Essay About Languagesthe Babies And Number Of Words

Psych 2aa3 – Child Development Review
Essay Preview: Psych 2aa3 – Child Development Review
Report this essay
Psych 2AA3 Final Exam Review Language development What is language?Definition: A system that relates sounds (or gestures) to meaning.Differs from ‘communication’ in 4 ways:Symbolic, arbitrary units of meaningStructured and meaningfulShows displacementCharacterized by generativity1.2. Structured and meaningful (grammar) children start to speak with grammar without needing to learn it in a class3. Shows displacement – we can communicate about things in the past or the future not just in the now4. Characterized by generativity- we have a certain number of words we know, but we can put the words together in countless ways- we can put old words in new ways to convey new type of meanings- they learn individual words and put them together in sentences[pic 1]phonology- types of sounds that exist in language- tiny unit of sound (sounds of the letter not necessarily the letter itself)Morphology-small unit- but this time its about meaning, dog- single syllable that has meaning, or –ing – all about conveying meaning -Dog- free morphine, and –ing is a bound morphine Semantics-the actual words and their meanings Grammar- how we start to structure our language Pragmatics –looking at how people use language to communicate, knowing how to speak to one type of person vs. another (4 yr old vs. your boss) Creation of a language Hawaiian Pidgin to creole- a system they use to speak to each other but In Hawaii there was people in sugar plantations- from all around the world, all these people spoke dif. LanguagesThey created this Hawaiian pidgin to help them speak to each otherAs time went on it started to be used outside the plantation- so the children who were born to this generation were taught this language and it started to be taught in schools etc. Now this language has a language system and it has pragmatics etc.- the pidgin language that was created became a creole after the second generation children were born into it Creole- stable, natural language that was developed Nicaraguan sign languageBefore the 1970s there weren’t people who were deaf- so they were isolatedMany of them were non linguistics- and they couldn’t communicate with families b/c there was no sign languageTeachers tried their best to try to teach the children as best they could but it wasn’t workingThe children at the school started communicating with each other- combining gestures they use to speak to their parents Younger deaf children that are coming in were starting to put more language into itThey eventually turned it into sophisticated sign language The infant’s linguistic worldDiscriminating between languagesNazzi et al., 1998Whether or not infants can distinguish b/w one language and a dif. Language from birthStudies done by researches in the 90s to answer this questionBabies would prefer to listen to their native lang. vs. other languagesThe babies in this study were French and when they heard French they had a clear preference for it (sucked on their pacifier harder)They had an experimental group of babies- habituated to a lang. (English for example) and their sucking goes down b/c they get bored of the language Infant Directed Speech (aka Motherese)The way we talk to a baby differs: we have a higher pitch voice, and a larger pitch rangeWe also speak to babies slower than we do with adultsSome people call this song- like speaking why do we do this? In all languages and cultures they do this when they are talking to childrenEven when people who have no experience with children will talk like this with childrenHow do babies respond to this? We find that babies that are a few days old prefer this kind of speech rather than adult based speechThis could be due to the facts that children like to hear higher pitchesIt emphasizes vowels so it helps babies distinguish b/w vowels alsoWhen we speak to babies in this way, it’s actually helping them learn language Phoneme perception-Is categoricalPhoneme PerceptionPhoneme perception undergoes perceptual narrowingPerceptual narrowing- when baby is under 6 mos. They discriminate b/w items that are from their native language and their other new languageBabies are interested in new information- when they hear something they haven’t heard before they seem interested (we can measure this by their sucking etc.)The baby can tell the dif. b/w the sounds da and ba- the baby reacted when the sound ba came up and didn’t react to the sounds da12 mos. Old babies have already become specialists in their native languageInfants’ brains “rehearse” speech mechanicsMEG study with 7- and 11-month-olds (Kuhl et al., 2014)Activation in auditory and motor areas measured while listening to native and non-native speech soundsMEG- looking into brain to see where the brain activity is occurring Kuhl was presenting them with native speech sounds, and then presented them with foreign Spanish sounds and measure it with MEGStarting to repeat sounds at these ages, but they aren’t speaking their first words until 1st birthdayIf she presented native and non native speech sounds to 7 mos. Olds they would find activity in the motor areas (brokreas areas) in the brain and in the cerebellum She interpreted this by saying that babies brains are interpreting how the baby would say the sounds themselvesFor the 11 mos. Old babies when they are listening to native sounds- there is more activity in the auditory cortex but less motor activity When they listen to the non native speech sounds- they see more motor activity and less auditory cortex [pic 2]Presenting a video of a person speaking They get the auditory and the visual part of the speechTracked the babies eye gaze while they watched the talking faces on the videoThey recorded a woman speaking both in English and Spanish- and where on the face of the woman the babies lookedDoes that change as they get older? Do they look in dif. Places and does it change when she is speaking the non- native language Graph (native speaker English)- Are they looking more at the eyes or at the mouth? If the bars are below the line they are watching the mouth more- and if they are above the line they are looking at the eyes moreThe 4 mos. olds are looking more at the eyesGraph (non native speaker Spanish)  they start with an interest in the eyes8 – 10 mos. Start having a preference for mouth At 6 mos. Even though it looks like its more eyes- the red is not that much above the line so it isn’t a significant change At 12 mos. They are looking more at the mouth- b/c they haven’t been able to themselves form those sounds b/c Spanish is new to themWhen adults watch other people speaking their non native language (foreign) they spend more time looking at the mouth [pic 3]Cooing- making vowel soundsSimple babbling- their taking one speech sound and repeating itComplex babbling- combining different speech sounds, babies exposed to sign language will start to babble in sign language by moving their hands repeatedly in sign language motions Babbling with intonation-two babies having a discussion by using babbling, they’ve learned about turn takingWord Comprehension vs. ProductionWord comprehension develops before productionChildren understand 50 words before producing 105-month gap between producing 50 words and understanding 50 wordsBabies are going to understand more words that are spoken to them then they are going to speak Early Speech HolophrasesBy about 1-yearE.g. “Ball!”Telegraphic SpeechBy about 1.5-yearsE.g. “Give ball!”Transition to sentencesBy about 2-yearsE.g. “Can you give me the ball please?”Holophrases- single words that convey meaning (they want you to get the ball or give them the ball, it’s the context and gestures that help you understand what they actually want b/c they are only saying that one word)Telegraphic speech- now they are combining a couple of words together to get the meaning across-starting to learn new words really fast- maybe 10 words a week- and then even 10 words a day Transition to sentences- girls reach this level before boys How do children learn words and grammar?Learning words:Fast mapping: learning that helps children narrow down the potential meanings of a new word using context and linguistic informationExclusion word learning by dogs!Learning grammar:Rule learningOver-regularizationFast mapping: the way children narrow down the meaning of the wordFor ex. in terms of context if parent is pointing at object and looking at object then it’s the label of the object- the children assume it’s the whole object not parts of the object (ex. how do the babies know the mom Is trying to tell them it’s a flower and not the Patel)Exclusion word learning- process of elimination, you figure out that it’s a new word plus new object b/c you have never seen/heard of that object before Learning grammar:Rule learning- adding s for plural, and -ing to make it past tense Over regularization- children apply these rules even if it’s not the proper thing to do (he goed to the store, she runned over there)Learning grammar is innateTextbook- look at theories that psychologists went through on how children learn grammar Into adolescence Understanding metaphor, sarcasm, and ironyWhen the statement is really obvious they might not take it to literally- ex. if they the mom tells the boy he’s a fish he might not take in in literal termsChildren also get better at detecting sarcasm, unless it’s very clearly made to seem like sarcasm then they won’t pick it upUnderstanding non literal meaning is developing more into adolescence Encouraging Word Learning with TV ProgramsSome programs encourage word learning (e.g. Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer)Most have no benefitInfant-oriented videos (e.g. Baby Einstein) have no effect on infant word learningThere are many TV programs that encourage educational learning There has been research done that shows Sesame street is helpful with word learningChildren watching sesame street might do better in high school because they actually like the show Most of these programs don’t necessarily have benefits for word learning Encouraging Word Learning through ReadingReading to your child improves vocabThe WAY you read mattersCarefully describing picturesAsking children questionsSummary:Language exposure in the first year of life shapes phoneme perceptionInfants form their first words ~12moThey move from holophrases to telegraphic speech to sentences by 2-years-oldVocabulary and grammar continue to improve throughout childhoodNon-literal meanings understood in adolescenceEmotional development Temperament and attachment –influences on socio-emotional development TemperamentInborn predisposition to behave in certain waysFirst major classification system (Thomas & Chess, 1977)Easy babyDifficult babySlow-to-warm-up babyEffects of environmentCorrelation with adult personality40% of babies fall into easy baby category10% are difficult 15% are slow to warm up35% don’t fit into one of these categories- unclassifiedThis does predict adult personalityEffects of environment: If you are predisposed to be a difficult baby- then its more likely that your parent is an angry parent If a parent has a difficult baby, it’s not set in stone that they will be like that all their lifeIf a parent is understanding that external stimuli is affected on the baby- if the parent is responsive the baby will be less difficultEasy babies can also be ruined by terrible parenting- they will not develop optimally if the parent doesn’t parent right Stability of temperament         Temperament:Surgency/ExtraversionNegative affectEffortful controlMarshmallow Test3 dimensions a baby can full under Surgency/extraversion- happy baby, friendly, social, like new things, enjoy exploring environ. , good mood If their low in surgency/ extraversion- their in bad mood , less social Negative effect- if a baby is high on negative effect then their more likely to get upset, and it’s difficult to sooth them A baby who is high on negative effect- may not get upset easily, and is easily soothedEffortful control – the extent to which a child can focus their attention, and not easily distracted- is their high on this then The ability to resist temptation- is predictive of long term outcome, they have better outcomes The big fiveExtraversionNeuroticism, Openness (low), Extraversion (low)Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, OpennessMature Marshmallow Test (joke)This scale was made up for adults Extraversion- being social, talkative, active etc. babies who are high in extraversion as a baby become extravert adultsNeuroticism- high in negative affect become high in neuroticism and low in openness, willing to seek out new things, more likely to be upset as babiesConsciousness- tendency to be organized, dependable, prefer planned rather than spontaneous behavior Agreeableness-tendency to be compassionate/cooperative, being able to get along with other people Openness AttachmentStrong bond b/w child and caregiver, this bond is important b/c it allows baby to become close to someone who is going to take care of them and protect themFrom the very beginning the baby is designed to form a bond with someone Theoretical background