Language Sample
Language Sample
Jake is three years and three months old. I have known him since birth and have always found him to be an outgoing young child who has always been willing to talk to anyone after the initial shyness wears off. I have seen him develop linguistically through Browns developmental stages. Without a second thought, he was the child I chose to observe for this language sample.
This language sample was taken on October 12 at his home. I was going to their house for dinner and due to traffic, arrived a bit later than expected. The kids had already eaten and Jake was growing tired. The following is the list of utterances from Jake in a twenty minute time frame.
Whose are these keys
Theyre Dads keys
Dad, here are your keys
No Im not hungry
I want milk
Mommy can I have some milk
Thanks
I finished my milk
All done
Im tired
Can I go to sleep
Someone has to carry me
You have to mom
Can Daddy
Can you Daddy
Can you carry me up to my bed
I want to go to my bed now
Yeah, put me in bed
Goodnight
Goodnight everyone
During the twenty minutes, Jake gave me approximately twenty utterances. With 87 morphemes, Jake has a M.L.U. of 4.35. Jake would fall into the “Late Development of of the Basic Sentence” stage or Browns Stage V. According to Browns figures, Jake falls into a category in which he is advanced for his age, by at least a few months.
When looking at Jakes utterances, several things stand out. He uses contracted forms of the copula, “Im tired” and “Theyre Dads keys”. He showed correct use of the regular past tense with “I finished my milk”. When he asked questions he was able to invert the subject and verb without problems, “can I have some milk?”.