object for him or her. occurs around age 10 no

declarative pointing

pointing by an infant to call an adults attention to objects and to comment on objects

involves a social process bt an infant and a adult

occurs after age 10 mo

importance of daily routines in language development

routines provide many opportunities for language learning

infants benefit from hearing the same words and phrases repeated each day

this helps them segment phrases, clauses, and eventually words

they also learn about phonotactics

routines allow for joint attention

caregiver responsiveness

caregivers attention and sensitivity to infants vocalizations and communicative attempts

characteristics of seven characteristics

waiting and listening

following the Childs lead

joining in and playing

being face-to-face

using a variety of questions and labels

encouraging turn taking

expanding and extending