1. PSYC 206
Lifespan Development
Bilge Yagmurlu

2. Basic Domains of Language Acquisition
Phonological development
Semantic development
Grammar development
Pragmatic development

3. Phonological Development
The process of learning how to segment strings of speech sounds into meaningful units.
Phoneme:sounds that differ and make a difference in meaning in a particular language
Minimal pairs: pat vs. bat; /p/ and /b/ as two phonemes
Examples in Turkish: yar vs. kar; al vs. ar

4. Semantic Development Semantic development:
The process of learning the meanings of words and word combinations.
Components:
Expressive and receptive vocabulary
E.g., can say 10 words at 14 months and 300 words at year 2.

5. What kinds of words are first words?
Bates et al., Nelson: nearly 65% of child’s first 50 words are common nouns. Verbs, adjectives, other words each account for less than 10%
Research in non-English languages?
Chinese and Korean children have many verbs in their early speech
These languages are rich verbal morphology
Korean and Japanese-speaking mothers used fewer nouns than English-speaking mothers

6. Grammar Development Definition of grammar development:
The process of learning the rules of a particular language for sequencing words in a sentence, and word parts within words.
Syntactic bootstrapping: use of knowledge of grammar to figure out the meaning of new words

7. Grammar Development Syntactic bootstrapping:
7 months: Sensitive to ordering of words in simple sentences and can abstract patterns of word usage from such sentences
children use the syntactic frames in which verbs are presented as a source of information about their meaning.
rapid acquisition of language skill in an informal manner 7

8. Pragmatic Development
Definition of pragmatic development:
The process of learning the social and cultural conventions that govern how language is used in particular contexts.
Functions:
To use context to interpret communications
Making requests, apologies, how to open phone calls etc.

9. Pragmatic Development
Children with autism tend to have problems with pragmatics. They don't understand the small nuances that go on in a conversation, the socially acceptable things to do during a conversation.
Without a good understanding of the pragmatics, children will miss a huge part of communication and have a large amount of trouble learning to express feelings and thoughts. 9

10. Pragmatic Development
Referential communication
being able to package the info in a way that takes into account the perceptual and informational status of the listener
shows development throughout preschool ages
related to children´s developing theory of mind 10

11. Keys to Language Two keys to the world of language
Normal human biological structures and processes
Active participation in language-using community
With these two keys, young children enter a symbolic universe that is distinctively human.

12. Explanation of Language Acquisition
Three distinctive approaches
Biological
Social and Cultural
Cognitive

13. Biological Explanations
Perspective: Our brains are hard wired to learn a language. Biologically programmed sensitivity to language is present at birth, which develops as the child matures
Noam Chomsky’s theory: heredity, innate ability
Development is triggerred via Language Acquisition Device (LAD). We are programmed to recognize the deep structures that underlie any particular language that the child may hear

14. Social and Cultural Explanations
Perspective
Emphasizes the role of environment
Social interactions
Bruner’s Language Acquisition Support System (LASS): behaviors and formatted events within which children acquire language
Environmental complement to LAD

15. Cognitive Approaches Perspective:
Language abilities follow from increasing ability to think and process information
Schemas for actions with objects, ability to represent the world mentally, presence of lexical principles
Mechanisms: assimilation-accommodation
Switch from collective monologues to true dialogs. Related to egocentrism.

16. Biological Prerequisites
Chimpanzees
After years of hard work, chimpanzees can learn several dozen signs, in combinations similar to a 2-year-old; but children with no special training learn thousands of words in a relatively short time span
Down syndrome
Restricted vocabulary and simple grammar suggest that normal language development requires normal cognitive function, at least in certain key areas

17. Role of the Environment
Deaf children whose parents won’t sign and hearing children raised by deaf parents develop basic rudiments of grammar (2- or 3-word phrases), but not more complex ones