1. PSYC 206
Life-span Development
Aylin Küntay

2. The Power of Language
Language is a symbolic system of enormous scope and power.
It permits the expression of abstract ideas, desires, and emotions, and is one of the most significant means of preserving and passing on, and even challenging and transforming, a culture’s knowledge, values, and beliefs. 2

3. Secondary intersubjectivity: Communication about events that are the focus of joint attention. Use of words to attract adult attention 3

4. Language Development Secondary intersubjectivity
Communication about objects and events that are the focus of joint attention
Use of words to attract adult attention
Vocabulary spurt and myelination of language-related regions. 4 4

5. Brain Structures and Processes
Broca’s Area
An area on the left frontal lobe of the brain that when damaged the individual’s speech is either absent or severely disrupted.
Wernicke’s Area
An area of the brain that when damaged the individual’s speech makes little sense, person cannot comprehend language. 5

6. Brain Structures and Processes
Lesions
Impact on language processing: Normal or near-normal development is observed if damage occurs early life (e.g., stroke cutting off the blood supply).
Damage to corresponding parts of LH or RH.
Plasticity: when LH is damaged, RH becomes the center for language 6

7. Environmental Key to Language
Language Deprived Environments
E.g., children in Romanian orphanages
Deaf children with parents communicating in sign language
vs.
Deaf children with parents not communicating in sign language
Hearing children reared by deaf parents 7

8. Environmental Key to Language
Home sign:
Child makes 2-3 word utterances and form structurally complex sentences (rudiments)
The opportunity to communicate enables basic features of language but does not lead to complex language abilities.
Accomplished language users are necessary to discover subtle features.
Deaf child- hearing non-signing parent
Hearing child-not signing deaf parent 8

9. Basic Domains of Language Acquisition
Phonological development
Semantic development
Grammar development
Pragmatic development

10. Phonological Development
The process of learning how to segment strings of speech sounds into meaningful units.
Phoneme: sounds that differ and make a difference in meaning in a particular language
Minimal pairs: pat vs. bat; /p/ and /b/ as two phonemes
Examples in Turkish: yar vs. kar; al vs. ar
Mastering the pronounciation may take years

11. Werker’s sound discrimination research

12. Vocabulary Development

13. Semantic Development Semantic development:
The process of learning the meanings of words and word combinations, by identifying the word’s referent.
Components:
Receptive and expressive vocabulary
E.g., can understand over 100 words at 13 months and say 10 words at 14 months and 300 words at year 2.

14. Semantic Development Vocabulary development: growth spurt in new words
Fast mapping: “first pass idea”
Forming a quick idea of the meaning of a new word in a structured social interaction, familiar context
Observed at 15 months
Linked with intersubjectivity; ability to use social cues

15. Grammar Development Definition of grammar development:
The process of learning the rules of a particular language for sequencing words in a sentence, and word parts within words.
Syntactic bootstrapping:
use of knowledge of grammar to figure out the meaning of new words

16. Grammar Development Syntactic bootstrapping:
7 months: Sensitive to ordering of words in simple sentences and can abstract patterns of word usage from such sentences
around 2 years
Helps figure out whether the new word is noun or verb etc. 16

17. Fernald– word learning-syntax learning

18. Pragmatic Development
Definition of pragmatic development:
The process of learning the social and cultural conventions that govern how language is used in particular contexts.
Functions:
To use context and social cues to interpret communications
Making requests, apologies, how to open phone calls etc.

19. Pragmatic Development
Children with autism tend to have problems with pragmatics. They don't understand the small nuances that go on in a conversation, the socially acceptable things to do during a conversation.
Without a good understanding of the pragmatics, children will miss a huge part of communication and have a large amount of trouble learning to express feelings and thoughts. 19

20. Pragmatic Development
Referential communication
being able to package the info in a way that takes into account the perceptual and informational status of the listener
the ability to adapt to one another’s knowledge and needs to reach mutual understanding
shows development throughout preschool ages
related to children´s developing theory of mind 20

21. Explanation of Language Acquisition
Three distinctive approaches
Biological
Social and Cultural
Cognitive

22. Biological Explanations
Perspective:
Our brains are hard wired to learn language.
Biologically programmed sensitivity to language is present at birth, which develops as the child matures

23. Biological Explanations
Noam Chomsky’s theory: heredity, innate ability
Development is triggerred via Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
Language acquisition occurs naturally. As LAD matures, lanugauge becomes more complex.
We are programmed to recognize the deep structures that underlie any particular language that we may hear.
Role of environment is minimal: causal observation and imitation

24. Steve Pinker on pragmatics

25. Social and Cultural Explanations
Perspective:
Emphasizes the role of environment
Social interactions: children acquire language in the process of using language.
Acknowledge the role of innate features

26. Social and Cultural Explanations
Jerome Bruner:
Language Acquisition Support System (LASS): behaviors and formatted events within which children acquire language.
Finely tuned interactions
Environmental complement to LAD
Children become increasingly more successful at communicating
No explicit rewards are necessary
Tomasello…

27. Cognitive Approaches
Perspective: Language abilities follow from increasing ability to think and process information
Switch from collective monologues to true dialogues. Related to egocentrism.
Collective monologue: child vocalizes his/her own thoughts without regard for the other’s utterance.
Regardless of age, strong association between vocabulary size, mastery of grammatical structure and the ability to express thoughts.

28. Biological Prerequisites
Down syndrome
Restricted vocabulary and simple grammar suggest that normal language development requires normal cognitive function, at least in certain key areas.
Chimpanzees
After years of hard work, chimpanzees can learn several dozen signs, in combinations similar to a 2-year-old; but children with no special training learn thousands of words in a relatively short time span

29. Role of the Environment
Deaf children whose parents won’t sign and hearing children raised by deaf parents develop basic rudiments of grammar (2- or 3-word phrases), but not more complex ones.

30. Keys to Language Two keys to the world of language
Normal human biological structures and processes
Active participation in language-using community
With these two keys, young children enter a symbolic universe that is distinctively human. 30