Slide 1LanguageKey Milestones in Language DevelopmentRecognizing Language SoundsRecognizing Language SoundsTwo-Word UtterancesLanguageLanguageTheories on Language DevelopmentLanguage DevelopmentLanguage •Language: Form of communication•Spoken, written, or signed•Based on a system of symbols •Consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining themKey Milestones in Language Development •First year sequence:•Crying: can signal distress, but there are different types of cries that signal different things•Cooing: about 1 to 2 months, gurgling sounds that are made in the back of the throat and usually express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver•Babbling: In the middle of the first year, babies babble -- strings of consonant-vowel combinations, such as “ba, ba, ba, ba” •Gestures: Infants start using gestures, such as showing and pointing, at about 8 to 12 months of ageRecognizing Language Sounds•Phonemes -- the basic sound units of a language•Can distinguish non-native sounds (Werker)Recognizing Language Sounds•First words•Occur between 10 to 15 months (avg. is 13)•Infancy receptive vocabulary considerably exceeds spoken vocabulary •Receptive vocabulary - words the child understands•Spoken vocabulary - Words the child uses•Vocabulary spurt•Around 18 months, 50 words•20 months, over 200 wordsTwo-Word Utterances•18 to 24 months of age•“Big car”•“Where ball?”•Telegraphic speech: short, precise words without grammatical markers•“Mommy give ice cream”Language•Overextension• The tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word’s meaning•Underextension•The tendency to apply a word too narrowlyLanguage•Vocabulary development is linked to:•Family’s socioeconomic status•Type of talk that parents direct to their children•Child-directed speech: Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal, using simple words and sentencesTheories on Language Development•Behaviorists argued that language was nothing more than chains of responses acquired through reinforcement•Noam Chomsky: Language Acquisition Device (LAD) -- Humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way and to detect the various features and rules of language •Language must be learned at an early
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