˙⋆✮Language and Acquisition Exam 2

what are the prefences of infants?

-human face

-eye contact with caregiver

-human voice (mothers voice)

what is communication like at 1 month of age?

-gazing, responding, vocalizing toward caregiver- ALL UNINTENTIONAL

-Social smile

what is a social smile?

recognition(memory building), rather than one based on the infant's internal state(real feelings).

what is communication like at 2 months?

-search for mothers voice, turns away from strangers

-associate people with specific behaviors

-infant cooing increases

what is communication like at 3 months?

-Visually discriminate different people and respond accordingly

-Can be attentive for longer period

-Dialogs become important

what factors influence bonding at 3 months?

maternal playfulness, sensitivity, encouragement, and pacing

why is caregiver responsiveness important?

- shows child predictable outcomes (safety)

-increases child motivation to communication

what is communication like from 4-6 months?

babies become more sophisticated in socialization and early communication

what is intentionality?

communicating what you think, want, or plan. (goal-directed behavior)

when does intentionality develop?

between 8-9 months

how are communication intentions typically expressed?

gestures

what does prelinguistic mean?

before words

what are the three communication functions?

-Behavior regulation

-Social Interaction

-Joint attention

what is behavior regulation?

requesting (control someones behavior)

What is social interaction?

interacting

what is joint attention?

attracting attention (pulling you over to the window to show you something)

Intentions are often inferred by adults, there is no ____ _____ by the child.

goal awareness

what is full range of gestures?

showing, giving, denying, and requesting

what are deictic gestures?

used to call attention to or request

what are some maternal behaviors?

- exaggerated facial expressions

- body movements

- positioning

- touching

- prolonged gaze

how does maternal behaviors (mothersese) change as the child grows older?

role shifts to teaching them about the world, right and wrong, and how to navigate life. (less restrictive, asking preferences, choices)

Infant-DirectedSpeech(IDS) aka

motherese, infants prefer this way of speech

characteristics of speech and language

• short utterance length

• simple syntax

• small core vocabulary

• repetitive

• exaggerated intonation

• elongation of vowels

• higher pitch

• reduced rate

what is the purpose of IDS (motherese)

-attention

-parameters of his language

-child's responsiveness

-conversation

-emotional bonds

- communication- early

culturally american mothers are...

Information oriented, ask more questions, use grammatically correct utterances, and responsive to cooing

culturally japanese mothers are...

More emotion oriented, more nonsense and environmental sounds, less vocalizing, more physical contact, and responsive to fussing

how might a middle ses caregiver interact with their infant?

language goals, ask more questions, and more verbal

how might a lower ses caregiver interact with their infant?

-Use more imperatives and directives

-Less verbal

-Siblings and peers are important in infant socialization

gender differences in how boys and girls are taught language

- female infants are asked more questions than males

- male infants get more directives than females

with female infants mothers tend to be...

more repetitive, acknowledge more child answers, and take more turns with females

Development of joint reference- stages

Attending → Following gaze → Reaching/Showing → Pointing → Naming

importance of joint attention in general

-builds foundational social abilities and how to interact with the world

-bonding

why are routines, scripts, games important?

behavior is predictable and facilitate participation

proto-imperatives

pre-vocal gestures and vocalizations. (reaching = requesting) They need something.

Proto-declaratives

primitive communication using gestures (point and showing). Not requesting.

Proto-conversations

contain the initial elements of emerging conversation. contingent, respiratory, and vocalizations

whats the relationship between cognition and language?

-Play shows insights into cognition

- Event-based knowledge

- Taxonomic knowledge

event based knowledge

knowing what usually happens in certain situations

example of event based knowledge

knowing the sequence of events for a birthday party: singing "Happy Birthday," opening presents, and eating cake.

taxonomic knowledge

group things by what they are, not what they do.

example of taxonomic knowledge

You put apples, bananas, and grapes together because they're all fruits.

comprehension of words vs. production of words

-understanding word meanings, being able to say word sounds

-comprehension comes before production!

what are toddler receptive strategies?

-techniques toddlers use to understand and process language.

1.Reference Principle

2.Extendability Principle

3.Novel Name-Nameless Assumption

Reference Principle

-when toddlers figure out that words actually stand for stuff in the world.

-they know one colorful stick is a crayon, they'll call all colorful sticks "crayons," even if one's blue and one's red.

Extendability Principle

-when toddlers realize that one word can apply to a group of similar things.

-"If it looks the same, it gets the same name."

Novel Name-Nameless Assumption

- "Odd one out" - deduction based on other known words.

-"If I know the names of everything except one thing, the new word must go with the mystery item."

what are toddler expressive strategies?

-Evocative Utterances

-Hypothesis-Testing Utterances

-Interrogative Utterances

Evocative Utterances

- Statements.

- "Doggie."They're basically saying, "That's a dog, right?" but without the question mark.

Hypothesis-Testing Utterances

-Rising intonation.

-"Doggie?"They're saying, "Is that what this is called?"

Interrogative Utterances

-Directly asking.

-"What's that?"-The toddler doesn't know the word at all

selective imitation

-Toddlers pick out the key parts (usually new or meaningful words) to help build their vocabulary.

-Adult: "Do you want to color with the red crayon?"

Toddler: "Red crayon."

-They didn't copy the whole sentence — just the key words that matter to them.

self-imitation

-when toddlers repeat their own words or phrases

-Toddler: "Crayon!" (says it again proudly)

They're reinforcing the word to prove to they know it.

Formulas

- verbal shortcuts that toddlers pick up from hearing them a lot.

-Wuzzat? (What's that?)

-The toddler isn't breaking it down into "What + is + that?" yet — they just memorize the sound pattern as one big blob.

segmentation

-toddlers start breaking formulas into individual words and understanding what each part means.

-"I" (me) "love" (feeling) "you" (other person)

Bootstrapping

using what you know about language to help decipher what you don't know

Universal language-learning principles (preschool)

rules that all children seem to follow when learning language, regardless of the language or culture.

can you explain one preschool language learning strategie?

-Pay Attention to the Ends of Words

- Children acquire word endings before word beginnings

what happens when there are exceptions to rules?

Overgeneralization: Children may apply regular grammatical rules to irregular forms.

-Plural rule: add s.

-dog = dogs

-mouse = mice

-Hearing adults or peers use the correct form helps them adjust.

can you provide an example of how preschools pay attention the the ending of words opposed to the beginning?

-Children hear: "running," "jumping," "eating"

They pick up the -ing ending first and understand it signals an action happening right now.

-They are slower to figure out that "undo" or "preview" changes the meaning because the prefix is at the start.

Intention reading

a child's ability to figure out what someone means or wants based on their words, actions, and context

example of intentional reading

child doesn't know what a crayon is. Adult points to crayon and says "can you pass me that?" child can tell what they mean by there gesture and questioning tone.

Adult conversational techniques

• Modeling

• Cueing

• Prompting

Modeling

Child-Directed Speech(Motherese)

- greater pitch range

- shorter, less complex utterances

how do fathers and other caregivers speak to young children?

- provide even more examples of simplified speech than mothers

- Pitch range is less than that of mothers

how do deaf mothers express motherese?

before age 2: facial expression primarily for emotion -after age 2: more grammatical uses

Cueing/Prompting

parents use a variety of strategies to prompt language from children.

- fill ins ("This is a...")

- elicited imitations ("Say x.")

- questions ("yes/no? what...?")

Responding behavior

expansions and extensions

what are expansions?

a more mature version of a child's utterance in which the word order is preserved (e.g., child says, "Doggy eat,"parent replies, "The doggy is eating.")

what are extension?

a comment or reply to a child's utterance to provide more information (e.g., child says "Doggy eat,"parent replies, "Doggy is hungry.")

define turnabouts

An utterance that both responds to the previous utterance and requires a response

Importance of Play- related to cognition and language

Language is used to explicitly convey meaning insocial play with others.

individual differences in language learning

-differences in intellect, personality, and learning style

- ethnicity and the language of the home

- socioeconomic status

- family structure

- birth order

what first words are used for, the lexicon of 2-year-olds?

Characteristics of a true word (compared to a PCF/protoword)

-Sounds like an adult word

-Used consistently

-Clear purpose and intent

only diffrence between true word and pcf:

-PCFs do not sound like an adult word

Holophrases/formulas

-early utterances that convey a holistic communication intention.

-not considered true word combos

Gestures- how these change as a child ages, symbolic and functional

• Reaching increasingly signals a request or demand

• Pointing signals a declaration or a reference to something

Falling-rising intonation

-Requesting

- Attention

- playfulness

rising - falling intonation

- Surprise

- Recognition

- Warning

Presupposition

the assumption that the listener knows or does not know certain information that a speaker must include or delete from a conversation

Learning styles

referential vs. expressive

referential

Children who use many nouns

characteristics of referential

• seem to have more adult contacts• use more single words

• gradually build longer utterances from individual words

Expressive style

Children who use many interactional and function words

characteristics of expressive style

• have more peer contacts

• attempt to produce longer units

• Use a holistic strategy

• May have harder time with segmentation into parts

Meaning of single words

-when a child says just one word to express an entire thought or message.

-A child says "milk!" meaning "I want milk."

concept formation (3 hypothese)

-Semantic-feature hypothesis

-Functional-core hypothesis

-Prototypic complex hypothesis

Semantic-feature hypothesis

Combining features that are present and perceivable in the environment• (Shape, size, taste, etc.)

Functional-core hypothesis

- Formation of the function or use

- How things are used

prototype complex hypothesis

-underlying concept includes a central reference or prototype

-Establish a model or standard (prototype. My idea of a dog is what all dogs look like)

Fast mapping

formation of a link between a particular referent and a new name after single exposure

Vocabulary Spurt

By age 2 the toddler has an expressive vocabulary of about 150-300 words

what are the two types of extensions?

over and under extensions

under extensions

-overly restricted meanings

-'Daddy' means only my dad can be called dad

over extensions

- meanings that are too broad

-All men are dad's

Transition to combining words

-Gestures + Word

-CV syllable + word

-Consistent phonological forms + word

-Hylophases/formulas:

gestures + words ex

Point + doggie = "that" doggie

cv syllable + word ex

-syllable is inconsistent and has no referent

-ex. Te baby, ma baby, bu baby