Early Language Development

 

 

Newborn Period

 

          Crying as a form of communication

                  

                   Average newborn cries between 30 minutes to 3 hours per day

 

While early research suggested parents can identify babies needs from the type of cry, more current work suggests they are only able to assess the level of stress

 

Adults have clear physiological responses to cries of distress

 

Early Recognition of mother’s voice

 

          Experiment 1:

                   Hears “pat-pat-pat” followed by mother’s voice

                   Hears “pst-pst-pst”  followed by stranger’s voice

                  

                   After conditioning period, infants sucked more to turn on mother’s voice

 

 

Early Discrimination of phoneme distinctions

 

          Using HAS methods infants discriminate B/P distinction (Eimas)

Discrimination is lost approximately 6 to 8 wks, although it can be relearned (McClelland)

 

Early discrimination of morphemes

 

          How do infants pick out words from a continuous stream of sound?

 

                   Languages differ in:

                             Stress

                             Vowel emphasis

                             Tonal Quality

                             Timing

 

          Methods used to study:

                             Habituation

                             High Amplitude Sucking

                             Operant Conditioning

                             Reaction Times

 

Findings:

 

From 2 to 6/8 months of age infants can their native language from a foreign language, even when presented with similar languages    

Visual cues: By 10 to 16 weeks infants recognize synchrony with delays of on 400ms

 

What about accents and the role of parents versus others?

 

Baby Talk:

 

          High Pitched

          Highly Modulated

          Long pauses

          Slow

          Exaggerated motions and expressions

 

 

          Tells infants “this talk is for you”

 

          Emotions are strongly conveyed, eg,  “STOP”   “HALT”  “ARRETE”

 

          Discriminations are easier (e.g., malana vs marana)

 

          Gender discriminated easier

 

Babbling

 

          Distinction between cooing and babbling

 

                   More like language

                   Modified by tongue and lips

                   Accompanied by eye contact

                   Includes pauses

                   Conditioned by adults

 

          Is an innate behavior beginning at 4 to 6 months even among deaf infants (e.g., Petitto)

 

 

          From 4 to 8 months, infants refine babbling to be closer to native language

                  

                   Modify types of sounds made

                   Syllables are strung together (e.g., dadada)

                   Intonations begin (e.g, questions)

 

          Why infants babble?

 

                   Practice of sounds and intonations of language

                             (changes as tracheal tube enlarges until 17 months)

 

                   Increase in the range of sounds made

 

Comprehension of Words

 

          Recognition of name by 4 months even when controlling for tonal stress

 

          Name increases discrimination and attention to words in embedded sentences

 

                   e.g., DoberrayrayboSALLYyadayada…  (last part stands out)

 

 

Early Words

 

          Most common objects

 

          Typically: over and under extended or completely novel in meaning