LANGUAGE

DEVELOPMENT
 As perception and cognition improve, it paves way for
an extraordinary human achievement called language.
 On the average, children say their first word at 12
months of age.
 Once words appear, language develops rapidly.
 By 5 years of age, children have mastered the basic
structure of their native language.
 By the age of 6, children have a vocabulary of 10,000
words, speak in elaborate sentences, and are skilled
conversationalists.
THREE THEORIES OF
LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
 B.F. Skinner proposed that language, just like any other behavior
is acquired through operant conditioning.
 As a baby makes sounds, parents reinforce those that are most
like words with smiles, hugs, and speech in return.
 Some behaviorists rely on imitation to explain how children
rapidly acquire complex utterances.
 Although imitation and reinforcement contribute to early
language de elopement, they are best viewed as supporting rather
than fully explaining.

BEHAVIORIST PERSPECTIVE
NATURALIST PERSPECTIVE
 Noam Chomsky was the first to recognize that even small children assume much
responsibility for their own language learning.
 His theory regards the young child’s amazing language skill as etched into the
structure of the human brain.
 Focusing on grammar, Chomsky believed that the rules of sentence organization
are much too complex to be directly taught to or independently discovered by a
young child.
 He argued that all children have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD), a
biologically based innate system that contains a set of rules common to all
languages.
 It permits children, not matter which language they hear, to speak in a rule-
oriented fashiln as soon as they have picked up enough words.
 House the in the left hemisphere of the cortex are the two
language-specific structures namely the Broca’s area and the
Wernicke’s area.
 Broca’s area, located in the frontal lobe, controls language
production
 Wernicke’s area, located in the temporal lobe, is responsible for
interpreting language.
 As children acquire language, the brain becomes increasingly
specialized for language processing.
LANGUAGE AREAS IN THE BRAIN
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE

 In recent years, new ideas about language development have arise emphasizing
interactions between inner capacities and environmental influences.
 The theory stresses the social context of language learning. An active child, well
endowed for acquiring language, observes and participates in social exchanges.
 From these experiences, children gradually buid a communication system that
relates the form and content of language to its social meaning .
 According to this view, native capacity, a strong desire to interact with others, and
a rich language and social environment combine to assist children in discovering
the functions and regularities of language
 Approximate Age Milestone

2 months Infants coo, making pleasurable vowel sounds

4 months on Infants and parents establish joint attention, and parents often verbally
label what the baby is looking at

6-14 months Infants babble, adding consonants to the sounds of the cooing period and
repeating syllables. By 7 months, babbling of hearing infants starts to
include many sounds of mature spoken languages. Deaf babies exposed to
sign language babble with their hands.

6-14 months Infants become capable of playing simple games, such as pat-a-cake and
peekaboo, these provide practice in conversational turn-taking and also
highlight the meaning and function of spoken words.

8-12 months Infants begin using preverbal gestures, such as showing and pointing, to
influence the behavior of others. Word comprehension first appears.

12 months Infants sya their first recognizable word

18-24 months Vocabulary expands from about 50 to 200 words

20-26 months Toddlers combine two words

 Age Range Milestone
Between 2 Identifies body parts; calls self “me” instead of name;
and 3 combines nouns and verbs; has a 450-word vocabulary;
uses short sentences; matches 3-4 colors; knows big and
little; likes to hear same story repeated ; forms some plurals;
answers “where” questions
Between 3 Can tell a story; sentence length of 4-5 words; vocabulary
and 4 about 1000 words; knows last name, name of street, several
nursery rhymes
 Age Range Milestone
Between 4 and 5 Sentence length of 4-5 words; uses past tense; vocabulary of
about 1500 words; identifies colors, shapes; asks many
questions like “why?” and “who?”
Between 5 and 6 Sentence length of 5-6 words; average 6-year-old has a
vocabulary of about 10,000 words;; defines objects by their
use; knows spatial relations (like “on top” and “far”) and
opposites; knows address; understands same an different;
uses all types of sentences