How do we learn language?
- Imitation by watching models
- Imitation helps human learning and helps with the formation of bonds
- Happens due to mirror neurons – neurons in the brain that fire when the individual performs an act AND when the individual sees another performing the same act; mirror neurons also fire when we see others experiencing familiar emotions
- Reinforcement
- Language acquisition device (innate)
- Parentese (baby-talk)
- Sensitive period is 18-24 months through puberty
Vocabulary (linguistic speech) (con't)
- Referential language style – refer to things in environment
- Expressive language style – use language for social interaction – more pronouns and verbs
- Parents play a huge part in teaching referential vs expressive styles
- Overextension – extend the meaning of one word for other things they don’t have words for – “ball” is used for all round objects, “cat” is used for all animals with four legs
- Telegraphic speech – one or two words are used to stand for a complete thought – “shoes” or “mommy bye-bye” means “We are leaving the house.”
- Morphemes – the smallest unit of meaning in a language – “walked” contains “walk” and “ed,” both of which have meaning
- Syntax – the rules for how words are put together – we say “my shoe,” not “shoe my”
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
- Emphasizes how cognitive development results from social interactions, primarily problem-solving interactions, between people, usually adults and older children to younger children
- Development is a reciprocal transaction – children are influenced by others, but also influence others
- To understand development, you must understand a child’s culture
- Zone of proximal development – the point at which children can do something with another’s help
- Scaffolding – providing a lot of help at first but slowly offering less and less help until a child is able to do something on their own
Chapter 6 - Infancy : Cognitive Development
Information Processing Approach
- Seek to identify the ways individual take in, use, and store information
- Some abilities proceed more quickly than others
- In infants, focuses on memory
- Infants display recognition memory but don’t display recall memory for several months
- There is an increase in memory between 2 and 6 months and again at 12 months
- This may indicate an increase in the ability to store memory, retrieve memory, or both
- 2 month olds can remember the results of their behaviors for 3 days, 3 month olds for over a week, and 12 month olds for over a month
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
- Schemas – how we define and organize things
- Assimilation – taking in information that supports and adds to what we already know
- Accommodation –adjusting or developing new schemas based on taking in information that contradicts old schemas
- Stage 1: Sensorimotor Stage – birth–2 years – children develop schemas through their senses and motor activities
- Object Permanence – no recall memory until about 8-12 months - no schemas for things they can't see
Vocabulary (linguistic speech)
- First word is generally between 11 and 13 months – normally one or two syllables – ma, dada, baba
- By 18 months, kids speak about 50 words – hi, bye-bye, mama, dada, eat, all gone, baba, yes, no, etc
- Between 18 and 22 months, vocabulary grows from 50 to 300 words
- Expressive vocabulary – what a child can say
- Receptive vocabulary – what a child can understand – greatly outpaces their expressive vocabulary (which can be frustrating)
- General nominals – nouns that are the classes of objects – cat/dog, ball, boy/girl, that
- Specific nominals – proper nouns – Mommy/Daddy, pet’s name, Grandma/Grandpa, sister/brother’s name, etc.
https://www.focusonyourchild.com/baby-first-words-list/
Language Development
Prelinguistic vocalizations – vocalizations that don’t represent objects or events
- Crying – from birth
- Cooing – 2nd month – squealing and gurgling sounds – use the tongue more and sometimes resemble “oooo” and “ahhh” - linked to pleasure
- Babbling – 6-9 months – consonant vowel sounds – ba, da, ma, pa, ga – frequently repeated – babababa, mamama
- Echolalia – 12 months – repeating syllables – ahbabamama
- Intonation – 12 months – rising and falling at the end of verbalizations