Infants’ and toddlers’ effortless development of spoken language has led to several theories seeking to explain how this acquisition occurs, and which environmental or innate features drive the development.
Skinner and the other Behaviorists were not entirely wrong when they claimed that children learn language from competent adults, and that it is through a system of feedback that children refine their language use. Although this theory cannot explain everything about language acquisition, it does help us to understand the importance of some of the earliest language that children are exposed to.
Conversational Patterns
If you have ever spent time with a pre-lingual baby, you have probably engaged in the critical practice of patterning conversation – and you probably did it without even realizing that you were engaging in a major developmental process. As babies begin to babble, they not only start to experiment with the phones of the languages they hear, but also with the intonations and speech patterns of the speakers around them. Mothers, fathers, and other caregivers are important first models not just for the sounds of speech, but also for the back and forth of conversation.
It is a common Western practice for adults to “talk” to babies long before the infant can respond in conventional speech, yet in these conversations the babies often do a lot of the talking! Caregivers, parents, and other adults frequently engage in the practice of modeling by responding to babies’ speech as if it were in fact comprehensible language, and then taking turns to allow the baby to “talk” more. Imagine the quite common scenario of a parent making dinner while the infant rests in a bouncy chair on a nearby countertop or in a swing. The baby babbles away, watching the parent prepare dinner. As the baby pauses in speech, the parent takes the opportunity to “respond” to what the infant has been “saying.” Perhaps the parent describes what he is doing or agrees with the baby– “You’re right, we should have added more garlic!” The parent then pauses, giving the baby a chance to babble another “response” in the conversational chain, to which the parent again replies. This time the parent asks a question (“Do you think the puppy would like these scraps?”) or disagrees with what the baby has said (“Oh, I don’t know – that seems like a lot of cheese for one person…”) and so on, in
direct response to the inflection, volume, or facial expressions of the baby as she “talks.”
These episodes of modeling conversation are essential for helping infants figure out not only what the sounds of their language are, but also how language can be used between two people. In each exchange, the infant is exposed to a repetition of the phonemes of the language around her, helping her brain to narrow down the range of possible sounds that can be speech. This also helps the infant to more reliably mark the boundaries of words and phrases. Finally, this provides critical information about the patterns of discourse, including how users share conversational responsibilities (if you pause, then it is my turn to talk).
Although we tend to think of language as a cognitive process, it has a very real set of physical constraints. As newborns, babies’ brains are already tuned in to the language around them, and they quickly begin to pick up sounds in their environment. It does not take long before infants are trying out those sounds, babbling away to themselves while their parents are trying to get them to go to sleep! Over hours of practice, infants become increasingly adept at forming sounds, at imitating speech patterns, and at attempting individual words. But as all of that is happening, there is a lot of physical growth that must also occur. At birth, an infant’s tongue is disproportionately large for the mouth, and the musculature that is necessary for speech hasn’t developed fully. But over the course of the first year of life, these physical barriers to speech are resolved and by the time they are a year old, most babies have one or two words they produce reliably along with a diverse collection of almost-words that are the baby’s developing attempts at spoken language.
How does language develop in infancy? Crying is present at birth. It signals distress. Cooing begins at about 1 to 2 months. Babbling occurs in the middle of the first year. (Ma Ma, Da Da) Gestures begin at about 8 to 12 months. This is about the same for children who can hear and children who are deaf. From birth to 6 months, infants are “citizens of the word”. They recognize most sound changes in any language. After 6 months, infants learn their own language and gradually lose the ability to recognize sound changes in other languages.
The first words occur between 10 to 15 months. The holophrase hypothesis states that there is a time when infants say one word that implies a whole sentence. (For example, “juice” means “I would like some juice in my sippy cup.”) Infants understand about 50 words at 13 months (receptive language) but they are unable to say them until about 18 months (spoken vocabulary).
Children have a huge amount of growth in language from 18 months to 2 years. This is called the vocabulary spurt. They speak 50 words at 18 months and 200 words at two years. Toddlers use short and precise two-word utterances to communicate–telegraphic speech. Biology influences language development. Human language is about 100,000 years old and is strongly influenced by biology. The vocal apparatus has evolved over the years. The brain plays a large role in language development. Aphasia is brain damage that involves a loss of ability to use words. Broca’s area is the brain’s left frontal lobe that directs the muscle movements involved in speech production. Wernicke’s area is in the brain’s left hemisphere. It is involved in language comprehension.
Noam Chomsky believes that humans are biologically prewired to learn language. Children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD), a biological ability to learn language. Children all over the world reach language milestones at the same time.
However, there is a critical period for learning language. One of the most famous examples of this is the story of Genie, a girl who suffered severe emotional abuse and neglect. She was kept in a closet for many years and was never spoken to. At age 14 she was finally rescued and placed in a loving home with many people working together to help her. Even after years of professional interventions she was never able to progress past the stage of toddler speech. She had passed the critical period and was stunted in her growth. She was only able to learn to speak 50 words and was unable to combine them into full sentences.
Preschoolers experience rapid language learning. Critics argue that learning continues beyond preschool. The behavioral view states that language is a complex skill which is learned and reinforced. Biology cannot explain creativity or the orderliness of language; individual differences exist.
Environmental influences impact children’s language development as well. Parents’ talkativeness, vocabulary and level of language is linked to children’s vocabulary growth. Parents often use child directed speech. This is spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences. It holds an infant’s attention and maintains communication.
Other strategies used to encourage infant speech include recasting, rephrasing what a child says, expanding, adding more sophisticated vocabulary to what a child says, and labeling, assigning and identifying objects by name.
Parents can stimulate infants’ language development by being an active conversational partner, talking as if an infant understands what you are saying, and using a comfortable language style.
Parents can stimulate toddlers’ language development by being an active listener, using comfortable language while expanding language abilities, avoiding sexual stereotypes, and resisting making comparisons.
The interactionist view of language development states that biology and sociocultural experiences contribute to language development. Parents and teachers construct a language acquisition support system. Children acquire native language without explicit teaching. Children learn by modeling their parents’ language.
