Objective 41: Summarize the development of language formation.

!
Language begins to develop when the baby is just a fetus. They learn the
language patterns of their mothers. Once they are born, they learn language by taking
in information through their senses of hearing and sight. They use their mouths,
tongues, and ears when they learn to mimic the sights and sounds of people to create
their own communications. Babies first communicate through crying. Crying is really
their only way to communicate. As they grow, they start to make more verbal sounds
with consonants. Studies have shown that at only 4 months of age, a child is able to
pick out sounds and even read lips. Researchers have also found that infants are able
to distinguish between speech sounds from all different languages. As a child grows,
they add more and more words to their communication level. By the time a child is
around the age of 3, they have around 3,000 words in their vocabulary. After that,
language continues to grow and grow.
Artifacts:
http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies?language=en
This TED talk is about language learning in babies. Babies are language geniuses. The
critical period for sound and language development is before the age of 7, then the
language learning ability starts to decline. The speaker Patricia Kuhl compared sounds
of English speaking mothers and Japanese speaking mothers and the different statistics
babies take in when they hear their mothers native language. These statistics taken in
by the babies are the sounds they need to know for the future, the sounds they hear the
most.

http://www.human.cornell.edu/hd/outreach-extension/upload/casasola.pdf
This article is about how Dr. Casasola at Cornell University conducts research on infant
cognitive development. Her research shows that in just 2 years of life, infants learn
more about their language well before they speak it. Babies take in sounds that adults
dont even notice anymore. Babies actually learn to a high degree of complexity about
their language before they reach the age of 2.