Page 1

Nicole Page

Professor Knedeisen

Language Development

4 April 2018

Infant/Toddler Language Development Observation

I observed Knox at the child development center where I work. Knox is two years five

months and is one of the oldest children in the room. He was born on October 18th, 2015. The

observation was done in the Toddler room of the center. When you first walk in there was a

hardwood floor with a small gate separating the carpet area from the hardwood area. There was

also a gate blocking the main door of the room. On the hardwood floor, there were two tables

pushed together with small chairs for snack time. In the far corner, there was a step stool for the

children to reach the sink. Across from the sink was the changing table with cubbies that hold

each child’s diapers. Next to the sink was a refrigerator and coming out of the wall were the

cubbies for the children’s coats, bags, and change of clothes. On the carpet side, there were

various selves with toys for the children to play with. There were soft blocks, hard blocks, cars,

animals, and a wooden kitchen area for the children to play with. They also have a reading

corner for a quiet area and several different puppets. Around the room and on the bulletin boards

were the children’s art projects. One wall had an owl with each child’s birthday on it. On the

main door, when you walked in the room, were different pictures of the children playing or

participating in some of their daily activities.

Although several different words were repeated, there were many different phonemes

used. He was able to separate the teacher’s directions from the other children’s voices. He is still

using simple pairings of phonemes, but is also building on to create some larger words. There
 Page 2

was no rhyming scheme, but some words were deleted. Even though words were deleted the

sentences still made sense and the point was made. Knox asked many questions in a high pitched

tone. Occasionally, the teacher could not understand the mumbling and had to ask him to repeat

what he was saying several times.

All of the utterances observed were in the proper subject, verb, object order. Most of the

morphemes were free and could stand alone. They were also correctly used in the present tense.

There were not many, but one could see the emergence of bound morphemes. Below is a list of

50 utterances that were observed from Knox.

1. Hi, Hi, Hi (3)

2. Come play (2)
3. I have Baby! (3)
4. Okay! (1)
5. What that? (2)
6. Puppy! (1)
7. Mrs. Amy! (1)
8. Miss Marissa! (1)
9. Snack time! (2)
10. My chair! (2)
11. I sit (2)
12. I eat. (2)
13. No mine! (2)
14. I eat crackers. (4)
15. Yeah and apples (4)
16. I bite it. (3)
17. These are crackers. (4)
18. Yum! (1)
19. All done (2)
20. Wash hands (3)
21. Throw away (2)
22. I play! (2)
23. Puzzle (1)
24. Fishy (1)
25. On carpet (2)
26. Sit here (2)
27. Read book (2)
 Page 3

28. Pete the Cat! (3)

29. His shoes (2)
30. Its stuck. (2)
31. I done. (2)
32. James here! (2)
33. My turn! (2)
34. Dance (1)
35. No running! (3)
36. Please, my shoe. (3)
37. Thank you! (2)
38. See stars (3)
39. In the box (3)
40. Dark (1)
41. Yeah the flashlight. (3)
42. Yellow yeah! (2)
43. Okay, lay down, see the stars (repeating the teacher) (7)
44. Clean up (2)
45. I put back. (3)
46. Choo-choo ride. (2)
47. Playroom! (1)
48. You go? (2)
49. On the trolley (3)
50. Bye! (1)

Several grammatical morphemes are found as Knox added the plural –s in several of his

utterances but has not used the possessive, past tense, or present progressive. These utterances

combine for a total of 112 which you then divide by the 50 taken which gives an MLU of 2.24.

On the references for interpreting MLU, a 2.24 suggests that the child is 27-months old. At the

time of this observation, Knox was about 29-months old. This places him slightly behind for

where he should be by 30-months but within the predicted standard deviation. Knox’s syntax

included simple sentences with the subject-verb setup. All of the utterances were statements, or

exclamations, with a few negations. There were no questions used and when he was asked a

question that he did not understand he would just keep repeating yeah. The sentences were not

very complex; they were enough to get the point across to another person.
 Page 4

Knox’s semantics development showed that he understood conversations with the other

teachers and I. When I arrived Knox recognized me and asked me if I would come play. I

explained that I needed to do some work and then I could come over and play. He said okay and

went back to playing. The interaction between us made it seem that he understood what I was

saying and accepted it. After playing for a while, one of the teachers explained that it was snack

time and waited for the children to come over to the gate. After saying it several times, he came

over to the gate and was one of the first to do so. After snack, there was a story read and when

they were getting ready to do an activity several of the children started to run around the room. It

took multiple reminders for Knox to finally stop running. The teacher finally had to reach out

and hold his arm, make sure he was looking, and tell him again to use walking feet. He also

needed several reminders to sit on the fish carpet during circle time. I believe that both of these

instances were just that he lost interest or found something else that he wanted to do, but that he

understood the instructions that were given to him. They also tried to play freeze dance, and

Knox was one of the only ones that slowed down or even stopped dancing when the music

stopped. In my short collection for MLU Knox produced about 100 words; which makes me

believe that he would be able to produce 200 words which is average for a 24-month old.

The achievements in pragmatics were one of the best in the room. There was minimal

conversation between the children, the only verbal interaction was when he would shout another

child’s name. He could hold a small conversation with one of the teachers. At most, there would

be two responses back and forth before he ran off to play with something. Knox was able to use

his language to explain or ask for different things. He was able to ask for more crackers at snack

and answered when they asked how it was. He also knew his colors and would say the specific
 Page 5

color of the fish that he was sitting on. Knox also would shout a friend’s name when he wanted

something that they had which shows the beginning of communication with his peers.

This observation made me look at the language of children differently. Normally, I only

listen to understanding what a child is saying and do not look beyond that. Looking for the Five

Components of Language made me look deeper into the speech of young children and see how it

grows as the child grows. I found myself comparing Knox with other younger children in the

room and watching if the children could communicate with each other verbally.