Language Aquisition Timeline
Speech perception Preparation for production First words Putting words together Conversational skills Later development
Speech Perception
- First step – figuring out sounds of native language (begins in womb)
- Use habituation to assess what infants know
- Habituation & speech perception
- -Play “ba…ba…ba….”
- -THEN switch to “pa” and see how baby reacts
- –1- and 4-month-olds sucking rates increased with pa
Word Segmentation
- Infant-Directed Speech or Motherese
- -Positive emotion, exaggeration, slower, high pitched, high to low pitches
- -Exaggerated expressions
- -Seen in Arabic, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, deaf mothers – but NOT universal
- -Aids in language development – draws infants’ attention, infants prefer it
First Words
-Limited by ability to pronounce words clearly
Simplify words – banana becomes nana
-Early vocab for children in US largely consists of nouns: people, objects, everyday events
Word Learning
- Holophrastic period – one word used to express whole phrase
- Mine! Juice! Play?
- Vocab around 50 words - 18 months
- Vocabulary spurt
- Sources –
- -Joint attention
- -Mutual exclusivity
- -Association
Association
With repeated exposure, words become associated with their referents.
Overgeneralization/Overextension or Undergeneralization/Underextension EXAMPLE
own dog name oliver sees another dog…oliver is the only one thats a dog or sees horse and calls a dog
DEF: Underextension refers to [Page 152]applying a word more narrowly than it is usually applied so that the word’s use is restricted to a single object. Overextension refers to applying a word too broadly
Putting words together
-First Sentences - Simple sentences by end of 2nd year
- First sentences are two words – More juice
- -Telegraphic speech: nonessential elements missing
- Grammar
- -Set of rules for how linguistic elements should be combined
- -Some words (in English) are irregular – men and went
- –Children initially use wrong terms – overregularization errors
Conversational Skills
-Collective monologues - child’s turn has nothing to do with what other child said
EXAMPLE:
Sam: I love playing house. I make my bear be the baby.
Lucy: Balloons are my favorite – I really like red ones!
Sam: And then I make my baby some lunch, like mac and cheese
Lucy: That’s why I like birthdays because they have balloons.
Later Development
- Age 5 or 6 on – continue to develop language
- -Learn words have multiple meanings – jokes/puns
- By Kindergarten = 10,000 words
- By 5th grade = 50,000 words
- By College = 200,000 words (and growing!)
Fast mapping
a process of quickly acquiring and retaining a word after hearing it applied a few time
Vocabulary spurt
a period of rapid vocabulary learning that occurs between 16 and 24 months of age
Telegraphic Speech
Two-word sentences, such as “Kitty come,” or “Mommy milk.” Like a telegram, it includes only a few essential words.
true or false. When infants are born, they are only able to hear the sound contrasts in their native language
false
