1. Language development in childrenDr. Reem Al-SabahDept. of
Community Medicine & Behavioral Sciences
2. Why is language important? Language is our primary means of
communicating thought. Language is universal (all human cultures).
Every human being of normal intelligence acquires his or her native
language and uses it effortlessly.
3. Levels of language Sentence units Words speech
soundsLanguage: a multilevel system for relating thoughts to speech
by means of word and sentence units.
4. The two aspects of language Production: thought sentence
sounds Comprehension: sounds words sentence meaningTwo of the basic
properties of language Structured Productive
5. Language Units and Processes Speech sounds (phonemes):
discrete speech categories In English, all speech sounds are
divided into about 40 phonemes. Example: ee (sweet, heat, thief,
these) ur (burn, first, term heard, work) f (field, photo)
6. Word units (morphemes): The smallest unit of language that
carries meaning. Most morphemes are words (e.g., house, class).
Others are prefixes and suffixes added to words (e.g., prefix un;
suffix ing and ed).
7. Morphemes: Grammatical morphemes: make a sentence
grammatical (e.g., a, the, in, on, ed, ing) Most important aspect
of a word is its meaning, or the name of a concept. Ambiguous
words: name more than one concept.
8. Sentence units: include sentences and phrases. They
correspond to parts of a thought or proposition allowing us to
extract propositions from sentences. Propositions can be divided
into: Subject- noun Predicate (description)- verb Syntactic rules:
structure the parts of a sentence so we can tell what is related to
what. Example: the green bird ate a red snake
9. Effects of Context on Comprehension and ProductionFigure 9.3
Levels of Understanding and Producing Sentences. Inproducing a
sentence, we translate a propositional thought into thephrases and
morphemes of a sentence and translate thesemorphemes into phonemes.
In understanding a sentence, we go inthe opposite direction-we use
phonemes and phrases of a sentenceand from these units extract the
underlying propositions
10. Language and the Brain Two regions of the left hemisphere
of the brain critical for language: Brocas area- controls speech
Wernickes area language understanding
11. Damage to either of these areas leads to specific kinds of
aphasia (breakdown or deficit in language) Brocas aphasia:
(expressive aphasia) difficulty pronouncing words correctly. Speak
in a slow, labored way. Their speech makes sense but includes only
key words. Disruption at level of syntax (syntactic deficit)
12. Wernickes aphasia: (receptive aphasia) Unable to comprehend
words Can hear words, but dont know their meanings. Disruption at
level of words and concepts (Conceptual deficit).Conduction
aphasia: problems in repeating a spoken sentence.
13. The Development of Language Infants appear to be
preprogrammed to learn phonemes, but need years to learn the rules.
Children are able to discriminate among different sounds which
correspond to different phonemes in any language.
14. The Universal Sequence First noises and gestures Make a
variety of sounds even in the first weeks of life. Newborns prefer
to listen to high-pitched, simplified, and repetitive adult speech
(baby-talk, motherese/parentese, child-directed speech) Babbling
6-9 months, babies begin to repeat certain syllables (ma-ma-ma,
da-da-da, ba-ba-ba) accompanied by rhythmic gestures (waving of
arms). Deaf babies make babbling sounds later and less frequently,
but are advanced in their use of gestures (manual babbling).
15. First Words About 1 year of age, the average baby speaks
(or signs) a few words. Children learn words that name concepts
familiar in their environment (family members, food, body parts).
Over the first years of life, children learn which phonemes are
relevant to their language and lose the ability to discriminate
between sounds that correspond to the same phoneme in their
language (e.g., Japanese children and /l/ and /r/)
16. Overextend: applying words to similar concepts (12-30
months) . vocabulary development speeds up. Next children learn
sentences, one word utterances, next telegraphic speech, and then
elaborate their noun and verb phrases.
17. Best Time to learn any languageWhen is the best time?
Childhood (ages 2-6yrs) appears to be a sensitive period for many
language skills. Vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation are rapidly
and easily learned.
18. Why is early childhood the best time to learn language?
1.The developing brain: dendrites and neurological areas for
language learning grow rapidly during these years. 2. The social
context: young children are motivated to be social. Want to
communicate, not embarrassed to be wrong.
19. How do children acquire language? Learning Innate
factorsLearning Imitation and conditioning Hypothesis testing:
children learn a rule, test it, and retain it if it works. Example:
adding ed to regular verbs to form the past tense of a word
(cook-cooked). Irregular verbs (go-went, break-broke).
20. Innate factors All children go through the same sequence of
language development. Deaf children Critical periods. Especially
for acquiring sound systems of a new language. First few months of
life critical for learning phonemes of native language.
21. Critical Periods Learning the sound system of another
language (speech sounds). Learning syntax. Native ASL speakers were
better at understanding and producing words with multiple morphemes
(e.g., untimely). Children exposed to extreme isolation (e.g., the
case of Genie).
22. Can other species learn human language? They have
communication systems different from humans. Apes are able to
develop human-like vocabulary but cannot combine their signs in the
way humans do.
23. Teaching Children to Read Fluently Talking (without too
many commands) and reading to young children. An extensive
vocabulary and awareness of sounds are more important than
memorizing the alphabet and recognizing the letters. An extensive
vocabulary and awareness of sounds develop naturally if child is
read to at least daily and discusses what is read.
24. Learning to ReadA B C D E F G H IJ K L M N O P Q RS T U V W
X Y Z
25.
26. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
27. The importance of readingReading aloud to young children is
not onlyone of the best activities to stimulate language
andcognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curiosity,
andmemory. Bardige, B. Talk to Me, Baby!(2009), Paul H Brookes Pub
Co.
28. Reading aloud to children linked to young childrens
emergent literacy ability. Phonological awareness and alphabet
knowledge. Stimulate oral language skills (vocabulary, syntactic
and semantic processes, and narrative discourse processes such as
memory, storytelling and comprehension and reading ability).
involves parents and other important adults to the child in a
focused interaction. Duursma, Augustyn, & Zuckerman (2008)