SLHS 2204 – Exam ILanguage Development (Emotional engagement  Articulation and speech production)- Emotional engagement – sensory aspects, baby engaging with caregiver (core of language)- Communication – talking to baby with language, have convention, babies use schedules to comunciate (through behavior)- Symbolic representation – specific sounds have representation; can be manipulated- Comprehension – understanding, babies understand better than producing- Motor planning and sensory regulation- Articulation and speech production – grammar becomes more complexGrammar  production  perceptionCognition – art of thinking, brain function, orchestrate brain function, what is going on in environment- Need language to have cognitionWhen does language acquisition begin?- Begins in the womb at about 20 weeks after conception- Hearing system begins developing in the womb- 6 months and on baby becomes familiar to mom’s voice and native language- When the baby is born, he/she already experiences language soundso Prepared to pay attention to human speech (specifically mother’s voice)- Psycholinguistics – processes of language comprehension, production and memory- Linguistics – analyzes structure of language- Developmental psycholinguistics – how aspects of language are acquired- During last trimester of intrauterine (womb) development fetus can actively process sound of mother’s speech and extracting patterns- Fetus learns to recognize melody and rhythms of language (intonation contours and stress patterns)- Fetal brain becoming attuned to dimensions of speecho They learn mother’s voice but prefer muffled mother’s voiceHow do we measure language outside of the womb?- High Amplitude Sucking Technique – number of sucks- Head Turn Preference Procedure – number of head turns- Preferential Looking Procedure – time looking at target- The Fagan Box – time looking at target- Newborns to 5 months use High Amplitude Sucking Technique and Heart-Rate Dehabituation Procedure- 6 months to 14 months use Operant Head Turn Procedure and Visual-Fixation ProcedureRecognizing the Native Tongue Outside of the Womb- Babies rely on acoustic of speecho Prosody – intonation and stress patterns; very basic and helps to learn language; characteristics of speecho Prosody allows infants to become sensitive to phrase structure and word boundaries of native tongueHow does rhythm help infants differentiate between some languages but not others?- 3 broad rhythmic groupso 1. Stress-timed languages Rhythm is determined by way stress falls on different parts of words CONtrast vs. contrast English, Dutch, German languageso 2. Syllable-timed languages All syllables in words stressed equally; constant rhythm French languageo 3. Mora-timed languages “Light”and “heavy” syllables within words Japanese, Tamil languageso French and English 2-month-olds can differentiate own language from mora-timed language (Japanese)o Rhythmic class hypothesis – first thing infants discover is how rhythm organizes native language Enables (in first few months) to differentiate and show preference for native tongue- At 5 months, learn more subtle language-specific information; allows to make distinction between languages within same rhythmic class- Between birth and 2 months infants can process basic rhythmic characteristics- 5 months onward can focus on native tongue- Motherese (or Infant Directed Speech (IDS)) – rhythm input affected by special way people talk to youngchildreno Special characteristics in prosody content that’s different from adult-directed speecho Examples: Short utterances Simple sentences Exaggerated prosody and enunciation Stress patterns exaggerate Pronounced facial expressions Higher pitcho Highlight speech to draw child’s attention so children are more likely to respondo It is the acoustic signal – REMEMBER KIDS RELY ON ACOUSTIC SPEECH – that makes difference to children- IDS may be important for preparing for dialogue in future and word productionHow is language acquired?- Both nature (biological factors) and nurture (environmental factors) play role in language learning but theorists are not sure which is leading roleo Humans are the only species to develop full grammatical language (nature)o No child is born knowing language (nurture)o Experience is essential (nurture)- Nativist theories (Noam Chomsky) – we are born with linguistics structureo Input/experience is not sufficient enough for grammatical structures from scratcho How does child learn which are nouns and which are verbs?o If child only relied on what he heard, he would make many errorso Universal Grammar (UG) – specialized language-learning mechanisms for acquiring native tongue Born with prewired set of universal principles that are triggered by inputo Linguistic experience is needed to allow child to discover principles and parameterso Domain specific – brain mechanisms dedicated only to language learning- Behaviorist theories (B.F. Skinner) – brain is blank; need experience to learno Critical periods – point we have to have exposure for behaviors (imprinting)- Domain General (Jean Piaget) – language acquisition falls on same general learning mechanisms as other subjectso Cognitive development is prerequisite and foundation for learningo General learning mechanisms are applied to linguistic input once established in development- Other theorists believe social interaction plays part in language acquisitiono Mother-infant relationshipo Conversation help children become sensitive to rules for dialogue and turn-takingo Domain General – various emotions and behaviors used in social interactions- We are not prewired; evolution has done 2 thingso 1. Made postnatal development extremely long for input to shape structureo 2. Domain relevant – areas are sensitive to particular patterns With each experience we become more domain specifico Cognitive systems are specialized based on input- Narrowing/specialization approach – minimal predispositions for babies to pay attentiono Different brain mechanisms are specialized Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area Area will become increasingly specialized at processing speech and more devoted to speech domaino Language development is interaction between nature and nurtureGestation- Humans gestational age is about 40 weekso Before 37 weeks is prematureo Can be saved between 22-24 weeks-