Early Speech and Language Development: Quiz 3

Language differences

Variability among language users.

Dialect

Natural variation of a language that evolves within specific cultural or geographic boundaries.

Dialect variation

Differences in the form, content, and use of a language.

ASHA's position on dialects

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) must not attempt to "fix" dialectal differences to make them conform to "proper English" or any other language.

Bilingualism

The ability to use two languages; approximately one-fifth of Americans speak a language other than English at home.

Code-switching

Interchanging between the syntax and vocabulary of two languages.

Simultaneous bilingualism

Development that occurs when children are exposed to two languages around the same time, sometimes beginning around birth.

Simultaneous bilingual language exposure

Regular exposure to both languages at home in any combination, including through parents and grandparents.

Sequential bilingualism

Learning a second language after beginning to acquire or use another language; can occur at any age.

Example of sequential bilingualism

A child speaks one language at home and acquires another language after starting school.

Gender differences in language development

Differences that are relatively minor and are usually influenced by biological and environmental factors.

Gender socialization

Boys and girls may be socialized differently because of societal expectations.

Limitations of gender research

The gender-related findings in these notes should be interpreted cautiously because they were researched in a binary sense.

AFAB

Assigned female at birth.

AMAB

Assigned male at birth.

AFAB language development trend

AFAB children typically begin talking earlier than boys and develop vocabulary at a faster rate than AMAB children, according to the notes.

AMAB language development trend

AMAB children are more likely to have a language impairment, according to the notes.

Genetic predisposition

The influence of inherited genetic factors on language development and the likelihood of language disorders.

Twin studies

Studies used to estimate the contribution of genetics to language development and the heritability of language disorders.

MZ twins

Monozygotic or identical twins.

Language impairment risk in MZ twins

If one monozygotic twin has a language impairment, the other has an 85% chance of also having the impairment.

Language-learning environment

The environmental input that helps shape the neural architecture supporting language acquisition.

Neural architecture and language acquisition

The brain's language-supporting systems are calibrated based on input from the environment.

Quantity of language experience

The amount and frequency of language exposure a child receives; an important factor in language development.

Quality of language experience

The nature and quality of the language a child hears and uses; an important factor in language development.

Caregiver-child conversation

How often toddlers and preschoolers participate in conversations with caregivers is associated with language growth during the first few years of life.

Complex sentence exposure

Children exposed to complex sentence forms in addition to simple sentences tend to use more complex syntax.

Caregiver responsiveness

How promptly, contingently, and appropriately caregivers respond to a child's communication.

Promptness

How quickly a caregiver responds to a child.

Contingency

How well a caregiver's response relates to what the child wants or communicates.

Appropriateness

Whether the caregiver's response uses language appropriate for the child's age and developmental level.

High caregiver responsiveness

Associated with an accelerated rate of language development.

Language disorder

A condition involving significant difficulties in the development of language.

Language impairment and milestones

Children with language impairments typically achieve language milestones more slowly.

Long-standing language difficulties

Persistent difficulties involving language form, content, and/or use.

Developmental language disorder (DLD)

A brain-based difference that makes talking and listening difficult.

DLD and social-emotional development

DLD poses a risk for social-emotional and behavioral concerns.

DLD prevalence

Affects approximately two children in every classroom, according to the notes.

DLD compared with autism

DLD is approximately five times more prevalent than autism, according to the notes.

DLD and learning disabilities

DLD is associated with an increased risk of dyslexia and other learning disabilities.

DLD prognosis

DLD can last a lifetime, but help and support are available.

Grammar

The broader system of language structure and rules, often taught in school, that includes morphology, phonology, semantics, and syntax.

Syntax

How words and utterances are structured and constructed based on the language a person hears; relates to spoken language.

Grammar vs. syntax

Grammar encompasses multiple components of language, while syntax specifically concerns the structure and arrangement of words and utterances.

Phonology

The language component concerned with sound systems and the rules governing sounds.

Morphology

The language component concerned with morphemes and how words are formed.

Semantics

The language component concerned with meaning.

Syntax as a language component

The rules governing how words are combined and structured into phrases and sentences.

Language form

The component of language that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, as well as the broader framework in which these are studied alongside content and use.

Children's intuitive syntactic knowledge

Children may recognize that a sentence's syntax is incorrect without being able to explain why.

Form, content, and use

Three broad components used to describe language.

Phonological development

Acquiring the rules of language that govern the sound structure of syllables and words.

Phoneme

A speech sound that can distinguish one word from another in a language.

Consonant cluster/blend

Two or more consonants occurring together without an intervening vowel.

Consonant cluster example

In /pɑt/ versus /spɑt/, /sp/ is the consonant cluster.

Minimal pairs

Words that differ by only one phoneme, such as "low" and "row."

Meaningful minimal pair

A pair of words that differ by one phoneme and both have meaning in the language.

Nonmeaningful minimal pair

Two sound sequences differing by one phoneme when one sequence is not a meaningful word in the language.

Phonological representation

A neurological imprint of a phoneme that differentiates it from other phonemes.

Neurological imprint

A representation that becomes established in the language-related portion of the brain.

Phonotactic rules

Rules specifying the legal orders of sounds in syllables and words and where specific phonemes can or cannot occur.

S-blends in onset position

Consonant clusters beginning with /s/ that occur at the beginning of a syllable or word.

Prosodic cues

Rhythm and stress patterns in words and syllables that infants use when processing language.

Word stress

The relative emphasis placed on a syllable within a word.

Syllable stress

The emphasis pattern associated with syllables in spoken language.

Phonotactic probabilities

How likely particular sound combinations are to occur in a language.

Phonotactic improbabilities

Sound combinations that are unlikely or disallowed under a language's phonotactic rules.

Phonotactic knowledge and word segmentation

Knowledge of likely and unlikely sound combinations helps learners segment unfamiliar words.

Phonological knowledge

Acquisition of internal representations of the phonemes in a language.

Phonological productions

The expression of phonemes to produce syllables and words.

Limited phoneme inventory

When children have a small set of available speech sounds and use single phonemes to represent multiple phonemes.

Vowel development

Vowels generally develop before consonants.

Early vs. late consonants

Consonants differ in the ages at which children typically acquire them.

Factors influencing phoneme development

Frequency of phonemes in words used by the child and the articulatory complexity of producing them.

Phoneme frequency

How often a phoneme occurs in the words a child uses; a factor affecting the timing of phoneme development.

Articulatory complexity

The difficulty involved in physically producing a speech sound; influences when phonemes develop.

Phonological intelligibility

Phonological knowledge and production typically allow children to produce intelligible speech by approximately three to four years of age.

Phonological awareness

The ability to attend to and manipulate the phonological units of speech.

Phonological Awareness and Reading

Metalinguistic tasks

Tasks requiring children to consciously identify, analyze, count, or manipulate aspects of language.

Syllable counting

Identifying the number of syllables in a word, such as elephant = e-le-phant (three syllables).

Rhyme detection

Identifying which words rhyme or which word does not rhyme with a set of other words.

Initial sound identification

Identifying the first sound in a word; for example, "coat" begins with /k/.

Initial sound elision

Removing the first sound from a word to produce a new sound sequence; for example, "coat" without /k/ becomes "oat."

Phoneme counting

Identifying the number of individual sounds in a word; for example, "cat" has three phonemes.

Phonological awareness and reading

Phonological awareness is an important bridge between language and reading.

Phonics

Instruction that teaches the relationships between letters and sounds.

Underdeveloped phonological awareness

Contributes to difficulties developing basic word-reading skills.

Infant phonological development

Influenced by the phonemic composition of the language or languages the child is learning.

Functional load

The importance of a phoneme within a language's phonemic inventory, corresponding to how many words depend on distinguishing it from other phonemes.

Functional load and word meaning

The importance of a phoneme in distinguishing one word from another.

Morphological development

The acquisition of morphemes and the rules for using them to form and modify words.

Morpheme

The smallest linguistic unit that carries meaning or grammatical function.

Grammatical morpheme (GM)

A morpheme that expresses grammatical information, such as tense, number, possession, or aspect.

Inflectional morpheme

A grammatical morpheme that modifies a word to express grammatical information without creating a fundamentally new lexical word.

Derivational morpheme (DM)

A morpheme added to a root or lexical word to create a derived word or change its meaning or grammatical category.

Lexical verb

A main verb that expresses an action or state, such as "run."

Bound morpheme

A morpheme that cannot stand alone and must attach to another morpheme.

Free morpheme

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word.

Progressive -ing

A bound grammatical morpheme marking an ongoing action; it is typically one of the first grammatical morphemes acquired, around age two.