1. DeCasper & Fifer Findings for Newborns
1. Prefer the human voice over "acoustically complex stimuli" (1176) 2. Can discriminate between speakers 3. Show a preference for their mother's voice with limited contact (at most 12 hours)
DeCasper, Anthony J. and William P. Fifer. 26 February Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science 208:

2. Characteristics of Caretaker Speech
Prosody, etc. Higher in pitch More variable in pitch More exaggerated in intonational contours Slower Smoother pitch contours More rhythmic More pauses Content More repetitions More based in the here and now
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, second edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 250.

3. Gestures Showing Communicative Intent
1. Pointing at things (Assertion or request)
2. Showing things to parent (NOT to give)
3. Giving you things
4. Reaching
5. Showing off (Repeating things that get
approval; dancing)
Bates, Elizabeth, et al Cognition and communication from nine to thirteen months: Correlational findings. In E. Bates, editor, The Convergence of Symbols: Cognition and Communication in Infancy. New York: Academic Press.

4. Major Criteria for Assigning Intentionality
1. Waiting (for adult to pay attention) 2. Persistence 3. Development of alternative plans (flexibility)
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, second edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 251.

5. Gestures then Speech
"To sum up, prelinguistic children use gestures to get the receiver's attention and to communicate. The transition to speech acts can then be viewed as learning how to do with words what already has been done without words."
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, second edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 253.

6. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 1
Age Motor Development Language, etc.
months
Can distinguish consonants
3 Supports head when Smiles when talked to;
prone; no grasp gurgles / coos (vowels)
4 Shakes rattle; Responds to human sounds :
supports head turns head, eyes search
5 Sits with props Vowel-like cooing interspersed with more consonantal sounds

7. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 2
Age Motor Development Language, etc. months 6 Sits; can bear weight; Cooing becomes reaches; grasps but no (reduplicated) babbling thumb opposition (babababa) 8 Stands holding on; Intonation patterns distinct; grasps with thumb can signal opposition emphasis and emotion; reduplication; communicative intentions

8. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 3
Age Motor Development Language, etc. months 10 Crawls; side-steps holding Sound play: gurgling, on; bubble blowing; seems to try to imitate; pulls self up to stand differentiates between sounds heard Variegated babbling (bigodabu) 12 Walks with help; seats self; More reduplication almost stopped mouthing (mama); signs of things some words and simple understanding; commands: Show me...

9. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 4
Age Motor Development Language, etc.
months
18 Grasp fully developed; words; ONE-word phase;
walks; sits on chair so-so; several syllable babbling;
crawls down stairs intricate intonation pattern;
backward; difficulty NOT frustrated when not
building 3 cube towers understood; understanding
progressing rapidly
24 Runs; sudden turns Vocabulary 50+ words;
not good; stand and TWO-word phase; phrases
sits easily; walks up own creation; increase in
and down stairs communicative behavior

10. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 5
Age Motor Development Language, etc.
months
30 Jumps; stands on one foot; Fastest increase in vocabulary;
good hand and finger frustrated if not understood;
coordination; can build two (even three or five) word
cube tower; tiptoes a few utterances; intelligibility not
steps very good; seems to
understand everything
directed to them
36 Tiptoes 3 yards; runs Vocabulary: 100 or so words;
smoothly; makes turns % intelligible even to
well; jumps 12 inches; strangers; grammar roughly
can ride tricycle like adults, though still makes
mistakes

11. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 6
Age Motor Development Language, etc.
months
48 Jumps over rope; hops on Language well established;
one foot; catches ball in deviations from adult norm
arms; walks line tend to be more in style
than in grammar

12. Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified
Milestones Chart based on:
Nick Cipollone, Steven Hartman Keiser & Shravan Vasishth, editors Language Files, seventh edition. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, pp
Cipollone et al.'s version was based on Eric H. Lenneberg Biological Foundations of Language. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
With additions from Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Chapter 10: Early Language Acquisition.

13. Comparison of English and Spanish Bilabial Stops
Voicing Prevoiced Voiced Voiceless Voiceless VOT* negative zero short longer [b] [p] Spanish besos pesos [besos] [pesos] 'kisses' 'pesos' (money) English bases paces [besz] [pesz] * VOT times are impressionistic; not given as precise numbers
Adapted from Ladefoged, Peter Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp

14. Early Language Developmental Stages
1. Cooing (2 months): Mostly vowels 2. Babbling (6 months) Reduplicated babbling (6-7 months): ba ba ba ba Variegated babbling (11-12 months): bi go da bu 3. First true words (12+ months)
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 259.

15. Phonological Processes Used by Children
Reduction tore/store
baw/bottle
Coalescence paf/pacifier
Assimilation nance/dance
fweet/sweet
Reduplication dada/daddy
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 261.

16. Possible Explanations for Children's Pronunciation Errors
1. Child cannot discriminate between the sounds 2. Child cannot produce the sounds 3. Overload of information processing capacity
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, pp

17. First Words Proper nouns: Mommy Action words: up, go
Nominals: ball, car
Proper nouns: Mommy
Action words: up, go
Modifiers: dirty, pretty
Personal/social: please, want
Function: what, for
From K. Nelson Sturcutre and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (1-2 Serial No. 149). Cited in Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 263.

18. Adult Input In Vocabulary Acquisition
1. The Original Word Game
2. Basic level vocabulary
3. Ostensive definitions for whole
object
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, pp

19. Cognitive Constraints in Vocabulary Acquisition
1. Whole Object Bias 2. Taxonomic Bias 3. Mutual Exclusivity Bias a. Each object has only one name b. Each name refers to only one object
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 266.

20. Brown's Early Language Development Stages
Stage MLU I II
III
IV 3.5
V 4.0
From Roger Brown A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cited in Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 270.

21. First Language Acquisition Strategies
Referential Strategy
Naming objects
Vocabulary-building oriented: mostly nouns
Language is individual words (bottom-up)
Part to whole
Expressive Strategy
Social interaction
More diverse vocabulary
Language is whole sentences (top-down)
Whole to part
More likely to use 'dummy terms'
Carroll, David W Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, pp