PSY 231 - Language Dev + Phonology

Learning to read is comprised of 2 abilities

1. Word Decoding

2. Comprehension

Foundations of Reading

By preschool, children understand the basic concepts of “reading”

Phonological Awareness

the ability to distinguish sounds in spoken words

Phonological Awareness can be measured by whether children can

decompose words

Phonological Awareness is strongly related to

success in reading

Typically, when children first start to read

• first attempt to read by sight

• if that fails, children will then attempt to sound it out

• if that fails, they will ask a more skilled reader

“Known Word”

the word that can be retrieved directly from long-term memory after it has been sounded out a few times

Whole-Word Learning

children are taught to recognize whole words by sight

Children cannot comprehend

• if the word was not decoded inaccurately

• or if it is not recognized as a familiar word

Comprehension factors

Language skills Improve —> More likely to recognize words —> Frees up working memory capacity —> working memory is used to pay attention to context cues —> life experience makes it easier to use context clues —> use reading strategies when appropriate —> comprehension

Kanzi

language can be acquired spontaneously through observation

Language

a system that relates sounds/gestures to meaning

4 Elements of Language

• Phonology

• Semantics

• Syntax

• Pragmatics

Phonology

sounds of a language

Semantics

words + their meaning

Syntax

rules that specify how words are combined to form a sentence

Pragmatics

communicative functions of a language

Phonemes

very short distinctive sound units like “a” “t” “ch” “sh”

Perceiving Speech

• infants can distinguish most sounds by 1 month after birth

• children can hear a wide range of phonemes until about 10-12 months

Morphemes

the smallest units that carry meaning (these can either be words or parts of words like prefixes or suffixes)

How do we learn where one word stops and another begins?

1. Stress

2. Statistics

3. Emerging knowledge of sounds in native language

4. Rely on “function words”

Identifying Words: Stress

languages consistently place emphasis on certain syllables in a word

Identifying Words: Statistics

infants notice syllables that go together frequently

Infant-Direct Speech (IDS)

slow + exaggerated changes in pitch and loudness

Producing Words

• Cooing

• Babbling

• Precursor

By first birthday

most children say their first word

overgeneralization example

using the word “doggy” for all four-leg furry animals

One-Word Stage

the stage in speech dev, from about age 1 - 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Two-Word Stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech dev during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements

Telegraphic Speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram (ex. go car or want juice)

Phonological Memory

the ability to remember speech sounds briefly