Speaker 1: Welcome back. Today. We're going to be talking about language
development across the lifespan. So we'll look at pre linguistic communication,
vocabulary growth, grammar acquisition, and pragmatic use. We'll look at
Chomsky's anti US approach, behaviorist reinforcement, and bilingual development. So
the first thing we'll look at is pre linguistic communication.
Language begins before words through sound, attention and social connection.
So cooping is about six to eight weeks vowel like
sounds signaling comfort or engagement. Babbling is about four to
six months in repetition of consonant vowel sequence like ba
or da. Canonical babbling is well formed syllables, and variegated
babbling is changing patterns, the signal maturation of vocal motor pathways.
Joint attention in between nine to twelve months, shared focus
between infant and caregiver and a common object or event.
This also predicts vocabulary growth and social language. Failure to
engage in joint attention as a red flag for autism
spectrum disorder, especially when combined with limited eye contact or
gesture use. Vocabulary acquisition language takes off an early childhood
with an explosion of words and meanings. So the first
words within ten to fifteen months often nouns or familiar objects,
naming explosion, rapid vocabulary expansion. Children may add ten to
twenty new words per week in the eighteen to twenty
four month period. That's a considerable amount. By eight six
which where read you know from the ericson stages and
the pha stages. Right now, you're in pre operational stage.
Most children know ten thousand plus words, and they're heading
into concrete operation stage, which is like seven to eleven.
I think adults know about twenty to thirty thousand. Children
rely on fast mapping, the ability to quickly connect a
word to its meaning after minimal exposure. A two year old,
for instance, with fewer than fifty words I remember, they're
adding ten to twenty words a way, or he does
not combine words may require language evaluation. Grammar emerges in
structured stages, mirroring cognitive growth. So again, if you have
a two year old, they're probably going to know at
least five hundred and one thousand words. Two word utterances
between a year and a half to three years of
age is more juice Daddy go. It shows understanding of
syntax and relational meaning. Telegraphic speech which omits non essential
words but preserves meaning mommy E. Cookie, lacks articles or
auxiliary verbs. Grammar refinement starts running around three to six,
use of plurals, past tens, prepositions, over regularization, god or
tooths reflect rule learning. By age five, most children use
complex sentences and show basic subject verb agreement. Again, brains
rapidly changing at this point also depends that the firstborn
are the only a lot of exposure to adult language.
Also the educational level parents are going to influence this later.
Disordered late or disordered grammar development is characteristic of a
specific language impairment, especially when vocabulary or non verbal cognition
are intact. Pragmatic skills refers to how languages use socially, tone, turntaking,
topic maintenance, and adjusting. Preschoolers begin using language for different
purposes requesting, commenting, questioning. By age five, children typically understand
conversational norms and begin to tailor speech to listener perspective.
So pragmatic deficits here you're looking for as poor topic maintenance,
limited understanding of irony, so autism spectrum disorder could be here.
Social use of language is impaired despite adequate vocabulary and grammar.
It's pragmatic language disorder. So pragmatic issues often co occur
with social emotional challenges. Now, let's look at a theory.
We'll look at three theories. One by A. Chopsky the
nativist theory, where the language is biologically hardwired. He proposed
a language acquisition device that allows you to extract grammatical
structure from speech, supported by a universal grammar pattern. Similar
acquisition across cultures and generativity and speech saying things never
heard before behavior is Skinner had. Another one he learned
language learned via operant conditioning, reinforcement, and invitation. Critics argue
it cannot fully explain, though the complexity or speed of
grammar learning. Another one is vice Scott Bygotsky, called social interactionist.
Language development emerges from biological potential, and social interaction emphasizes scaffolding,
joint attention which we talked to earlier, and cultural input.
Parent child interaction and inventions often use this framework. Most
modern views integrate all three, recognizing the role of brain maturation,
social experience and feedback, bilingual development, and set of periods.
Let's look at bilinguals simultaneous bilinguals learn two languages from birth.
Sequential bilinguals learn a second language after the first is established.
Bilingual children may show initial delays in vocabulary size per language,
but total language knowledge is comparable. Code switching is normal
and reflects language control, not confusion. Critical or sensitive periods
suggests an optimal window likely before age seven again for
acquiring native like grammar and pronunciation, supported by research on
second language learners and deprivation studies. Delays in bilingual children
must be carefully evaluated to avoid misdiagnosing language different language disorder.
So again, six months is babbling responds to name, twelve
months first words, joint attention, eight to twenty four months,
naming explosion, two word phases, learning ten to twenty words
a week, three years, use of plural simple questions, four
to five full sentences, conversational skills kick in six plus
is mental linguistic awareness, language disorders, specific language impairment. The
later impaired grammar and sudden structure not due to hearing loss,
intellectual disability, or neurological disorders, so those have to be
ruled out. May persist into adolescents and impact academic achievement,
pragmatic language disorder difficulty using language in socially appropriate ways.
Man resemble high functioning autism, but lacks restricted interests or
repetitive behavior. It affects for peer relationships and classroom behavior. Dyslexia,
deficit in phonological processing, not vision or intelligence, trouble decoding words, spelling, influency.
Intervention involves explicit phonics, instruction and accommodations, clinical applications. Early
language intervention programs like It Takes Two to Talk or
PECS Picture Exchange Communications System target young children with expressive
or receptive delays, distinguishing different disorder. Bilingual or dialectic speakers
been shown. Non standard language forms like AAVE grammar that
are rule based and not deficient also use dynamic assessment
to test learning potential, language and cognitive development. Language delays
can impact executive function, emotion regulation, and academic success. Narrative
ability reflects broader cognitive development. How children organize, experience, remember,
and solve problems. That pretty much wraps it. You see.
Languages of the bridge between the internal and the external,
and for children to learn to name and explain and
persuade language opens the door to learning and friendship and
finding out who they are. So it's really interesting to
see how language develops in a child. Next time, we'll
talk about social and emotional development across the lifespan