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Development of Language

1) Language development in children follows predictable stages from birth through middle childhood. 2) Infants acquire language through innate abilities that are activated by hearing language from caregivers as well as social interactions. 3) Theories of language development include nativism, behaviorism, and social interaction theories.

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samuel
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70 views

Development of Language

1) Language development in children follows predictable stages from birth through middle childhood. 2) Infants acquire language through innate abilities that are activated by hearing language from caregivers as well as social interactions. 3) Theories of language development include nativism, behaviorism, and social interaction theories.

Uploaded by

samuel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language Development

Kimbowa Samuel
Occupational Therapist/
Community Psychologist
CAMHS training 2015
Development of language
Purpose of language
To transmit information,
express thought and emotion,
organise our thinking and action
communication

a process by which information is


transmitted and received using
language, facial expression &
gesture
How do infants acquire language?

• Infants are able to


acquire most aspects
of language without
being explicitly taught
and, within a few
years of birth, children
converse fluently in
their native language
Theories of language
development
i) nativism
• The ability to acquire language is innate
• Infants are biologically predisposed to
acquire language
• They need to hear language to trigger this
inborn facility
• “language acquisition device”
(ii) the behaviour model
• Infants’ vocalisations are positively reinforced by
parents
• Parents repeat and shape infant sounds into
recognisable words eg “da-da-da” becomes
“daddy”
• Young children learn to use short phrases that
are then extended by adults eg “me food”
becomes “you are hungry and you want food”
• Parental feedback encourages the child to
repeat and practice language encouraging its
use
ii) Social learning theory
• Infants listen to and observe others talking
• Infants imitate words, phrases and
gestures
• Apply these to social contexts and
situations
• Language usage and vocabulary acquire
greater sophistication through maturation
iv) social interaction theories
• Language acquisition develops within a
social interaction context
• Language Acquisition Support System
(LASS) – a set of strategies parents use to
foster language development
• Infant-directed speech / motherese
• Responding to non-verbal gestures
• Labelling, recasting, expanding
• Play and social interaction
To successfully use language requires the
ability to engage in speech

AND

to acquire a range of linguistic tools


including phonology, semantics, grammar
and pragmatics
Building blocks of language
• PHONOLOGY - the rules about the
structure and sequence of speech
sounds

• SEMANTICS - how concepts are


expressed through words

• GRAMMAR
i) syntax - the rules in which words are
arranged into sentences
ii) morphology - the use of grammatical
markers (indicating tense, active or
passive voice etc.).

• PRAGMATICS - rules for appropriate


and effective communication
Phonological development

• 0-2/12 infants make speech sounds. At 2/12 infants engage in


cooing (vowel sounds). At 4/12, cooing turns into babbling
(repetitive consonant-vowel combinations)

• 12-24/12 - infants recognize the correct pronunciation of familiar


words - they use phonological strategies to simplify word
pronunciation

• 3–5 years, phonological awareness continues to improve as well as


pronunciation.

• 6–10 years, children master syllable stress patterns which helps


distinguish slight differences between similar word
Semantic development

• 0-12/12 – receptive language (the language we understand)


develops before expressive language (the language we use) –
infants prefer their mother's voice – from 6/12 they recognize
familiar words and use gestures.

• 12-24/12 - vocabulary spurt between 18–24 months


•
• 3–5 years, children usually have difficulty using words correctly -
underextensions and overextensions - children can also understand
metaphors.

• From 6–10 years, children appreciate the multiple meanings of


words - fast mapping continues
Grammatical development

• 1–2 years - children start using telegraphic speech - two


word combinations, for example ‘big dog” “hit ball”
“daddy gone” – various semantic relations

• 3 years - children use simple 3 word sentences - follow


adult rules and are increasingly sophisticated

• 3–5 years - gradually produce complex grammatical


sentence structures. By 6–10 years, children refine the
complex grammatical structures such as passive voice
Pragmatics development

• 0-6/12 – turn-taking activities / proto-conversations in


social interaction – at 9/12 – use of gesture in social
communication - joint attention (the ability to share
attention and talk about something with another person)
• 1–2 years - conversational turn taking and topic
maintenance
• 3–5 - illocutionary intent (knowing what you meant to say
even though you might not have said it) and turnabout,
(turning the conversation over to another person).
• 6-10yo - shading occurs, which is changing the
conversation topic gradually. Children are able to
communicate effectively in different or demanding
settings, such as on the telephone
So…how do children learn the art
of social communication?
Infant competencies and
social interactions
Infants are sensitive to language
They possess competencies enabling
them to communicate with others
Although the infant is preadapted for
communication it is the parent’s skill in
fitting her interaction into the infant’s
natural activity patterns that gives rise to
flowing interactions between them
Parent strategies for supporting
language development

Motherese
Proto-conversations / turn-taking in interactions
Labelling expanding recasting
Turn-taking & proto-conversations
• Mother’s responses to infant vocalisations
develop into turn-taking sequences
• More sophisticated as babbling develops
and infant uses strings of sounds – tuneful
and varied intonation based on natural
speech patters
• Proto-conversations
Infant-directed speech
“motherese”
• motherese – infant-directed
speech - slower, expanded
intonation and repetitious

• from 2/7 infants respond


selectively to infant-directed
speech than to adult directed
speech

• a universal phenomena
similar alterations in intonation
contour in languages with
different structures eg Chinese
and Japanese
Supporting language development
• “labelling” – words for things!!
• “expanding” - fills the gaps in the sentence
• “recasting” - places the phrase in context
and gives meaning
Stages of language
development
The sequence of language
development is similar
across cultures
0-6 months
• Cries become differentiated to indicate
different needs
• Recognises and responds to own name
• Early sounds – cooing, gurgling (oooh,
aaah)
• Pseudo-conversations between mother
and infant – pitch, tone, rhythm, turn-
taking
• squeals, to get adult attention
6-12 months
• Intentional use of
gesture to
communicate
• Proto-declarative
gestures

• Proto-imperative
gestures
6-12/12
Babbling – repeated consonant &
vowel sounds – tuneful & melodic
6-12 months
• Listen carefully and turn to someone talking
• Look when spoken to and when their name is
called
• Babble strings of sounds (like ‘no-no’ and ‘go-
go’) in a conversational way
• Understand words like 'bye-bye' and 'up' /
recognize the names of familiar objects, things
like ‘car’ and ‘daddy’
• Clear intentional communication using gesture
social communication gestures
1-2 yo
• Child progresses to
using words and
sentences to express
meanings
12-18 months
• understands familiar words, like ‘drink’, ‘shoe’ and ‘car
• responds to simple instructions ('kick ball' and 'give me‘)
• points to familiar things when asked or to indicate need
• 1-2 word phrases combined with gestures - social
greetings – “Hi” “bye-bye” - use of “holophrase”
• practices language usage in social play using
combinations of adult words / gestures with
correct conversational inflexion
18 months-2 years
understands between 200 and 500 words
. “the vocabulary spurt” or “vocabulary explosion”
Children recognize that things can be labeled / realize that there is a
word for every object” - repeatedly ask adults to name / label objects
“what’s that?
Start to put short sentences together with 2-3 words, such as ‘more
milk’ or ‘bye ma-ma’.
pronouns – mine / yours

Word combinations eg possession “my hat” / location “mama house” / actions


“dog run” / emotional states “daddy happy” / events “cup broke”
Words for internal states - perception (see hear smell cold hot), physiology
(hungry thirsty tired asleep), emotion, volition (want need wish), cognition (know
think remember forget pretend dream)
2-3 years

• Descriptive words – big small heavy


• Telegraphic speech
• 'who', 'what' and 'where' questions
• verbs and plurals
• Context / location / prepositions – “cat in
house”
3-4 years
• colour, number and time-related words
• able to answer “why” questions
• longer sentences and able to link
sentences together
• past tense
4-5 years
• more complex sentences
• confidently converses with adults & peers
• appropriate use of pragmatics of language
• use of tenses
Learning from errors

• Articulation difficulties are common


• Naming an object according to its property ie cow as
“moo-moo”
• Shortening words eg “nana” for “banana”
• Overextension – the word’s meaning is given to objects
with similar properties ie dog for cat or horse
• Under extension – refusing to use a word eg animal in the
belief that all animals must have the same characteristics
• Errors with tense eg 'runned' for ‘ran’
5-8 years
• By middle childhood, children have good communication
skills. They are better at using language in different ways
and adept at using language in a range of social
situations. Children develop skills at different rates, but
beyond 5 years, usually children will:
• share & discuss complex ideas
• use their language skills in various ways eg learning to
read, write and spell, share and discuss complex ideas,
asking questions, giving opinions and explanations and
negotiating in social situations.
• learn that the same word can mean two things, eg
'orange' the fruit and 'orange' the colour.
• learn that different words can mean the same thing eg
’minus’ and ‘take away’.
8-11
• Use long and complex sentences
• Grammar – increasingly sophisticated
• Able to keep a conversation going by giving
reasons and explaining choices
• Use language to predict and draw conclusions.
• Understand other points of view and show that
they agree or disagree.
Language in adolescence

• Know how to use sarcasm. 


• Use more subtle and witty humour.
• Use of idioms, such as “put your money
where your mouth is!”
• Use of slang / ‘street talk’
• Language for self-reflection
When language acquisition is not
developing as expected

• Delay and variation


• Speech disorders
• Expressive language disorders
• Semantic pragmatic language disorder
• Social communication disorders
Summary
• Language acquisition develops in a social
context
• Combined nature vs nurture influences
• The quality of early experience matters

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