SLHS 309 Chapter 8 Variation in Language Development

referential vocabulary

dominated by words for objects, move predictably from single words to two-word stage with sudden spurt at 50 words

expressive vocabulary

dominated by personal-social expressions, usually longer than a single word; more pronouns and function words but fewer object labels, less clear transition into syntactic combinations and no spurt in vocab

the tendency of some children to acquire longer, phraselike utterances during the single word stage suggests that children may differ with respect to the length of the linguistic units that they __________ from adult speech

segment

How might children vary in segmentation?

• some children orient to syllables and segments (individual words)

• some children attend to prosodic tunes that unify larger sequences of speech (phrase)

• careful vs risk taker

What is the relationship between articulatory fluency and articulatory precision?

they are inversely related in early speech

phrasal speech segmentation overshoots a target adult word, tends to be produced __________ but with less __________ articulation of the individual phonemic segments

fluently; precise

sublexical unit segmentation undershoots a target adult word, tends to be produced with __________ articulation but with less __________ due to the focus on accurate production

precise; fluency

performance on speech segementation tasks during the first year is correlated with productive __________ at 24 months

vocabulary

frozen phrases (unanalyzed wholes)

utterances containing two or more words that had not previously occurred as single units in the child’s speech

nominal strategy vs pronominal strategy

• I don’t really know what to say about this

• some kids use pronouns while other use names in early combinations

• end up overlapping when MLU reaches about 2.5

How does rate of learning affect how children learn languages?

• most obvious difference

• different strategies are NOT associated with different rates of development

• multiple mechanisms that support language acquisition

  • rate at which attention, perception, and memory mature and are available to parse, store, and analyze the input

• affects the size and form of the linguistic units children produce

explain cautious learners vs risk takers

• cautious: slower/older, good receptive abilities but more guarded approach to displaying verbal skills, may attend more to the details of language structure

• risk takers: faster/younger, used more nouns and complex noun phrases but made more grammatical errors

• looking while listening task with 18-21 month olds

• infants with faster looking times were more accurate in looking and hard larger productive vocabularies

• for Spanish speaking children, those with larger vocabularies and better grammar abilities reacted faster to morphosyntactic cues in sentences (gender articles)

• 25 months → 8 years

  • vocab and processing speed STRONGLY predicted language and cognitive skills (particularly working memory)

What does research about processing speed say?

technoference

distractions from interpersonal activities by screen technology, mobile devices in particular—suggest smartphones disrupt parent-child interactions and have a negative impact on language learning

How does socioeconomic status affect language learning?

• low SES

  • less object labels, more directives

  • children produce half of a high SES child’s vocab

  • less language input

  • slower learning, later age

    • vocab, processing speed, efficiency

  • less talkative and responsive parents

  • lower quality and quantity of input

  • less frequent book reading

• high SES

  • more object labels, fewer directives

  • children produce double a low SES child’s vocab

  • more language input

  • more talkative and responsive parents

  • higher quality and quantity of input

  • more frequent book reading with high quality interactions
    

no, children of any social class who hear little talk will have fewer opportunities to learn language

Is SES deterministic?

dialogic reading

when reading a book, asking open-ended questions, encouraging the child to take over the responsibility of telling the story, and using books as a context for engaging, elaborated conversations

higher quality interactions associated with better language outcomes

SES differences are less pronounced during book reading than during other kids of interactions

yes, languages differ in the problems they pose to the learner and exaggerate variation

Does the language a child is learning impact the learning of specific language structures?

late talkers

delayed expressive language in toddler years (typically identified at 24 months)

late word producers

produce first word after 15 months

late word combiners

combine words after 24 months

1/3 of late talkers, approximately 2/3 fall within normal range by preschool

What percentage of late talkers end up with a language disorder diagnosis?

• unclear

• likely those with more risk factors present

• processing efficiently, those with quick word recognition were more likely to be “late bloomers” than slow processors

Which late talkers develop language disorders?