 Communication begins with senses and motor skills  The most obvious sense for language is audition (listening)  Child-directed speech- the high pitched simplified and repeated way adults speak to infants

 Babies communicate with cries, smiles, gurgles, and pouts  From 6-9 months they start babbling  At 1 year babies start imitating what they hear  Deaf children whose parents use sign language use hand gestures

 21 month olds talk twice as much as 18 month olds (Naming Explosion)  Naming Explosion: A sudden increase in an infants vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begin about 18 months of age.  month olds name each caregiver, usually mama, dada, nana, tata, usually by using 2 syllable words.  They also express needs in the same way by saying poo-poo, ka-ka, pee-pee, wee-wee

 Infants differ in the use of various parts of speech depending on the language they are learning  Chinese and Korean are called verb- friendly languages, which means the verb is placed in the beginning or end of a sentence.  In English the verbs occur in various positions and also their forms changes the sentence in illogical ways. (ex. go, went, gone)

 At about 21 months old, word combination begins  ex. “More juice” and eventually “mommy read book”  Listening to two languages does not slow down a child’s ability to learn each language  They’ll learn faster hearing the word “milk” from 4 different people than “leche” from 2 different people

 #1 hypothesis- Infants need to be taught  #2 hypothesis- Infants teach themselves  #3 hypothesis- Social impulses foster infant language learning

 All learning is acquired, step by step, through association and reinforcement Ideas of this hypothesis about language learning:  Parents are expert teachers and other caregivers help them teach children to speak  Frequent repetition of words is instructive, especially when the words are linked to the pleasures of daily life  Well-taught infants become well-spoken children

 Language learning is innate; adults don’t need to teach it  Chomsky believes language is too complex to be mastered step-by-step  Language Acquisition Device (LAD)- Chomsky’s term for a hypothesized mental structure that enables humans to learn a language, including basic aspects of grammar, vocab, and intonation  LAD quickly and efficiently connects neurons and creates dendrites to support whichever particular language the infant hears  According to this hypothesis no trigger is needed because the developing brain is searching for a language

 According to this perspective infants communicate in every way they can because they are social beings, dependent on one another for survival, well-being and joy.  By 9 months a babies’ brain and heart rate indicate attention when people talk to them with awareness and pleasure that they are the center of attention  That emotional message of speech propels an infant to learn a language

Researchers have tried to combine all 3 approcahes. They noted that children develop language for many reasons.  They interpreted their experiments as a suppoting idea that HOW language is learned depends on the age of the child as well as on the particular circumstances

 How do deaf and hearing babies compare in early language learning? Answer- by 9 months they start babbling, and by the end of 1 year they start imitating what they hear, but the deaf babies imitate sign distinctive hand gestures in a repetitive manner, similar to babbling.  Within the first 2 years, what are the stages of language development a child goes through? Answer- baby=cries 1yr=words before 2yrs=sentences