Language Acquisition

Lectures 1-5

Age of childs first word

12 months (1 year) children begin to produce words that represent objects(ball) living entities (mama) and actions (go)

Age of two word utterances

18 months

Pronouns Acquisition

Children start using pronouns (like, I, me, you) at around 31-34 months

when learning pronouns its linked to perspective taking, which is understanding that other people have differnt point of view

kids need to learn when to use YOU and I, depending on who is talking

Ex: Child might say “Pick you up” when they really mean “Pick me Up” they are still learning how to switch perspectives

Noun Acquisition 

Nouns are the first thing children learn (person, place and thing)

Semantic Properties- description of what something is (like an object or person)

Concrete object reference- kids connect words with things they can see, touch such as shape and color

Overgeneralizations

happens when children apply a grammar rule to all words

EX: I eated it instead of ate it

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Transitive Verbs- require a direct object noun to complete its meaning (ex. hit)

Intransitive verbs- doesn’t require a direct object noun to complete its meaning (ex. cry)

Transitive- S+ V + O- She wanted an apple

Intransitive- S + V - She cried

Irregular Past tense Verbs

verbs that do not follow the normal rule of adding -ed to show the past tense.

Ex: Regular: walk—— walked

Irregular: go → went (not “goed”)

irregular: eat → ate (not “eated”)

Negative Sentance forms 

when children start talking, they learn to say “no” or show something is missing

Three types:

Nonexistence ( show something is missing) ex- “All gone juice”

Rejection- (they don’t want something) ex- “no milk

Denial- (saying something is not true) ex- not book 

other kids might use double negatives like “I dont got no book” which is still correct because of their language system.

Phonological processes

Describe how young children produce words

Ex: Banana- nana.   Daddy - dada

Reduplication: “wawa” for “water.”
Final consonant deletion: “ca” for “cat.”
Cluster reduction: “top” for “stop.”
Fronting: “tat” for “cat.”
Gliding: “wabbit” for “rabbit.”

Decontextualized narratives/narratives

when a kid talks about the past or future events, or things that happened in a differnt place or time rather than what they are currently seeing or doing

ex- “when i grow um, i want to be a doctor”

Figurative Language and How it affects kids with Autism

Idioms- phase that doesn’t mean exactly what the words say

Ex- walking on eggshells

Similes- expressions in which two unlike things are compared (she is like a rose) (like or as)

Metaphors- way of comparing two things that are differnt but share something in common- without using like or as

Proverbs- expressions that express thought and truth

ex- practice makes perfect

Kids with autism may find figurative language confusing because they think very literally. Helping them understand these expressions takes clear explanations and practice in context

Infant communications with words and gestures

Before babies can talk in full sentences, they use gestures and early words to communicate their needs, feelings, and ideas. Gestures come before speech — babies use their hands, eyes, and bodies to express meaning. ex: pointing, waving etc

• Around 12 months (1 year old), babies start saying their first words (like “mama,” “dada,” “ball,” “bye”).

• They often use gestures and words together to make their meaning clear.

Sound differences and sensitivity

Beginnging age of eye contact

Around 6 weeks (2 months)

they can focus on a speakers eyes and show recognition

they can imitate facial gestures made by humans

Canonical babbling age

No later than 10 months

Features of African American English

AAE has its own consistent grammar rules 

Dropping the plural “-s”

Ex: He got three box of crayons

→ Instead of He has three boxes of crayons.

Dropping the possessive “-s”

Ex: That my brother bike

→ Instead of That’s my brother’s bike.

Dropping the third-person “-s” in verbs

• Ex: She walk to school

→ Instead of She walks to school.

Dropping the past tense “-ed”

• Ex: She live in New York

→ Instead of She lived in New York.

Regional differences in vocabulary

happen when people from different places use different words to mean the same thing — even though they speak the same language

EX: Soda vs Pop

Noun Phrases

contain the subject of the sentence

Analogies and Syllogisms

Analogical reasoning- figuring something out by comparing it to something you already know

ex- email is to the computer as letter is to mailbox

Syllogism- kind of logical reasoning when you use two statements to come to a conclusion

Ex- Major premise - All men are mortal

Minor premise - Socrates is a man

Conclusion - Socrates is mortal

Schemas

Allows children to process information and organize knowledge about the word

develops when children first encounter a thing or event (ex bird)

Metalinguistic knowledge and its types

Phonological awareness

• Grows during the early school-age period,

when children can identify new words.

Semantic awareness

• Appears around age 10, when children can define words.

Syntactic awareness

• Reflected in the complex sentences that are understood and produced by

adolescents

Pragmatic awareness

• Appears during later childhood and adolescence, when children can

successfully participate in communication with other

Vocabulary word spurt/burst

A vocabulary spurt (also called a word burst) is a stage in a child’s language development when they suddenly begin to learn and use many new words very quickly.

It’s like their vocabulary “explodes” — they go from learning words slowly to picking up several new ones each day.

Auxillary Verbs

Syntactic bootstrapping

When kids use grammar cues in sentances to figure out what new words mean and how they’re used

Senantic Bootstrapping- is the oppisite kids use words meaning to help figure out the grammar

Subordinate clause 

has a verb and subject, but can’t stand alone as a full sentance

EX- Mary drove (has S+V) but is not a full idea by itself

An independent clause is a complete sentance with SVO (ex- mary drove to the store)

Pragmatic language in children

3 major communication skills

• use of language to great, inform, and request

• following rules in conversations

• changing and adopting language to differ persons and situation

Word learning and process 

Word learning is the process by which children hear, understand, remember, and use new words.
It’s one of the most important parts of language development, helping children communicate, think, and learn about the world.

Language and Play

Mutual exclusivity bias

Kids usually believe each thing has only one name, if they already know a name of something, they might think a new word must belong to a differnt object.

EX: A child knows her mom as “mommy.”

If someone says her mom’s name is “Marissa,” the child might say, “No, her name is mommy!”

→ because she thinks one person can only have one name.