Language Development of Children

First Words and their Intentions

First words can express a wide range of intentions Gradually become flexible and multifunctional By 15 months, most are naming/labeling, exclaiming, and calling to attract attention By 18 months, child adds wanting demands (e.g., "I want...") ("Uh-oh"); and expressions of states/attitudes, mostly "I tired" Initially, words accompany action (e.g., requests) May accompany pointing Display a wish or express displeasure (sometimes, that's advanced emotional skills)

Initial Lexicons (Categories)

First words have predictable sound (/p, b, d, t, g, k, h, m, w, n/) and syllable (VC, CV, CVCV-reduplicated, CVCV) patterns

Initial Lexicons: For most First Words

Front consonants (/p, b, d, t, m, w/) and back consonants (/g, k, h/) predominate; no clusters 1. Nouns predominate in the first 50 words

Comprehension, production, and cognitive growth

Language seems closely related to specific cognitive skills; Children have been observed to us different cognitive levels of play depending on the words they use; Knowledge structure of two types are assumed to guide word acquisition: 1. Event knowledge 2. Taxonomic or "word" knowledge

Concept Formation: Associative and Prototypic Complexes

Two related hypotheses

Word Combination (Definition)

Two-word utterance consisting of roughly equivalent words that divide an experience into multiple units

Event Knowledge

Consists of sequences of events or routines that are temporal or casual in nature and organized toward a goal; scripts are included in this type of knowledge

Object-naming games found in American English

"What's what" - are culture based and not found in all cultures

Individual children exist along a continuum:

1. "Noun lovers" - use many nouns 2. "Noun leavers" - use an expressive style in which they use few nouns; prefer interactional and functional words, such as "hi", "bye-bye", and "no"

Toddler Rules for Presupposition

1. An object not in the child's possession should be labeled 2. An object in the child's possession, but undergoing change, as in being eaten, should be encoded by the action or change (e.g., "apple", "eat")

Preschool Conversation: Ages 3-4

1. Better awareness of social aspects of conversation 2. Utterances addressed are clear, well formed and well adapted for the listener

Semantic Development

1. Between ages 1 1/2 to 6, children learn 4 to 5 new words each day by first fast mapping the meaning, then slowly refining it over time 2. Fast mapping enables child to infer a connection between a word and its referent after only one exposure 3. Children may use two operating principles to establish meaning

Possible Explanations for the Early Predominance of Nouns:

1. Child may have a concept of objects within world knowledge 2. Nouns are perceptually/conceptually distinct (therefore a child can determine the referent more easily) 3. Linguistic predictability of nouns make them easier 4. Frequency of adult use, adult word order, and adult teaching patterns (nouns may be placed in the final or salient position in maternal sentences)

Establishing Meaning of Semantic Development

1. Contrast - the assumption that every form-morpheme, word, syntactic structure-contrasts to every other in meaning 2. Conventionality -the expectation that certain forms convey certain meanings (e.g., -ing = actions)

Deictic Terms

1. Direct attention 2. Make spatial contrasts 3. Denote times or participants in a conversation from the speaker's point of view Child use this later in life but make little locational differentiation

What information is typically included in a narrative? What is the typically development from ages 2 - 5 of a narrative? What are two strategies preschoolers use to organize narratives?

1. Heap • Organizational strategies of 2-year-olds represent; these are sets of unrelated statements about a central stimulus; later, children begin to tell narratives characterized as sequences 2. Semantic development • Between ages 1 1/2 to 6, children learn 4 to 5 new words each day by first fast mapping the meaning, then slowly refining it over time • Fast mapping enables child to infer a connection between a word and its referent after only one exposure • Children may use two operating principles to establish meaning

Gaps in preschoolers' vocabularies

1. I'm spooning my cocoa (Stirring) 2. You sugared your coffee (Sweetened)

Preschool Conversational Advances Include:

1. Increasing use of Registers or styles of talking after age 4 2. Limited need for conversational repair 3. Rapid topic shifts with 2 to 3 turns on a topic 4. Increased consideration of the listener and use of presupposition 5. Some forms of indirect request 6. Deictic Terms 7. Child also engages in monologues that gradually become more social 8. 20%-30% of the utterances of 4-year-olds most likely "private speech," especially in focused, goal-directed activites

New Words Include Relational Terms Such As:

1. Interrogative words 2. Temporal terms 3. Physical descriptors 4. Locational prepositions 5. Kinship terms

Kinship Terms

1. Limited knowledge at first; child treats term as part of person's name 2. By age 4, child may understand what a brother/sister is but doesn't realize that he can also be a brother to someone else, so not used reciprocal terms Most of the major kinship terms are understood by age 10

Adult Conversations with Preschoolers

1. Mothers continue to expand on information by talking about the same object or event in different ways and by adding new ideas and elaborating on them (Semantically) 2. Maternal modifications appear to be correlated with advances in the child's language abilities

A True Word

1. Must have a phonetic relationship to an adult word 2. Must be used consistently 3. Must occur in the presence of a referent, implying an underlying concept or meaning

Explain what is needed for a toddler's first "word" to be considered a true word.

1. Must have a phonetic relationship to an adult word 2. Must be used consistently 3. Must occur in the presence of a referent, implying an underlying concept or meaning

Support and defend one of the three explanations of concept development discussed in the text

1. People use words to refer to entities. 2. Words are extendable. 3. A given word refers to the whole entity, not its parts.

Conversational Abilities

1. Presupposition 2. Toddler Rules for Presupposition 3. Not able to adopt the listener's perspective

Preschool Conversation: Formats/Routines

1. Provide scaffold for child 2. Frees cognitive processing for more linguistic exploration and experimentation

Nouns occur more frequently adult-to-child speech:

1. Receive more stress 2. Are more often in the final position in utterances 3. Few morphological markers

Theory of Mind

1. Requires socio-cognitive abilities 2. ToM parallels self awareness 3. Most 4-year-olds can relate the emotions of others to desires or intentions and can understand that others may have a different perspective on the world from their own

Explain what the term "register" means. Why might children have a difficult time using different registers? Explain what is needed in terms of form, content, and use.

1. Styles of speaking 2. Age 4, children assume various roles in their play 3. Gender, pitch, loudness, etc. 4. Politeness varies with the partner and the age of a child

Speech Registers

1. Styles of speaking 2. Age 4, children assume various roles in their play 3. Gender, pitch, loudness, etc. 4. Politeness varies with the partner and the age of a child

Topic (Definition)

Content about which we speak

Conversational Repair: Types of Clarification

1. appear nearly equally divided between: general or nonspecific; or metalinguistic misunderstanding 2. Not until mid-elementary school that child is able to make specific requests 3. Most common clarification strategy is a simple repetition

Prompting

Any parental behavior that requires a child response: Three common types... 1. Fill-ins: "this is a _____" 2. Elicited Imitations: "Say doggie" 3. Questions: Yes/No ("is that a doggie?"; easier than 'wh-' questions) Wh- Questions ("where is the doggie?"; we then ask binary questions to give the child an idea of where the 'doggie' is)

Questions and Imperatives

80% of utterances are full adult utterances Most of the utterances they hear are highly repetitive E.g., "stop don't do that", "put it down", "don't touch that"

Toddler (12-24 Months) Learning Strategies: Expressive and Receptive

A child must sort out relevant and irrelevant information in adult and sibling conversations There are identified language-learning strategies that are frequently associated with toddlers

Toddler Learning Strategies: Whole-Object Principle

A given word refers to the whole entity, not its parts; 1. Parents start adding in these words later 2. E.g., table before drawer, leg, top

Centering

A linking of entities in a narrative to form a story nucleus; Links may be based on similarity of features, sequence, or causality

Turn-Abouts

A response to or a statement about what the child has said plus a request of some kind of information: 1. Adult-adult conversations 2. Adult-child conversations

Intention-Reading

A social cognitive skill of understanding language behavior of others (in human linguistic communication, the fundamental unit of intent is the utterances)

First Words: 18 Months

A toddler may produce 50 words; (nouns account for 60% to 65% of the words the child produces, although percentages change with development) Second half of the second year is one of tremendous vocabulary expansion (between 18 to 24 months, most children experience a "vocabulary spurt" especially in receptive vocabulary)

Longer Utterances: Recombinations

Action relations, such as agent + action and action + object, recombine and the redundant term is deleted

Recombinations Hypothesis (Definition)

Action relations, such as agent + action and action + object, recombine and the redundant term is deleted; With increasing memory and processing skills, a child is able to produce longer utterances by recombining some of these early patterns; the child still produces a great many single-word utterances and continues to babble and use jargon

Conventionality Assumption

Adults refer to entities in consistent conventional ways

Emerging Narrative Skills: Development

Although 2-year-olds possess basic patterns for familiar events and sequences, called "scripts", they are not able to describe sequences of events accurately until about age 4 2-3.5 year olds talk about things that have happened to them Between 2-2.5 years old, the number of these proto-narratives doubles

Conversational Repair: Contingent Queries

Approximately one-quarter of the contingent queries (e.g., requests for clarification) of 2 year olds are nonverbal, but these decrease with maturity

Concept Formation: Semantic-Feature Hypothesis

Assumes all referents can be defined by a universal set of semantic features 1. Establishes meaning by combining features present and perceivable in environment 2. Major DISADVANTAGE: fails to explain holistic nature of meaning or discriminate between features to determine the most relevant ones

Concept Formation: Function-Core Hypothesis

Assumes motion features than static perceptual features 1. Children's definitions have a strong elements of function of action, (i.e., an apple is something you eat) 2. While has appeal, difficult to find extensive use of shared function in utterances (i.e., use of moon for spherical or crescent shaped object)

Presupposition (Definition)

Assumption that the listener knows or does not know certain information that the child as speaker must include or delete

World Knowledge (Definition)

Autobiographical and experiential understanding and memory of events reflecting personal and cultural interpretations

6th Universal Language Learning Principle

Avoid Exceptions: 1. Words that follow the system 2. Avoid words that don't follow the system (they generalize, have over-extensions, and often use "-ed" not properly)

4th Universal Language Learning Principle

Avoid interruption and rearrangement of linguistic units: 1. Very defined order 2. Trying to figure out syntax (don't use passive voice very often; very straight forward with their wording)

Ellipsis (Definition)

Conversational device of omitting redundant information; e.g., when asked, "who say the movie?" we reply, "I did", not "I saw the movie."

New Word Meanings

Come From: 1. Linguistic Contexts 2. Nonlinguistic Contexts 3. Surrounding Syntactic Structure

Directives and Requests: age 3

Begins to use: 1. Some modal auxiliary verbs in indirect requests (Could you give me a...?) 2. Permissive directives (Can/may I have a...?) 3. Question Directives (Do you have a...?)

Topic (Characteristics)

By age 1, the child is highly skilled at initiating a topic by a combination of glances, gestures, vocalizations, and verbalizations (limited to topics about items that are physically present) Maintained for only one or two turns Extended topic maintenance possible only within established routines By 2 years old - capable of maintaining a topic in adjacent pairs of utterances (e.g., questions, commands, requests)

Taxonomic or "Word" Knowledge

Consists of categories and classes of words; event-based or word knowledge influences word knowledge

Narrative (Definition)

Consists of self-generated story; familiar tale; retelling of a movie, television show, or previously heard to seen story; and personal experience recounting

Modeling: 20-27 Months:

Caregivers length and complexity of utterances changes the most, because child's language changes most rapidly during this time; Dialog occurring at this time Caregivers fine-tune their language input based primarily on the comprehension level: 1. Dialog not symmetrical- Caregivers keep it going (we are teaching them the use of language) 2. Dependent on cues from the child

Emerging Narrative Skills: Age 5-7

Casual Chains

Preschool Conversation: Age 4

Child demonstrates a form of motherese

Evocative Utterances

Child makes a statement and caregiver provides feedback about the accuracy of the statement

Modeling: 18 Months

Child may learn a new word from one 1 exposure

Hypothesis Testing

Child says baby cry with rising intonation; caregiver provides feedback about accuracy of statement

Inerrogative Utterances

Child using "wh" questions; These requests for information are even found in the pointing and vocalizing behaviors of infants prior to first words

Emerging Narrative Skills: Age 3

Children are able to describe chains of events within familiar activities, such as birthday parties

Self-Generated Narratives of 2-3 year olds

Children begin to tell self-generated, fictional narratives between 2 and 3 years, most organized by centering 1. Usually concern highlights in the child's life and may have vague plot 2. Events they find disruptive or extraordinary 3. Often lack easily identifiable beginnings, middles, and ends

Stress Patterns and Meanings

Children use stress, or emphasis, to indicate meaning

Emerging Narrative Skills: Organization

Children use two strategies for organization of narratives: 1. Centering 2. Chaining

- What information is typically included in a narrative? What is the typically development from ages 2 - 5 of a narrative? What are two strategies preschoolers use to organize narratives?

Children use two strategies for organization of narratives: 1. Centering 2. Chaining Although 2-year-olds possess basic patterns for familiar events and sequences, called "scripts", they are not able to describe sequences of events accurately until about age 4 2-3.5 year olds talk about things that have happened to them Between 2-2.5 years old, the number of these proto-narratives doubles

Nouns Predominate

Children's early vocabularies contain relatively greater proportions of nouns than other word classes Frequency of nouns in adult-to-adult speech is low

Presupposition Linguistic Forms

Definite article, pronouns, demonstratives (this, that, these, those), and proper names Verbs such as "know", "think", "forget", and "remember" are used correctly as by age 4 By 5 or 6, they understands use of these verbs and others, such as "wish", "guess", and "pretend"

Cultural and Social Differences

Different expectations on child More direct teaching in some cultures Differences don't appear to have any impact on language development (differences are not to be confused with disorders) 3 Factors: 1. Role or status of child 2. Social organization of caregiving 3. Folk beliefs

Locational Prepositions

Exact nature of comprehension unknown; even at 42 months child may rely on gestures First English prepositions appear at around 2 years of age By age 3, most children have figures out the meanings of all, in, on, and under Prepositions of movement - to, into, and onto, interpreted as "toward" by 3 years of age Terms such as next to or in front of offer special problems because of overlapping definitions

Concept Formation: Associative Complex Hypothesis

Each successive use of the word shares some feature with a central instance or core concept

Interrogatives

Early question forms include "what", "where" and "who" followed by "whose", and "which", and finally by "when", "how", and "why" Recognition of the general type of information requested may precede the ability to give acceptable and accurate answers Casual questions may be especially difficult for the child below age 3

Emerging Narrative Skills: Age 4

Elements of event knowledge

Pattern-Finding

Enables us to find common threads in differing information

What Children Hear: Utterances

English speaking children (2-3 years) hear 5,000-7,000 utterances a day Questions and Imperatives They hear a lot of shared knowledge, routines, information in order to scaffold (children need a foundation to get going, and scaffolding is that bridge to get there)

Longer Utterances: Expansions

Expand from within to express attribution, possession, or recurrence

Toddler Learning Strategies: Words are Extenable

Extendability principle - Cup refers to a child's cup as well as lots of other cups; 1. Learning that words are symbols that represent concepts 2. Shared attributes

First Words

Fulfill intentions within well-established communication system of child and caregiver: 1. Putting meaning into what the child gives them (e.g., gestures, babbling, words, etc,...) Many early words can be only interpreted with gestures 1. This is because of the low intelligibility (e.g., pointing to, reaching for, etc,...)

Adult-adult Conversations

Goal is for each participant to obtain a turn

Adult-Child Conversations

Goal of adult is to get the child to take his/her turn

Role or Status of child

High regard or not

"Goodness of fit"

How well does information match up with the actual word (e.g., colors) A child's meaning encompasses a small portion of the fuller adult definition

Lexicon (Definition)

Individual dictionary of each person containing words and the underlying concepts of each; the lexicon is dynamic, changing with experience

Folk Beliefs

Informal theory: Learn by participating or observing

Two-Word Combinations

Initially, the child may experiment with a variety of rules Individual differences are great Consistent word order reflecting patterns heard in adult speech By 24 months, average child is using two-word utterances frequently in her speech Simple word-order rules relative to the child's semantic categories provide an adequate system for elaborating and interpreting

Processes of Language Acquisition

Intention-reading Pattern-Finding Language production consists of constructing utterances out of various learned pieces of language For preschoolers, 1/3 of utterances are novel

Social Organization of Caregiving

Older siblings caring for younger siblings, etc,...

Preschool Conversation: Verbal Responding

Large increase in amount of this between 24-30 months 30-month-old children are successful at engaging listener's attention and responding to feedback Increase in overall talkativeness at around 36 months of age Two-year-old considers conversational partner minimally (uses pronouns without identifying the entity to which they refer)

Not able to Adopt the Listener's Perspective

Learning "Theory of Mind"

Modeling: 8-18 Months:

Little to no change in IDS because little change in complexity of child's language Possibly only one or two utterances

Early Word Combinations: Utterances

Longer utterances of 3-4 words tend to be recombination's or expansions of these rules

Kinship Terms: Names of Family Members

Mama, dada, sister, and brother

Verbs from Toddlers

Modifiers and verb-like words appear soon after the child's first word (e.g., "down") Verbs appear much later As much as 60% of the verbs in maternal speech refer to future action (e.g., "mommy is going to throw the ball")

Grammatically Correct Utterances

More likely to be followed by: imitation, topic changes, acknowledgements or no response

Ungrammatical Utterances

More likely to be followed by: reformulation (recasts), expansions, extensions, requests for clarification

Directives and Requests: 4-5 year olds

More skilled with indirect forms and offer more explanations and justifications for their requests

Longer Utterances

Most common three-word utterances are agent + action + object and agent + action + location Two types: 1. Recombinations 2. Expansions Four-word or four-term utterances are expanded in the same way

Responding Behaviors: Reformulations (Recasts)

Most common with preschoolers. The adult is usually seeking clarification from the child: 1. The child usually responds with a repetition or acknowledgement of the correction or rejects the reformulation because the adult misunderstood their intent 2. Looking for understanding and shared meaning 3. With preschoolers, adults reformulate more frequently than imitating error-free utterances

Predictable Sound, Syllable, Patterns

Most first words contain one or two syllables: 1. Very few CVC words, and many of these are modified in production 2. Final consonant may be omitted or followed by a vowel-like sound

Turnabouts: Children aged 2-3 year olds

Mothers employ yes/no questions in turnabouts most frequently

Categorical Assumptions

Names refer to categories of things; overextends category beyond a limited set

Chaining (Definition)

Narrative form consisting of a sequence of events that share attributes and lead directly from one to another

Importance of Play

Not goal oriented so no frustration Attention and what is being attended to is shared, so child learns through joint attention and joint reference Games have rules and children learn that pattern of rules which is important for success in school Games are like conversation to learn turn-taking

Novel Name-Nameless Assumption

Novel names refer to previously nameless entities; allows for quick linking of symbols and referents

Temporal Relations

Order of acquisition is related to their use and to the concept each represents First, words of order, such as after, before Then, words of duration, such as since and until Finally, terms of simultaneity, such as while Acquisition reflects a sequence of cognitive development When all else fails, the child relies on his knowledge of real-life sequences

Heaps

Organizational strategies of 2-year-olds represent; these are sets of unrelated statements about a central stimulus; later, children begin to tell narratives characterized as sequences

Narrative Level (Definition)

Overall organization of a narrative

Responding Behaviors

Parents rarely reinforce the syntactic correctness of a toddler's utterances; "good talking", "great job"; Up to half (50%) of the mothers utterances to infants are questions; Reinforcement is usually given for politeness or truthfulness: 1. Grammatically correct utterances 2. Ungrammatical utterances

Universal Language Learning Principles: 7 Principles

Patterns of development that suggest underlying syntax learning strategies and operational principles

1st Universal Language Learning Principle

Pay attention to ends of words

3rd Universal Language Learning Principle

Pay attention to the order of words and morphemes: 1. In English, our word order drives the meaning 2. Inflection and intonation can mean a whole different phrase (start paying attention to words like "after" and "before")

Toddler Learning Strategies: Reference Principle

People use words to refer to entities; words "stand for" entities to which they refer; 1. Use linguistic patterns to infer this information 2. Mutual exclusivity assumption

2nd Universal Language Learning Principle

Phonological forms can be systematically modified: 1. Learning differences between sounds and coarticulation 2. Children understand allophones and know how to categorize

Mutual Exclusively Assumption

Presupposing that each referent has a unique symbol; guides initial word learning

Underextension (Definition)

Process in which a child applies a word meaning to fewer exemplars than an adult would; the child's definition is too restrictive and more limited than in adult usage

Overextension (Definition)

Process in which a child applies a word's meaning to more exemplars than an adult would; the child's definition is too broad and is thus beyond acceptable adult usage

Deixis (Definition)

Process of using the speaker's perspective as a reference; e.g., this can be seen in words such as "this", "that", "here", "there", "me", and "you"

Turnabouts: Children aged 3- 5.5 Years

Produce and respond effectively to contingent queries from both adults and peers, although younger children are more effective in their use with adults

Fast / Initial Mapping (Definition)

Quick, sketchy, and tentative formation of a link between a particular referent and a new name that enables a child to have access to and use the word in an immediate although somewhat limited way; gradually, the meaning of the referent widens as the word is freed from aspects of the initial context

Physical Relations

Relational terms such as 'thick/thin', 'fat/skinny/, 'more/less', and 'same/different' are frequently difficult for preschool children to learn First learns that the terms are opposites Then learns the dimensions to which each term refers Terms for general size on any dimension acquired before more specific terms

Event Structure (Definition)

Set of event sequences including the events, relationships relative significance

Scripts

Sets of expectations that aid memory, enhance comprehension, and give the child a knowledge base for interpreting events

Early Word Combinations: Transitional Forms

Several Transitional Forms Exist: 1. May combine a word with a gesture 2. Reduplications of a single utterance (e.g., "doggie doggie") 3. Two words learned as a single unit (e.g., daddybob, allgone) 4. Successive single-word utterances

Register (Definition)

Situationally influenced language variations, such as "motherese"

Lexicon: Individual Differences

Some children pay attention to: 1. words 2. phrases Individual children exist along a continuum Children with a high proportion of nouns (70% or more) exhibit a rapid increase in their lexicons between 14 and 18 months of age Children whose lexicons have more balance tend to have a more gradual increase in word acquisition

Ellipsis

Speaker omits redundant information that has been previously stated, assuming that the listener known this information Presuppositions that accompany 'wh-' questions

Emerging Narrative Skills: Age 3-5

Temporal event sequences

Associative Complex Hypothesis (Definition)

Theory that each example of a meaning category shares something with a core concept; in other words, there are common elements in the meanings of "pants", "shirt", "shoes", and "hat" that classify each as clothing; Vygotskyan concept

Prototypic Complex Hypothesis (Definition)

Theory that word meanings represent an underlying concept exemplified by a central referent, or prototype, that is a best exemplar or a composite of the concept

Functional-Core Hypothesis (Definition)

Theory that word meanings represent dynamic relationships, such as actions or functional uses, rather than static perceptual traits; Concept usually associated with Nelson

Semantic-Feature Hypothesis (Definition)

Theory that word meanings represent universal semantic features or attributes, such as animate/inanimate and male/female; for young children, meanings represent perceptual attributes; hypothesis usually associated with Clark

Early Word Combination

These combinations follow semantic category word-order rules (e.g., agent + action, action + object)

Parental Teaching Strategies Matching Children's Preferences

Three additional assumptions may be needed for the toddler to form hypothetical definitions quickly and to use syntactic information 1. Categorical assumption 2. Novel name-nameless assumption 3. Conventionality assumption

Receptive Strategies

Three assumptions of toddlers seem fundamental: 1. People use words to refer to entities 2. Words are extendable 3. A given word refers to the whole entity, not its parts

Expressive Language Learning Strategies

Toddlers use four expressive strategies to learn language: 1. Evocative Utterances 2. Hypothesis Testing 3. Interrogative Utterances 4. Selective Imitation

Concept Formation: Prototypic Complex Hypothesis

Underlying concept includes a central reference or prototype, usually the referent most frequently used with the adult speech model and the first referent for which the word was used

5th Universal Language Learning Principle

Underlying semantic relations should be marked overtly and clearly: 1. Passive Voice (In English, they have a harder time with passive voice; what is observed through calculated methods can be very dry) 2. Preschoolers are very clear and don't have passive voice, usually

Preschool Language Learning Strategies (2+)

Universal Language Learning Principles Bootstrapping

Dad's Role in Toddlerhood

Use more simplified adult speech, but fewer common words Less successful in communicating with toddlers Use more requests for clarification, and requests are more nonspecific Acknowledge their children's utterances less often, resulting in children persisting less in conversation

7th Universal Language Learning Principle

Use of grammatical markers should make semantic sense: 1. Over-Generalizations 2. Only adding like "-ed" to words that actually make sense (they wouldn't call a dog a "dogged")

Semantic Bootstrapping

Use semantics to decode syntax

Syntactic Bootstrapping

Use syntax to figure out word meanings

Responding Behaviors: Expansions

Used more with younger kids; maintain the word order but provide a more mature syntactic form (expanding on the syntax/expanding on the meaning) 1. E.g., child might say "Mommy eat" and Mommy expands the statement by saying, "Yes, mommy is eating" 2. 30% of mothers responses to children (18-24 month olds are expansions) 3. Nearly 1/3 of adult expansions are in turn imitated by the child, and are likely to be more linguistically correct than their initial statement 4. E.g., "Child: Block fall." Adult: "Um-Hmm, the blocks fall down." Child: "Block fall down."

Word Knowledge (Definition)

Verbal word and symbol definitions

Adult Teaching Strategies

Very little direct teaching, but caregivers do facilitate their children's language acquisition: 1. Modeling/IDS (Infant Directed Speech) 2. Prompting 3. Responding Behaviors

Concept Formation

We do not have a definitive answer on how children form concepts Several hypothesis have been proposed to explain concept formation and word learning

Responding Behaviors: Extensions

When a mother adds semantic information to the child's utterance; semantically related comment on topic established by child (adding to the child's vocabulary) Ex., child says, "Mommy eat" and Mommy says, "Yes, Mommy is hungry."

Modeling

When parents model, they are adapting speech and language to child language level- Infant Directed Speech (parents are adapting their speech/language to speak to their child) Caregiver adjusts verbal behaviors as child's verbal development progresses More time spent in joint attention, the greater a child's vocabulary in toddlerhood

Selective Imitation

Whole or partial repetition of an utterance produced by another speaker within no more than 3 consecutive child utterances

Locational Prepositions: Differ in Locations to which they Refer

With object location, sometimes child must refer to the speaker's perspective, so listener must be able to adopt the perspective of the speaker

Extension

Words are initially fast mapped, formed in a fast, sketchy, tentative way and may under-extend or over-extend the adult meaning