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Jean Piaget's Theory On Child Language Development: Supporting Mtb-Mle Developmental Learning Theories

- Jean Piaget's theory of child language development describes stages from infancy to adulthood, with children actively constructing understanding through interactions. Children's language reflects their logical thinking development through these stages. - During the pre-operational stage from ages 2-7, children's language progresses from single words to simple sentences as their mental schemas develop. Their language shows animism, egocentrism, and moral realism. - In the later operational period from ages 7-11 and 11-adulthood, children's thinking and language become more logical and socialized as they learn to view things from other perspectives.

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Francis Dave Villanova Arias
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185 views

Jean Piaget's Theory On Child Language Development: Supporting Mtb-Mle Developmental Learning Theories

- Jean Piaget's theory of child language development describes stages from infancy to adulthood, with children actively constructing understanding through interactions. Children's language reflects their logical thinking development through these stages. - During the pre-operational stage from ages 2-7, children's language progresses from single words to simple sentences as their mental schemas develop. Their language shows animism, egocentrism, and moral realism. - In the later operational period from ages 7-11 and 11-adulthood, children's thinking and language become more logical and socialized as they learn to view things from other perspectives.

Uploaded by

Francis Dave Villanova Arias
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SUPPORTING MTB-

MLE DEVELOPMENTAL
LEARNING THEORIES
Jean Piaget's Theory on Child Language
Development

From his research into children's language and


thinking, Jean Piaget based his theory on the idea
that children do not think like adults.

Piaget's theory describes the mental structures or


"schemas" of children as they develop from infants to
adults. He concluded that through their interactions
with their environment, children actively construct
their own understanding of the world.
Piaget's theory purports that children's
language reflects the development of their
logical thinking and reasoning skills in
"periods" or stages, with each period
having a specific name and age reference.

Sensory Motor Period

According to Piaget's theory, children


are bu. basic "action schemas, such
as sucking and grasping.

. During the sensory-motor period, children's language is


"egocentric": they talk either for themselves or "for the pleasure
of associating anyone who happens to be there with the
activity of the moment."
. In his book "The Language and Thought of the
Child, Piaget describes two functions of children's
language: the "egocentric" and the "socialized."

Pre Operational Period

• Piaget observed that during this period (between the

ages of 2 and 7 years), children’s language makes rapid

progress.

• The development of their mental schemas lets them

quickly "accommodate" new words and situations.

• From using single words (for example, “milk”), they begin

to construct simple sentences (for example, “mommy go

out”).

• Piaget's theory describes children’s language as

“symbolic,” allowing them to venture beyond the “here

and now” and to talk about such things as the past, the

future, people, feelings and events. During this time,

children’s language often shows instances of of what

Piaget termed “animism” and “egocentrism.


Animism and

Egocentrism

• “Animism” refers to young children's


tendency to consider everything,

including inanimate objects, to be alive.

• Since they see things purely from their own


perspective, children's language

also reflects their "egocentrism," whereby they


attribute phenomena with the

same feelings and intentions as their own.

• Piaget’s theory also describes “moral


realism” as a characteristic of

children’s language development at this stage,


since young children tend to

focus on the extent of any damage caused by


a person's actions, without

taking into account whether that person had


good or bad intentions.

The

Operational

Period

• Piaget’s theory divides this period into two


parts: the “period of

concrete operations” (7 to 11 years) and the


“period of formal

operations” (11 years to adulthood).

• According to Piaget, children’s language


development at this

stage reveals the movement of their thinking


from immature to

mature and from illogical to logical.

• Children's language also reflects their ability to


“de-centre,” or

view things from a perspective other than their


own. It is at this

point that children's language starts to become


"socialized,"

showing characteristics such as questions,


answers, criticisms

and commands.
Expert

Insight

Some experts, such as Margaret Donaldson,


Professor of

Developmental Psychology, have argued that the


clear-cut ages

and stages forming the basis of Piaget's theory are


actually

quite blurred and blend into each other. In her book,


"Children's

Minds,"

• Donaldson suggests that Piaget may have


underestimated

children's language and thinking abilities by not


giving enough

consideration to the contexts he provided for


children when

conducting his research.


Chomsky's

Stages of

Language

Development

the 1950s, Noam Chomsky’s linguistic

theories fundamentally changed the ways


in

which humans looked at language

development and use.

• Chomsky identified an innateness to

language development that previous

linguists had overlooked.

• These innate components, Chomsky


said,

affect how humans develop from


preverbal

babies into advanced language-using

adults
Innateness

Noam Chomsky published a criticism of the behaviourist

theory in 1957.

• In addition to some of the arguments listed above, he


focused particularly on the impoverished language

input children receive.

• Adults do not typically speak in grammatically complete

sentences. In addition, what the child hears is only a

small sample of language.Chomsky concluded that children must


have an inborn faculty

for language acquisition.

• According to this theory, the process is biologically

determined - the human species has evolved a brain whose

neural circuits contain linguistic information at birth.

• The child's natural predisposition to learn language is triggered

by hearing speech and the child's brain is able to interpret what

s/he hears according to the underlying principles or structures it

already contains. Chomsky did not suggest that an English child is


born

knowing anything specific about English, of course.

• He stated that all human languages share common

principles. (For example, they all have words for things

and actions - nouns and verbs.)

• It is the child's task to establish how the specific

language s/he hears expresses these underlying

principles.

Language

Development

Starts at

Birth

Chomsky proposed that all humans and

some primates have innate


predispositions

to develop the ability to use language.

• He referred to this predisposition as a

Language Acquisition Device, or LAD.

According to Chomsky, then, the first


stage

of language development occurs

immediately upon birth, when infants are

preverbal, but possess an innate LAD


that

will set them up to developing a


language.

Emerging
Language

Through

Universal

Grammar

• Chomsky also suggested that a significant


component of

humans’ LAD was something he termed a Universal


Grammar,

or UG, a sort of innate framework of rules on which


language

develops.

• As toddlers, humans start to pick up on the


language use of

those around them, organizing it according to the


rules of UG.

• For example young toddlers tend to quickly respond


to

questions with “yes” or “no,” regardless of what was


asked.

• This feature of UG suggests questions be answered


when they

are asked.

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