1. Interactionist Theories
Children are motivated to communicate with others
Children pay attention to “clues” available when language is used
Helps them to learn language

2. Evidence Consistent with Interactionist Theories
Children use a variety of strategies to learn the meaning of new words

3. Fast Mapping:
Process of rapidly learning a new word when a familiar and unfamiliar word are contrasted
Ex: “chromium” and “red”

4. Whole-Object Assumption
Expectation that a novel word refers to a whole object (rather than a part or other aspect of the object)
Ex: “Cat” refers to whole cat, not its whiskers or other parts

5. Mutual Exclusivity Assumption
Expectation that a novel word applies to an unfamiliar object
Ex: “Show me the blicket”

6. Linguistic Context
Grammatical form of a novel word influences children’s interpretation of it
Ex: “sibbing” vs. “a sib” vs. “some sib”

7. Syntactic Bootstrapping
Inferring the meaning of a word based on the grammatical structure of the sentence in which it is used
Ex: “The duck is kradding the rabbit” OR
“The duck and rabbit are kradding”

8. Pragmatic Cues
Aspects of the social context that are used to infer the meaning of words
Direction of gaze
Intentionality

9. Criticisms of Interactionist Theories
The rules involved in language are too complex to be learned simply through paying attention to “clues” available in language
Especially true for syntactic development