Chapter 5

1. Chapter 5 Infancy: Let the Language Achievements Begin!

2. Focus Questions This chapter is designed to address the following questions: • What major language development milestones occur in infancy? • What are some of the early foundations for language development? • What major achievements in language content, form, and use characterize infancy? • What factors influence infants’ individual achievements in language? • How do researchers and clinicians measure language development in infancy?

3. Introduction • Receptive language abilities grow ___________ ____________ • Overview of major milestones in language development infants achieve over the course of their _______________ • _________________ for language development • Infants’ achievements in language _________, ____, and ______ • __________________ among children developing language • Methods that researchers and clinicians use to measure _____________________________

4. Infant Speech Perception • Infants learning language must be able to __________________________________ __________________________________ • Speech perception ability, the ability to devote attention to the ________and ________ regularities of speech, develops greatly over the first year • Large patterns (rhythm) to smaller patterns (combinations of specific sounds)

5. Using Prosodic Regularities • Prosodic characteristics: • Frequency:_______________ • Duration:_________________ • Intensity:_________________ • Combinations produce distinguishable _______ and _____________ patterns that infants can detect. • Stress: ____________________________________ __________________________ • Intonation: _________________________________ ___________________________________________

6. Using Prosodic Regularities, cont • Infants become familiar with the dominant stress patterns of one’s _______________ • English: strong/weak stress (trochaic) patterns • Preference for the dominant stress patterns of one’s language can help infants begin to ___________________________________

7. Using Phonetic Regularities • Phonetic details of speech: • ______________________ • ______________________ • Infants who are not yet learning words devote greater attention to the _______________________ • Older children concentrate their efforts on _____________ at the expense of fine phonetic detail (Stager & Werker, 1997)

8. Detecting Non-native Phonetic Differences • Ability to notice fine phonetic detail ___________________________________ • In the first year, infants are able to distinguish among the sounds of the _______________________ • _____________________________________ • As infants develop and become attuned to the sounds they hear on a regular basis, their ability to _____________________________________ _______________________________________

9. Detecting Phonotactic Regularities • Phonotactic regularities: _____________________ _________________________________________ • As infants hear their native language more and more, they also develop the ability to recognize phonotactic regularities • Examples: /ps/ and /h/ • Ability to detect phonotactic regularities in one’s language helps infants ____________________ _______________________________________ • Infants’ ability to differentiate between permissible and impermissible sequences of sounds in their native language present by about ____________

10. Categorical Perception of Speech • Children’s perception of speech is categorical– _________________________________________ • Children categorize incoming sounds into______ and _________________ • We are able to distinguish between sounds in different categories (/p/ vs. /b/), but without special training, we are not able to distinguish between _________________________________ (the first and last /p/ sounds in pup) • Allophones: ______________________________ _________________________________

11. Categorical Perception of Speech, cont • Voice onset time: _________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ______________________ • Used to distinguish between sounds in different categories

12. Awareness of Action • By_______, infants can distinguish between __________ and __________ actions • Appear to focus upon the intentions underlying actions rather than the physical details of the actions • By_______, infants understand rational _______ as means to a ______, even when they are not able to view the entire context in which an action takes place

13. Awareness of Action, cont • Infants’ awareness of ____________ and their understanding of _______ ______________________________ is an important precursor for language development

14. Category Formation • Ability ___________, or to group items and events according to the perceptual and conceptual features they share is _______________________________ • One of infants’ earliest developing and most robust predictors of later cognitive and linguistic outcomes • Infants’ ability to form categories between ______________ of age is predictive of their general cognitive abilities and language abilities at _______ years and of cognitive outcomes at _____ years of age

15. Category Formation Cont. • Infants’ first categories are _________ ___________ and first words are _____ _____________ • Two basic types of categories that infants utilize at each level of the hierarchy: __________ categories and __________ categories

16. Perceptual Categories • Based on _______________________, to include color, shape, texture, size, etc. • Used to ______________________ objects around them • __________ categorization describes knowing what something looks like, whereas ___________ categorization describes knowing what something is

17. Conceptual Categories • Based on what ________, rather than what they look like • Used to make ______________ about new objects without relying on perceptual similarity at all • Languages differ in how they ________ these concepts and children who are learning different languages ultimately come to perceive the world in different ways because of the way their language categorizes concepts

18. Early Vocalizations • Infants follow a fairly ________ pattern in their early use of vocalizations • Stage model: _____________________________ _____________________________ • Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development (SAEVD; Nathani, Ertmer, & Stark, 2000) • 6 distinct stages of early vocalization development: • Reflexive (0-2 months) • Control of phonation (1-4 months) • Expansion (3-8 months) • Control of articulation (3-8 months) • Canonical syllables (5-10 months) • Advanced forms (9-18 months)

19. Reflexive (0-2 Months) • Reflexive sounds: _____________________ ___________________ • Sounds of ________ and ______ (crying, fussing) • Vegetative sounds produced during feeding (burping, coughing) • No control over the __________________ produced • Adults tend to respond as if they are ____ communication attempts

20. Control of Phonation (1-4 Months) • ______ and ______ sounds • ____________ and some nasalized sounds (airflow directed through nose) • Infants typically produce consonant sounds ______________________ (e.g., “gooo”) • ___________________ are easier for infants to produce than those sounds that require more precise manipulation of the tongue, lips, or teeth

21. Infant Video

22. Expansion (3-8 months) • Gain more control over the ____________ • Produce series of ________________ as well as vowel glides • Experiment with the ___________ and ______ of their voices • Yell, growl, squeal, and make raspberries and trills • Early infant vocalizations are one component of a _________________________________, whereby patterns of mother-infant communication relate to infant vocalizations

23. Control of Articulation (3-8 months) • Marginal babbling: ______________ ______________________________ • Emerge as infants gain control of their articulation

24. Canonical Syllables (5-10 months) • True babbling appears • Contains pairs of _________________ (called CV sequences when the consonant precedes the vowel) • Reduplicated: ______________________ (ma ma ma ma ) • Non-reduplicated or variegated: non-repeating consonant and vowel combinations (da ma goo ga) • Infants prefer _________ and __________ in their variegated babbling

25. Advanced Forms (9-18 Months) • Diphthongs: ___________________________ _____________________________________ • More complex combinations of consonants and vowels • CVC • CCV • VCV • Jargon: ________________________________ _______________________________________ • Not true words because not referential and don’t convey meaning

26. What Are Some of the Early Foundations for Language Development? • Foundations for later language development • _______________________ • _______________________ • _______________________ • _______________________ • Importance of the _____________ in language development • Linguistic input _______ provide • ___________________ that infants engage in with others

27. Infant-Directed Speech • Also called _________, _____, and ______-directed speech • Speech we use in communicative situations with young language learners • Paralinguistic characteristics: ________________ ________________________________________ • High overall pitch, exaggerated pitch contours, slower tempos (as compared to adult-directed speech) • Syntactic characteristics: ______________ of utterance (MLU), few subordinate clauses, more content words, fewer function words

28. Infant-Directed Speech, cont • Discourse features: _______________, _____ ___________________________________ • Attracts infants’ attention and infants prefer it to adult-directed (AD) speech, even as ___________ • Aids in communicating _______________ ________________________ • Adults might ____________ modify the prosody (i.e., stress and rhythm) of their speech to infants

29. Infant-Directed Speech, cont • Contains _______________ • Highlights ___________ (e.g., nouns, verbs) relative to function words (e.g., prepositions, articles) • Places these words on _______________________ __________________________________________ _________________________ • Exaggerates ________, creating a salient cue to help infants detect major syntactic units in speech

30. Phase One: Birth to Six Months – Attendance to Social Partners • Infants develop patterns of ______________ _______________ • Infants value and participate in __________ _________, learning how to maintain attention and be “organized” with sustained periods of engagement • Interested in looking at people’s faces, especially the ___________________ • _______________________ is an important feature

31. Phase Two: Six Months to One Yr.– Emergence & Coord. Of Joint Attention • __________________________________ __________________________________ • Begin to navigate attention between an ___________________________________ • Signals the emergence of joint attention • Joint attention: ______________________ ___________________________________ ________________. • Symbolizes a critical avenue for early communication development; fosters important communicative exchanges

32. Phase Two: Six Months to One Year, Cont • Supported joint engagement: ___________ ___________________________________ _______________________________ • maintaining infant’s attention related to an infant’s ability to engage in sustained attention at _______ (Bono & Stifter, 2003) • redirecting infant’s attention _________ related to infants’ ability to engage in sustained attention (Bono & Stifter, 2003)

33. Phase Two: Six Months to One Year, cont • In the absence of joint attention, infants may ____________________________________ • By about 16 to 19 months, infants are adept at using several cues to support inferences about a speakers’ referential intentions • ________________ • ________________ • ________________ • ________________

34. Phase Two: Six Months to One Year, Cont • Intersubjective awareness: ______________ ____________________________________ _____________________ • Intentional communication: ____________ ___________________________________ _____________ • When infants have intersubjective awareness, they begin to interpret others’ referential actions as intentional and begin to use their own actions referentially

35. Phase Two: Six Months to One Year, Cont • Indicators of intentionality include (Bates, Camaioni, & Volterra, 1975): • _____________________________________ ____________________ • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ _____________________________________ ___________________________________

36. Phase 2: 6 Months to 1 Year Cont. • Imperative pointing: ___________________ ___________________; around 10 mos. • Declarative pointing: __________________ _______________________ • Call adult’s attention to objects, and to comment on objects • Produce and understand _______ pointing later than understand and produce ________ pointing • Production of declarative pointing is linked to infants’ ____________________________

37. Phase Three: One Year and Beyond • Children begin to incorporate language into their _______________________________ • Able to engage socially with others and to use language to __________________________ ______________________ • Active involvement of __________________ is still important during this phase

38. Theory to Practice • Theories about language development and the research that these theories propagate are making an increasing impact on our _____________ and even influence the products we buy for our infants

39. Routines of Infancy • Provide a sense of ________ and _________ and many opportunities for language learning • Provide opportunities to engage in episodes of ________________________ • By hearing words and phrases repeatedly, infants learn about the sounds and structure of their language • ________________ • ________________

40. Caregiver Responsiveness • Describes caregivers’ __________________ to infants’ vocalizations and communicative attempts • Teaches infants that others value their behaviors and communicative attempts • Consistent, contingent, and appropriate responses to an infant’s communication attempts promotes a child’s ability and desire to __________________ _______________ and increases children’s motivation to communicate.

41. Caregiver Responsiveness, cont • More responsive language input by mothers is linked to children’s language milestones, • _________________________ • ________________________ • More important than infant’s own behaviors, such as their vocalizations and play

42. Caregiver Responsiveness, cont • Weitzman & Greenberg (2002) key indicators of caregiver responsiveness: • _____________________ • _____________________ • _____________________ • _____________________ • _____________________ • _____________________ • _____________________

43. What Major Achievements in Language Content, Form, and Use Characterize Infancy? • 3 rule-governed domains: content, form, and use • Content: ______________________________ ________________________________ • Vocabulary system, lexicon • Form: _________________________________ ______________________________________ • Use: __________________________________ ______________________________________ __________________________________

44. Language Content • Produce first true word at _____mos, on average • Usually refer to salient people and objects in infants’ everyday lives • 3 criteria for a true word: • ______________________ • ______________________ • __________________________________________ __________________________________________ • Must be able to ___________ words to several appropriate cases for them to meet the criteria for a true word.

45. Language Form • When infants begin to use true words, they generally utter these words in ______________________________ before they begin to _____________ _______________________

46. Language Use • Communicate intentionally (usually by 8 months of age) by using a variety of pre-verbal language functions (Kent, 1994): • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________

47. What Factors Influence Infants’ Individual Achievements in Language? • 4 main areas that exhibit substantial variability • Variations in _________ and ________ language development • Variations in rate of _____________________ • Variations in ______________________ • Variations at the extremes of the ______ _____________

48. Variation in Receptive and Expressive Language Development • At all stages of life, __________ language development outpaces _________ language development • Language comprehension requires only that we retrieve words from our _______, whereas language production requires that we retrieve words and apply proper ______________________________

49. Variation in Receptive & Expressive Language Development Cont. • With language ___________, sentences are pre-organized with lexical items, a syntactic structure, and intonation as we hear them 3. Language that adults use in communicative interactions with infants is usually highly ___________

50. Variation in Rate of Language Development • Receptive language: _____________ ______________________________ • Expressive language: ____________ ______________________________ _________________________ • Norm referenced measures of language • MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory