Introduction Chapter 9 Every normal child succeeds in learning language Language conforms to our human nature Language development language evolution and neurophysiology paints a complex and increasingly dynamic view of emergence of this special gift Language depends on acquisition of abilities across 6 dimensions o Audition o Articulation o Words o Grammar o Communication o Literacy perceptual class Functioning in each of these dimensions on processing in particular brain areas Studying early audition relies on the fact that babies tend to habituate to repeated stimuli from the same Born with ability to store and recall sounds of human language Infants are not yet learning words they are acquiring basic auditory and intonate ional patterns of native language Lose ability to hear contrasts not present in their native language Articulatory development Children display continual advances in vocal production Child is capable of four distinct cries o Birth cry only at birth and they are trying to clear embryonic fluid out of their lungs o Pain cry elicited by pricking the baby with a pin o Hunger cry reliable indicator of infants need to be fed o Pleasure cry softer and not too frequent at first seems to be cry that laughter develops from Articulatory development progresses through a fairly clear set of milestones though with much variation First three months vocalizations involve nothing more than cries and vegetative adaptations Babbling Just before three months begin cooing Child s problem with phonological form are very much focused on production rather than perception Around 6 months there is shift from back consonants to front consonants Shift allows baby to produce structured vocalizations Until 6 months deaf infants babble much like hearing infants After about 12 months the baby acquire first words Phonological Processes First Words Emergence of first word is based on 3 earlier developments o Infants growing ability to record the sound of words o Development of ability to control vocal productions o General growth of symbolic function Children tend to drop unstressed syllables Under and Over generalizations Under generalized initially when word meanings are only acquired in very concrete situations o Difficult to detect because it never leads to an error Over generalization go outside this primary stream to find ways of expressing meanings they do not yet fully control Constraints Constraints Priniciple of mutual exclusivity Constraints emerge from earlier developments in perception and cognition View of child as a flexible word learner has to be balanced against the view of the child as having a Learning progresses he child s agenda become less important than the shape of the resources provided Children s Agenda definite personal agenda Whorf versus Humpty Dumpty by the language Competition and mutual exclusivity Some of the most difficult conflicts among words involve the use of multiple words for the same object Competition forces child to move meanings round so they occupy the correct semantic niche Children learn more and more words they begin to develop clearer ideas about the ways in which words Building Theories can refer to objects properties and events Milestones in vocabulary growth Child demonstrates new language abilities first in comprehension and only later production Grammatical development the transition from the first words to the first sentences is nearly Grammatical Development imperceptible Combining Patterns Communicative development Development of literacy language for courtship Conclusions The model specifies a series of steps for the competition between constructions Conversations before child gas begun to produce words Conversations may share smiles gazes coos and grunts Urge to socialize Parents provide interpretive scaffolds for many of the child s early communicative behaviors Students rely on peers to introduce them to the language of the streets verbal dueling and the use of Media for exposure to the verbal expressions of other ethnic groups and religions Various cognitive and social processes that move the child into verbal inter Peretti Bolger on reading and dyslexia unit How the brain implements reading Reading begins with certain knowledge Learns to read in many steps First learns the pieces of the system the letters fragments of orthography and mappings to phonology to specific readings of words Cortical processing in brain of an early reader is not the same as a skilled reading Learning modifies the brain Circuit of reading in brain include 3 major cortical regions o Ventral o Dorsal o Left frontal Orthographic precceses Phonological decomposition Phonological articulatory processes and semantic processes These are engaged in critical reading Reading disability is marked by hypoactivity of the posterior dorsal and ventral regions of the reading circuit Idea of compensation lack ability in one area will others make up Idea of double deficit hypothesis have issue in one thing will cause issues in another When eyes fixate on a word during reading a sequence of cognitive events unfold in rapid succession Neuroimaging gives more information about word reading than sentence and text comprehension Reading ability is dependent on language ability Markable convergence on the functioning of a cortical network that supports word reading Increased complexity of reading above the word level is a challenge to functional brain research just as it is to behavioral research Raynor in reading and dyslexia unit Once people can read it seems so obvious and natural but some people never get to this understanding Teach reading with whole word and phonics instruction Phonic instruction emphasizes relationship between graphemes printed letters and phonemes More recently approach to teaching reading that emphasizes meaning called whole language instruction associated sounds has been implement Phonemes are speech sounds and syllables Morphemes are minimal units associated with meaning and grammatical form Alphabetic writing systems when graphic units letters are associated with phonemes Languages where units correspond to specific words or morphemes are called logographic Beginning readers must learn how to use the given writing system Time spent practicing reading reflects cultural factors Most languages do not code each vowel with a unique symbol Writing system exhibits economy at the expense of complexity English has a trade off between phonological
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