Child Language Development

Child Language Development

1. Stages of Aquisition

   • Pre-Birth
     • Research suggests that even before a baby is born it will recognise its mother's voice. 
   • Pre-Verbal Stage
     • Cooing- Begins at about 2 months old.
       • Distinct from crying but not yet forming recognisable vowels and consonants. 
     • Babbling
       • Reduplicated Babbling- Involves a child repeatedly creating the same sounds. Eg. Bababababa
       • Variegated Babbling- Variation in the consonant and vowel sounds being produced. Eg. daba, manamoo.
   • Holophrastic Stage
     • The point in a child's development when a child uses just individual words to communicate.
       • Usually between 12 and 18 months. Eg. Mommy, Daddy. Usually concrete nouns. 
   • Non-Verbal Communication
     • All the ways in which communication occurs that do not involve words. (eg. A parent shaking their head, the same meaning as 'No'.

2. Proto words

   • 'Made up' words that a child will use to represent a word they might not yet be able to pronounce, eg. 'Ray Rays' for 'Raisins'

3. Phonological Development

   • As children move from babbling to producing recognisable words, it is worth considering the way in which phonological development impacts on this process. 
   • Groups of sounds ordered developmentally.
     • Plosives tend to appear earlier than fricatives. 
     • Early 8: m, b, j (y), n, w, d, p, h - By age 3
     • Middle 8: t, ng, k, g, f, v, ch, j - By age 4-5
     • Late 8: sh, th, s, z, l, r, zh - By age 6
   • Non-Standard phonological features: -
     • Reduplication
       • repeated syllables within a word (eg, baa baa for blanket)
     • Diminutives
       • the reduction in scale of an item through the way this word is created :- Eg. Dog - Doggie
     • Addition
       • adding an additional suffix to the end of a word in order to change the way in which the word is pronounced and interpreted. (eg., Mummy and dolly instead of Mum and Doll)
   • Phonological Simplifications
     • Substitution
       • The process of swapping one sound for another that is easier to pronounce. (eg. Fink (instead of think))
     • Assimilation
       • One consonant or vowel is swapped for another. (eg, Borry)
     • Deletion
       • Ommiting a particular sound within a word. (eg, Flyin(g) or tephone (telephone))
     • Consonant Cluster Reduction
       • Reducing phonologically more complex units into simpler ones- from (or more) consonants down to one,

4. Two Word Stage

   • At some time around 18 months, a child starts to put two words together in order to convey meaning - eg. Mummy Sit
     • The need for non-verbal communication becomes less essential for others to understand meaning. As a child enters the Two Word Stage they are beginning to understand grammar for the first time.
   • Vocabulary spurt, Naming Explosion- during this time they may acquire two or three new words per day.
   • Two-Word Utterances

5. Telegraphic Stage

   • At around the age of 2, a child will move from placing two words together to producing longer and more complete utterances.
   • Content Words
     • Words within a sentence that are vital to convey meaning
   • Omission of grammatical words
     • Omission of words within a sentence that are necessary to demonstrate structural accuracy. Eg. Me going on trip.

6. Post-telegraphic stage

   • Period of time when a child's language will include both content and grammatical words and more closely resembles adult speech.

7. Theorists

   • B.F Skinner
     • Operant Conditioning - Positive or Negative responses given by a caregiver can influence the way in which a child talks on future occasions.  Positive Reinforcement  Negative Reinforcement Evidence children don't respond well to this and that it can actually hamper their language development. 
   • Chomsky
     • Known for introducing the concept of a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)  Chomsky argues that the human brain has a natural programmed ability to learn language, an ability to work out the systems in terms of grammar and syntax.  Virtuous Errors 
   • Piaget's stages of development
     • focused on cognitive development and suggested that the core of a child's development of understanding is the learning that a child undertakes. 
     • Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Years)
       • A child begins to interact with their environment, using their senses and physical movement to do so. A child remains egocentric, and an understanding of object permanence appears.
     • Pre-Operational Stage (2-6/7 Years)
       • Characterised by a child learning to speak and developing their imaginative focus. A child remains egocentric and struggles to understand points of view other than their own. Question frequently.
     • Concrete operational stage (6/7 - 11/12 Years)
       • A child stops being egocentric at this stage and begins to be able to understand the points of view of others. They become more capable of logical thought.
     • Formal Operational Stage
       • There will no longer be a problem with logical thought and thinking becomes increasingly abstract.
   • Jerome Bruner
     • Scaffolding enables children to gradually develop their speech, focused on the needs for quality input from caregivers to facilitate learning. LASS

8. CDS (Child Directed Speech)

   • The various ways in which a caregiver (unconsciously) adapts their speech in order to aid a child in their language development.
   • Expansion- Where a caregiver might develop the child's utterance to make it more grammatically complete.
   • Recast - The grammatically incorrect utterance of a child is spoken back to the child but in the corrected form.
   • Mitigated imperatives - an instruction given in such a way that it does not appear to be a command but a more gentle suggestion.