What are the main areas of language?
- Phonology
- Semantics
- Syntax
- Pragmatics
What is phonology?
“phonemes” or sound segments
What are semantics?
System of meaning (“morphemes”)
What is syntax?
Rules by which words/phrases are arranged
(Jane hit Sue vs. Sue hit Jane)
What are pragmatics?
How language is useful in different contexts or genres
What are the sequences in language development?
- Speech Perception
- Production
Explain speech perception before birth
- Fetal reactions to sounds from 20 weeks
- Ability to distinguish male & female voices near term (measured by perceived movement, ultrasound or changes in heart rate)
- Preference for “uterine” version of mother’s voice after birth
Explain speech perception in neonates
- Prefer speech over non-speech
- Prefer native language
- Prefer sounds produced by mother
- Discriminate word types (content vs function)
How was speech perception tested in neonates?
HAS procedure
What part of speech production can we see in babies of 1-2 months?
Cooing and laughing
Explain the canonical babbling that occurs in babies of 6-10 months old
- Include more vowels and consonants, in ways that start to sound like words
- Scream for attention or out of anger
- Specific gestures/sounds reserved for primary care-giver or other familiar individuals
Explain the modulated babbling that occurs in babies of 10+ months old
- Add stress and intonation patterns
- Overlaps with meaningful speech period
When do babies’ first words typically come?
9-12 months old
- Act as labels consistently
- “holophrases” condenses meaning
Explain the word explosion that typically occurs several months after a baby’s first words
- Roughly 20 words at 18m
- Roughly 200 words at 24m
- Mainly nouns (labels of objects, people)
- Some action, state, function words
Explain the stage of multi-word speech in babies at 18 months
18 months -> 2 word utterances
- Telegraphic speech
- Importance of scaffolding
Explain the stage of multi-word speech at babies of 24-27 months
24-27 months -> 3-4 word utterances
- Start to see evidence of grammatical rules
Explain the stage of multi-word speech of babies at 3 years old
Speech understandable to even unfamiliar adults
- Vocabulary at around 1000 words
- Complex sentences with relative clauses
- Still perfecting some linguistic systems
Explain the stage of multi-word speech of babies at 5 years old
Language similar to that of an adult
- Still perfecting some tenses and constructions
How do pragmatics develop as a baby grows up?
2yo
- Adjust to different contexts
- Differences in communication to different listeners (ex. informal or formal)
3yo: Master convention of different genres (ex. “Once upon a time” to tell a story)
4-5yo: Take account of listener’s perspective
What are the word learning biases?
- Whole object constraint
- Shape bias
Explain whole object constraint
Words refer to whole object rather than parts of object
Explain shape bias
- Generalise to other objects that are the same shape rather than other attributes (texture, color, materials, etc.)
- Aids early noun learning
What are the two example models to explain word acquisition
- Barrett’s multi-route model
- Gleitman’s syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis
How do children acquire language?
- Shape bias
- Word learning biases
- Word acquisition
- General theories of language development
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Face Perception27
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Introduction to Developmental Psychology20
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Object Concept and Mental Representations29
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Language Development40
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Number Concept20
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Cognitive Development: Information Processing and Social Context29
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Social Development29
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Prosociality and Moral Reasoning21
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Neurodivergence in Development and Autism21
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Development Beyond Childhood: Adolescence & Adulthood18
