Child Psychology: The Modern Science, 3e by Vasta, Haith, and Miller Paul J. Wellman Texas A&M University John Wiley and Sons, Inc.© 1999 PowerPoint  Presentation: Chapter 11 Language Development

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Language n Language is a complicated system of rules that allow us to communicate verbally n Language is unlikely to be only a genetic process because –Productivity of language involves an infinite set of messages that are unlikely to be passed along via the genetic code –Adopted children do not speak the language of their biological parents

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The Nature-Nurture Debate n B.F. Skinner held that the acquisition of language was a function of learning –Child is reinforced for imitation of adult speech, punished for poor language effort n Chomsky’s criticism of the learning view: –Children are not reinforced for speech accuracy –Children learn to speak well even when exposed to poor models of speech –Children emit novel sentences –The rules of grammar are too complex for simple learning processes

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Nativist View of Language n The nativist view advanced by Noam Chomksy argued for a biological basis for language acquisition –Language consists of a complicated set of rules –Language has two structures: Surface structure refers to the way that words are combined (varies with culture) Deep structure refers to the inborn rules of language (these do not vary across culture) –Language acquisition device: Brain mechanism that translates surface into deep structure

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Infant Speech Perception n Phonology studies the sounds of speech –Phonetics refers to study of the different speech sounds while phonemics focuses on the meaning of speech sounds –Speech perception requires that an infant be able to discriminate the boundaries of phonemes in order to perceive different words E.g. “car” versus “core” –Infants are able to make difficult phonemic discriminations ( the sounds of “r” and “l”)

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Infant Language Preferences n Infants prefer –Sound of their mother’s voice over other voices n Motherese: Special variation of language used by mothers to their infants, consists of simplified phrases and changes in tone-of-voice Motherese is also evident in deaf mothers of deaf infants (sign language) Motherese may assist the infant in learning to discriminate phonemic categories

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Preverbal Sounds n Infant sound production follows a developmental course: –Nonspeech sounds include grunts, cries, whimpers, and burps –Cooing: Refers to one syllable vowel sounds (ah, ooh) starting at 2 months of age –Reduplicated babbling: Infant produces a string of identical sounds (bababababa) This babbling is consistent across cultures –Eventually babbling sounds drift toward the language that the child hears

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Nonverbal Communication n Gestures are an important part of communication –Gestures communicate requests 8-10 months: Infants use gestures toward their mother to ask for an object –Gestures are used to refer to objects in the environment 12 months: Infant may hold up an object to show parents, may offer the object to the parent, and may point toward the object –Gestures can be symbolic Clapping to show approval

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Semantics n Semantics refers to the study of how children acquire words and their meanings –Children express their first words at about 12 months First words are usually familiar or important (food, toys, family members) – By 18 months of age, the child has a vocabulary of about 50 words, but understands about 100 words Naming explosion: Children begin to acquire words (labels) at a high rate

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Typical Early Words CHILDWORDS JaneDaddy, Mommy, Daniel, girl, ball, cracker cookie, that, school, bye MarkMa, dog, milk, water, car, here, bye-bye, no Lisa Daddy, Mommy, Daisy, puppy, ball, see, hi

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Issues in Early Language n Children learn labels for categories, that are then extended through experience n Children make regular errors in their language acquisition –Overextension occurs when a child uses an existing label for things whose names they do not know: “Dog” is used to label a cat or rabbit – Underextension occurs when a child fails to use a label for an object for which the label is appropriate

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Grammar n Grammar refers to the study of the structural properties of language including –Syntax refers to word order –Inflection refers to the aspect of grammar that involves word endings that modify meaning –Intonation can change meaning of verbal communication

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Development of Grammar –Series of words “Milk” “hot” (pause between the words suggests these are not yet a sentence) –Two and three word sentences Built around single words –all-gone doggie all-gone milk –Telegraphic speech leaves out unnecessary function words (in, the, with)

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Mechanisms of Grammar Acquisition n Syntactic bootstrapping: The use of syntactic knowledge to learn about grammar –Child learns meaning-based categories that in turn aid further language learning n Slobin suggests that children have innate cognitive strategies that allow them to learn language quickly –Operating principles: Pay attention to word order, avoid exceptions, pay attention to the endings of words

n Pragmatics refers to the social use of language –Language allows children to communicate their wishes and desires Speech acts are used to perform pragmatic functions such as requesting or complaining Discourse refers to language used in everyday conversations (requires social skills) Social referential communication is a form of communication in which a speaker sends a message that is comprehended by the listener Pragmatics

© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.Vasta, 3e Fig Assessment of Social Referential Communication (Figure adapted with permission from “The Development of Communication: Competence as a Function of Age” by R.M. Krauss and S. Glucksberg, 1969, Child Development, 40, p Copyright 1969 © by the Society for Research in Child Development)

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