386 Language Language Language is a uniquely ...

386 Language Language Language is a uniquely human tool for generating and communicating meaning. Language is a symbol system where a word or phrase stands for or represents something else that can be touched, seen, heard, felt, done, imagined, or thought about. Language fuels intellectual creativ­ ity and mutual understandings among peoples. By the time a baby is eight or nine months old, the part of the brain that stores and indexes many kinds of mem­ ory becomes fully functional. This age is just about when babies begin to be able to attach meanings to words. The Five Domains of Language Children need to master five domains of language in order to succeed at oral lan­ guage and later literacy. These domains are phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. Phonology. Phonemes are speech sounds that signal a difference of meaning. Some phonemes may seem similar, such as "p" and "b," but in English there are pairs of words with very different meanings if one begins with p (pin) and the other begins with b (bin). Voiced phonemes are produced with vocal chord vibration (b, v, d, zL whereas unvoiced phonemes are not produced with a vibration (p, f, t). Some languages allow certain phonemes to be pronounced in sequence whereas others do not. For example, the English language permits "-ng" at the end of a word but not as initial sounds (which occur in Africa, e.g., in the name of the Ngoro-ngoro crater. The earliest sounds babies emit during the first two years are p, m, b, h, n, and w. Sounds such as f and y occur in later tod­ dlerhood. Difficult-to-pronounce pho­ nemes (1 and rl may not be mastered until

the early preschool years. Toddlers omit or make substitutions for phonemes they cannot yet pronounce. Although they cannot say the sounds, very young babies around the world do differentiate the phonemes of all world languages, even when adults cannot. Pruning of this awesome ability starts early. Babies a few weeks old, who easily distinguished among the sounds of differ­ ent languages, lose this ability by six to ten months. Then they focus only on the phonemes of the primary language they are learning and no longer attend to the others. Children learn to pronounce the phonemes of a different language quite like a native if they learn a second lan­ guage prior to about eight to ten years of age. After that, children learning a new language may acquire a large vocabulary, but they will always have an accent in the second language. Syntax. The syntax, or grammar, of a language refers to the orderly rules by which sentences are constructed. Syntax includes the transformations by which a third creates forms from a basic declara­ tive kernel, such as "the cat chases the rat" or "baby likes to eat a banana." Such sentences can be transformed into simple and complex questions, conditionals, and passives, in the past and future (e.g., "will the rat be chased by the cat?"; "Did baby like eating the banana?"). Toddler phrases are syntactically sim­ ple and short but do include the impera­ tive. "Thtay dere" commands the toddler absorbed in playas he tries to keep out his baby-sitter who needs to come into his room and get him ready for a bath. Toddlers are more likely to form ques­ tions through changes in intonation. Unable to ask liDo you want to come

Language

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Toddlers omit or phonemes they

lIS.

)t say the sounds, und the world do ~mes of all world n adults cannot. )me ability starts ks old, who easily le sounds of differ­ s ability by six to , focus only on the ,ary language they nger attend to the I pronounce the :nt language quite earn a second lan­ .ght to ten years of en learning a new a large vocabulary, have an accent in

A father "talking" with his fOUI-and-a-half-month-old son, (Elizabeth Crews)

or grammar, of a e orderly rules by onstructed. Syntax J.ations by which a :>m a basic declara­ 'the cat chases the eat a banana. II Such iormed into simple 8 , conditionals, and t and future le.g., ! by the cat? "; "Did jmana?IIJ. ~ syntactically sim­ Include the imp era­ ~ands the toddler le tries to keep out I • ~eeds to come mto ~ ready for a bath. kely to form ques­ ges in intonation. you want to come

play with me?1I a toddler may invite a peer with "Want pl~y?" The rising into­ nation signals th'e fuvitation. Despite the short phrases they use, tod­ dlers are quite sensitive to violations of grammar rules. One researcher asked two-year-oIds a series of questions in which grammatical morphemes were replaced with other words. Directed to IIfind the dog for me," 85 percent of tod­ dlers could point to the correct animal picture. When the phrase was "Find was dog for me," toddlers pointed to the dog 55 percent of the time. Only 40 percent of toddlers pointed correctly when directed, "Find gub dog for me."

Morphology. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. Some are

short words ["bug"); some are long ("ele­ phant"). These are called unbound or free morphemes because they can stand alone as words. Many morphemes cannot exist alone. They are attached to words and often radically change the meaning of a word. When s is added to indicate the plural, "bugs," although short, is now counted as two morphemes, since the plural is indicated by s. Some bound mor­ phemes are prefixes, particles that begin a word and change the meaning quite specifically. Consider the different mean­ ings of "hemisphere" /"sphere"; "circum­ navigate"/"navigate"; and "preview"/ "view." Bound morphemes that convey negative meanings are "un" ("unkind"), "dys" ("dysfunctional"), and "in" ("in­ complete"). Some morphemes signal that

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a word is an adverb, such as "sadly" or "happily." As word endings, bound mor­ phemes can signal that the word will be a noun rather than a verb or any other part of speech, as in the words " certificate" "baker," "celebration," or "fussiness." The possible phonetic forms of a mor­ pheme that have the same meaning are called allomorphs. Thus, in English, the meaning of plurality is conveyed by a variety of sounds: "z" as in "dogs," "s" as in "cats," "es" as in "glasses," and "en" as in "oxen." These allomorphs all stand for "more than one." Indeed, young chil­ dren have to learn that there is a zero allomorph, when no ending is used to convey the plural, as in "deer." Having learned the construction of the regular plural, toddlers may say "deers" and "mouses." Sometimes an internal pho­ netic shift conveys the plural meaning, as in "mice" or "thieves." Encouraged to describe what he saw while looking at a picture of two furtive men pulling a couch out of a house, one toddler exclaimed, "Them be thiefers!" Roger Brown did extensive work on the mean length of utterance (MLU) of infant/toddlers. MLU is based on the average length of a child's utterances scored from transcripts of spontaneous speech. Length is figured by the number of meaningful morphemes produced rather than computed from the number of words. Children with similar MLUs are at the same stage of language matur­ ity, although their chronological ages may differ. From a half-hour transcript of conversation with three infants, Eve, Adam, and Sara, Brown first divided each sample into utterances. The number of morphemes in the first 100 fully tran­ scribed utterances is counted, and the total is then divided by 100. The MLU is plotted against a baby's chronological

age, and the more rapid the rate of growth of the MLU, the more advanced a toddler is in language development. Care is needed in counting morphemes. "Un­ kindly" as used by an adult gets a score for three morphemes. A baby's "doggie" is scored as a single morpheme, whereas an adult diminutive "piglet" receives a score of two morphemes. Brown subdivided the MLU into stages that advance by increments of .5. Thus, for stage 1, the baby saying a few single words like "mama" or "up" has an MLU between 1 and 2. At this stage, only a small group of meanings is expressed. Toddlers talk about and name objectsi they talk about where they are, who they are, and who is doing what actions. They mostly omit subjects, as in "want milk," where the child does not include the self as subject. Lois Bloom has suggested that toddlers have limited processing capacity and that this constrains which elements of language will be included or left out. At stage 2, the baby's MLU is between 2.5 and 3.5 morphemes. By stage 5, the MLU is from 3.5 to 4. Beyond an MLU of 4.0, sentences become complex so that 'Mtu is no longer valuable as an index of language development for some older toddlers. As the MLU score grows from 2 to 4, Brown found an orderly progression in difficulty and in the sequence in which infant/toddlers learn to produce fourteen grammatical morphemes. Brown noted in many contexts where a morpheme was obligatory (as when one must say two shoes to indicate the plu­ ral), a toddler actually used that mor­ pheme in spontaneous speech. His research revealed a strong regularity in the order in which the morphemes were used in 90 percent of obligatory contexts. The toddlers learned earlier those mor­ phemes that had less linguistic complex­

i the rate of growth

advanced a toddler lopment. Care is morphemes. "Un­ adult gets a score A baby's "doggie" ,orpheme, whereas 'piglet" receives a es. e MLU into stages nents of .5. Thus, lying a few single "up" has an MLU this stage, only a ngs is expressed. nd name objects; hey are, who they ,hat actions. They IS in "want milk," ot include the self has suggested that rocessing capacity is which elements luded or left out. s MLU is between ~s. By stage 5, the ~eyond an MLU of ~ complex so that ilble as an index of t for some older ~ore grows from 2 trderly progression the sequence in learn to produce :al morphemes. contexts where a tory (as when one ) indicate the plu­ y used that mor­ )us speech. His mng regularity in : morphemes were bligatory contexts. ~lier those mor­ fnguistic complex­

Language ity. "Complexity" was defined as the number of meanings encoded in the mor­ pheme and also as the number of syntac­ tic rules required for the morpheme. Children acquired the fourteen mor­ phemes in the following order: l.

2-3.

4.

5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

present progressive inflection A toddler coming back from the YMCA with her father exclaimed "Me go s'immin papa! /I (I went swimming with my papa). the two prepositions "in" and "on" plural irregular past tense i" sang" or "swam"} possessive i"Jon's hat") uncontractible copula [the verb "to be"] i"Right you are!"; "The horse is big") articles ("a," "the") regular past tense ("patted") regular third person present tense ("plays") irregular third person present tense ["has") uncon'tnrctible auxiliary ("I do believe") contractible copula i"He's a boy"; "I'm happy") contractible auxiliary ("I'd like to go too")

The process of a baby's lexicalization (attaching words to meanings) is not always clear. Sometimes parents believe that a child has learned an irregular past tense morpheme very early, because the toddler uses the word correctly, as in "I fell down." However, a few months later, once the toddler has understood the way in which regular past tense is con­ structed, she may well overregularize

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and say "I faIled down and I hurted myself." This construction reveals the toddler's growing knowledge of the use of the regular past tense verb ending "ed." A toddler will need to learn the irregular endings for the past tense, such as "broke" and "went." Once they understand the construction of regular comparative and superlative adjectives (e.g., "small, smaller, small­ est"], toddlers are likely to regularize the comparative and say"gooder" and"good­ est" rather than "better" and "best." Overregularization can be seen for irregular plurals. A toddler assured his caregiver that his bare "feetses" were not cold. Having learned that "s" or "es" ohen forms the regular plural the child then applied this linguistic rule. Overgen­ eralizations, although they sound cute to an adult ("I dooed it myfelf!" crows a tri­ umphant twenty-four-month-old as he climbs out of his crib), are fairly uncom­ mon, about 2.5 percent of cases for past tense and 8.3 percent of cases for plurals. After Brown's stage 2, when grammati­ cal morphemes have begun to be pro­ duced, toddlers learn the standard ways of composing questions, imperatives, and negatives. Initially, a toddler may say "No me want dat./I Research has noted that in the next advance a toddler moves the negation word inside the sentence to say "I no want dat." Acquiring the full nega­ tive does not usually occur before Brown's stage 5, when a toddler says the syntacti­ cally correct phrase "I'm not sad now." Syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic fac­ tors are all involved as toddlers develop the ability to use a wide variety of nega­ tive forms that express denial, prohibi­ tion, rejection, and nonexistence. Toddlers do make a variety of syntax errors until they master the auxiliary use of the verb "to be" and the use of the verb

390 Language

A ten-month-old baby "talking" to his mother. (Elizabeth Crews)

"to have." Often they omit the verb "to be" and simply ask "Where doggy going?" In creating the question form, toddlers sometimes ask "What she is doing?" before they master the question-making flip-flop rrue that requires exchanging the position of the auxiliary and the subject to ask "What is she doing?" By the end of the toddler period, a child easily uses the imperative correctly. AIter the teacher showed a group of thirty-six-month-olds a small siphon, an older toddler said "Show me how you do that." Semantics. Semantics is the study of the meaning system of language. Concepts are defined by "semantic features." Thus, the word "sister" is defined as being a female and a relative.

The semantic feature hypothesis sug­ gests that the more complex a term's meaning, the more difficult the child will find that term. Thus, even by three years of age, a typical child cannot explain what the component features of a "nose" or a "daddy" are, although they may say "I got dat!" A toddler's tendency to assume that two different words cannot have the same meaning is known as the principle of contrast. Thus, when a par­ ent points to the crescent moon in the sky and labels it "crescent," the toddler is very likely to continue to call that moon configuration "moon," even when she can easily pronounce the new word. Deictic terms are too difficult for tod­ dlers. These are pointers, or contrasting relational terms, that indicate which one

: hypothesis sug­ lmplex a term's ~ult the child will en by three years cannot explain ltures of a "nose" 19h they may say ~r's tendency to :nt words cannot : is known as the hus, when a par­ ent moon in the ent," the toddler nue to call that oon," even when :e the new word. difficult for tod­ [8, or contrasting .dicate which one

Language of many objects are being referenced. Understanding the terms "this one" or "that one" requires that the speaker become the point of reference from which the terms can be understood. Thus, par­ ents who are playing with a toddler with assorted blocks and ask the toddler to "Put these over there" and "Put those over here" bewilder the toddler who needs far more specific, precise descriptions to carry out the sorting task successfully. When a toddler is asked what to call the place a pig lives and he says "pig house" (rather than pig pen), this is called seman­ tic transparency, because the meaning is so obvious. A toddler may call a gardener a "plant man" and his own mother a "cooker." Interpreting the passive tense is also too difficult for toddlers. If a three-year­ old, for example, is asked to take two soft toy animals and show the examiner "The bunny was hugged by the mouse," the child will take the toys and act out how the bunny hugs the mouse. If next asked to show the examiner "The mouse hugs the bunny," the child will be puzzled and think that you are asking her to repeat her previous action. ,/

Pragmatics. The system of rules that teaches children the way language is to be used socially ("Please, may I have some jam?" instead of "Gimmee jam!") in varied social situations is called prag­ matics. Many parents are careful to teach pragmatics quite early. Toddlers learn to call papa's sister Auntie," and they are taught how to refuse politely an offer of food they do not like, as well as when to say II sorry" or II thank you." /I

Language Theorists What are the ideas of theorists who have advanced our understandings of the prop-

391

erties of language, the functions of lan­ guage, and how language develops?

lean Piaget. Piaget, the Swiss psycholo­ gist whose studies of infant cognitive development led to the understanding of the cognitive tasks babies accomplish at each stage of the sensorimotor period, believed that intelligence appears well before language. He described two stages in early language development. Egocen­ tric speech appears when the baby is alone or with others but shows lack of communicative intent. Toddlers playing with toys at a nursery school table could be chattering with each other. But each one talks about his/her interests and does not tune in to the topic or respond appro­ priately to what a peer has just said. Piaget called nonconversations of this type collective monologues. When a child does develop commu­ nicative intentions in talk, Piaget calls this socialized speech. He regarded spo­ ken language as a form of social knowl­ edge that children developed only toward the end of the preschool period. The emergence of internal representation, which includes spoken language, is based on the prior development of the child's sensorimotor operations. Although lan­ guage and cognition were separate and distinct, he noted that as the child grows beyond the infant/toddler period lan­ guage emerges and gives a strong boost to early learning. Piaget believed that when children reach six or seven years of age, then they realize that their thoughts and those of their peers clearly conflict sometimes, and egocentric thought begins to change in response to social pressure. Research has shown that despite Piaget's belief that egocentric speech is primary during the early years, many toddlers, although not

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fully preoperational in their thinking, are still able to use language to respond directly to parental requests and to engage in topic-relevant small conversations.

Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky believed that language and cognition begin together but have separate roots. At about age two years they merge and enhance a child's development in each area. Vygotsky emphasized the central role of caregivers in providing intellectual interactions that serve to support early language learning. Thus, with the adult's help in expanding on a phrase, clarifying a concept, and giv­ ing clear examples of word meanings, the young child achieves language learning at a faster rate than would occur without the adult's guidance and support. Vygot­ sky called this psychological domain where the child can learn and achieve more with the adult's help than on his own the zone of proximal development. Jerome Bruner. Bruner claimed that early language development takes place in the context of highly familiar and pre­ dictable social routines. Within such familiar contexts, for example, a' pArent comments on future actions that will shortly be carried out. As the toddler builds his tower of blocks quite high, mother asks "Are you going to knock down the blocks now?/I and he does so. The baby is thus able to take account of the social and interactional framework in which she hears language. Even six­ month-old babies are able to follow a mother's line of regard and do look at an object she is talking about as if it is right in front of them. Research reveals that 80 percent of mothers' utterances to babies are about what the baby is playing or engaged with. A parent typically com­ ments on and interprets the infants'

interaction with her or with objects. Mothers of young babies are often talking for the infant. They treat any early baby sounds as if the baby fully intends to par­ ticipate in early "conversations." Bruner places strong emphasis on the impor­ tance of adult play routines that help scaffold interactions and assist babies in cracking the language code. B. F. Skinner. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that language, like most human behaviors, could be classified as an oper­ ant, a type of behavior that results when no stimulus can be clearly shown to be the causal agent. The baby's responses emerge on a trial-and-error basis as he emits sounds and his parents reinforce or reward certain sounds (such as "dada" for "daddy"). Echoic operants are a child's responses to the verbal stimuli of another speaker, such as a parent. The category of mand refers to demands of a child (e.g., "Juice!"). The category of tact refers to a child's verbal response in the presence of a stimulus. A toddler exclaiming "Moo cow!" on seeing a pic­ ture in a book is said to be emitting a tact. Skinner's theory seems to leave lit­ tle room for the creative nature of chil­ dren's language, where infinitely many new phrases can be generated.

Noam Chomsky. Chomsky took strong issue with Skinner's view of language development as dependent on parental reinforcement. Chomsky believed that Skinner's operant conditioning view of language development could not account for the ability of children to generate new and different sentences. His work gave impetus to the idea that babies are neu­ rologically hard-wired to understand and produce the syntax or grammar of what­ ever language they will be learning. He

Language or with objects. s are often talking :at any early baby illy intends to par­ ersations." Bruner is on the impor­ )utines that help ld assist babies in ~ode.

haviorist, Skinner like most human ssified as an oper­ that results when ~arly shown to be baby's responses -error basis as he arents reinforce or ; \such as "dada" : operants are a ~ verbal stimuli of as a parent. The :s to demands of a le category of tact al response in the ulus. A toddler !" on seeing a pic­ I to be emitting a seems to leave lit­ ive nature of chil­ e infinitely many Gerated.

Imsky took strong ,view of language ldent on parental sky believed that iditioning view of ,could not account en to generate new ~. His work gave aat babies are neu­ 'to understand and grammar of what­ III be learning. He

called this inborn ability a language acquisition device. Chomsky termed lan­ guage properties such as sentences and noun phrases substantive universals. He called those rules that indicate how a sentence is composed of a noun phrase je.g., "The playful pUpil) and a verb phrase le.g. "licked the baby") phrase structure rules. Lexical rules specify which words can occupy certain posi­ tions in a phrase. For example, a transi­ tive verb could be lito lick" or lito chase"; a demonstrative can be "a" or lithe"; a noun could be "kitty" or "soup," From such rules, only grammatically correct sentences will result, such as the "The mama hugs her bunny." Sentences such as "Hugs bunny mama her the" will never be produced. Transformational rules are operational devices within the grammar that allow language elements to be added, substi­ tuted, deleted, or permutated. Chom­ sky's generative grammatical theory pro­ poses that each grammar has a deep structure, a base component or concept. Transformational rules modify the base component by a series of operations into the natural form 'oYthe language people speak, called the surface structure. Chomsky sees the use of these rules as universal processes across cultures. Transformational rules begin to appear after a toddler uses two-word sentences. Thus, a toddler intent on a proposed trip to a toy store (the core idea or deep struc­ ture) could talk to himself aloud, affirm­ ing happily "Going to store." If the par­ ent's plans change, the toddler may ask "We not going store?" He may even demand urgently "Go store!"

Lois Bloom. Bloom's pioneering studies of early mother-infant interactions showed that infants who experience con-

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tingent (prompt] responsiveness to their early vocalizations are more likely to pause after a response. Their vocaliza­ tions become more wordlike if an adult responds to them. Within the early months of life, their "conversations" with parents take the form of turn-taking interactions.

How Does Language Develop in Infants and Toddlers~ Babies come into the world primed to hear and be responsive to language, long before they are able to communicate using words. Newborns seventy-two hours old prefer to suck on a nipple more to hear their own mother's voice in pref­ erence to the pleasant-sounding voice of another woman. Babies at four weeks of age are sensitive to the rhythmic proper­ ties of language sounds from very differ­ ent languages, and they keep this ability until they are about six months old. Thus, they are prepared to learn any lan­ guage that caregivers speak with them. Babies ten to sixteen weeks old are twice as likely to look away from a videotape of a person whose mouth movements and talk are artificially programmed to be out of synchrony by almost half a second. Very early, babies accurately put sounds together with faces. "Parentese" helps infants learn lan­ guage. Such speech involves short phrases, long, drawn-out vowels, high­ pitched melodious tones, clear bound­ aries between words, long pauses between phrases, and several repetitions of simple phrases. Catherine Snow 11972) first identified this special talk as "motherese," describing the ways in which mothers spoke differently to infants. Brain research confirms that babies will regard the correct picture when

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A two-year-old girl at preschool expresses her anger with a classmate. (Elizabeth Crews)

asked "Look at the ball" in parentese more frequently than if asked in normal English. Such exaggerated parentese helps enrich the baby's wiring. Brain neu­ rons initially respond to all the languages of the world, but experiences will result in neuron pruning within the first year. Stages of Language Learning

During the early months, babies produce throaty"coo" sounds, consisting mostly of vowels. By about four months, infants start to put together clusters of conso­ nants such as "dlth." If a caregiver responds to each vocalization, the baby tends to respond with more coos and to vocalize in bursts. Thus, very young babies learn the rudiments of conversa­ tional turn-taking. During the second

half of the first year, babies start to bab­ ble. They put a consonant, more often a labial made with lip participation, such as "m" or lib," together with a throaty sound. When these consonant-vowel combinations are reduplicated they sound like "mamama" or "papapa." Delighted caregivers often endow such early reduplicated babbles with the "meaning" of "mama" or "papa." When the baby produces long strings of such babbles, they are called jargon. Unreduplicated babbling refers to the varied quality of an infant's consonant­ vowel combinations in an utterance. These strings sound in intonation almost like conversational words, questions, or demands as the baby varies stress, pitch, and the juncture of syllables. Sensitive

Language

:abeth Crews)

)abies start to bab­ nant, more often a participation, such ler with a throaty consonant-vowel :eduplicated they naif or IIpapapa." often endow such I)abbles with the r' or "papa." luces long strings of ~e called jargon. Jing refers to the lnfant's consonant, in an utterance. ~ intonation almost raIds, questions, or varies stress, pitch, syllables. Sensitive I

very early to junctures between sounds and words, babies under six months lis­ ten preferentially to a story passage a mother is reading to a toddler if the junc­ tures in the reading are the normal ones rather than when a researcher artificially garbles the story so that the pauses in the passage would never occur in normal speech. By six or seven months, a baby prefers to listen to her own name. Thus, babies early on can detect patterning in the stream of words they hear. Segmenta­ tion, or finding the breaks in a speech stream, is critical if babies are to learn words. Infants must also learn the rhyth­ mic patterns and permissible sounds in the language of one's family. Stress pat­ terns differ in different languages. By nine months, infants from different lan­ guage groups turn their heads more to lis­ ten to a speaker talking in the baby's own language group. Indeed, by ten months of age babies become much less attuned to sounds not in their native language. Their experiences in hearing language are already rewiring their brains to tune in to the language of their own folks. Cadence and prosody in ~peech give babies first clues about words. At six months, U.S. babies pay equal amounts of attention to words with different stress patterns, like "giraffe" (with stress at the end) or "tiger" (with stress on the first syllable). However, by nine months U.S. babies prefer to listen to the more typical Amer­ ican pattern of English, which stresses the first syllable. Infants reared in other cultures, such as France, learn to prefer words that stress final syllables, such as IIbonjour" or II cherie." Although babies at this age are not pro­ ducing words, they do vocalize, and by ten months they use their index finger to point accurately to let a caregiver know

395

what they want as they urgently babble a request. Joint attention between care­ giver and infant makes it more likely that an adult will tune in to the proto­ communications of pointing and bab­ bling that signal a baby's desires, such as a toy on a shelf. Research has shown that when mothers of one-year-olds typically talked about objects the children were already attending to in their own play, rather than trying to get the babies to focus on another toy or play episode, then the babies had larger vocabularies. Babies now begin to understand the causal relationship between a commu­ nicative act, pointing and babbling, and the resulting satisfying event; they get the toy or food they wanted. Caregivers who believe that their infants indeed intend to communicate have babies who are advanced in meaningful communications. When a mother is responsive to a baby's initiations of communication by nine months, then by thirteen months he/she has larger comprehension vocabularies. First Words. By one year, the average baby understands about fifty words. For example, many babies understand the negative meaning of "No" and "Uh-oh" if baby drops food from a high chair. Baby anticipates with smiles and foot kicking if asked liDo you want some juice?" Some will show joy when told "Bath time!" while others might wail. The words that signal an adult game with baby, such as "Pat-a-cake," "Peek-a-boo," and "So big" become very familiar. Greeting words, such as "Hi" and Bye," are often first words. The stage of using only single words to communicate is called holophrasis, or one-word speech. One word can mean several different things, and a caregiver has to learn to "translate" from the context, for example, whether

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shoe means "See my new shoes" or IJI got my shoes all wet in a puddle" or "I took my shoe off" or even liThe laces on my shoe got untied. Please tie them." Babies differ in the composition of their first fifty words learned, and the range of receptive language (what is understood) is very large by ten months. Only eleven words are understood by the bottom 10 percent of infants. The top 10 percent of infants understand more than 150 words. This gap widens with increas­ ing age. In language expression (what the child can say), this gap increases so that by six­ teen months some infants have no words, whereas others can say about 180 words. Word comprehension is far more significant than expression for assessing language progress in infancy. Infants brought up in a bilingual household and speaking few words often understand and carry out simple actions in response to requests in either language. First words usually appear somewhere around one year. Some infants have some clear words by nine months. A baby can more easily learn the relationship of a word to an object (and nouns are far eas­ ier than verbs for word learning) when that object moves and if that object is in the daily experience of the baby. Thus, early daily experiences of hearing "nana" when given banana to eat, or "doggie" every time the family dog gallops into a room, or "Edu, you're rolling the ball," while baby launches a rubber ball on the floor-all will help the baby attach a word to an object. In one study, babies whose parents named objects for them frequently possessed larger vocabularies a few months later. Some babies invent their own special sound combinations and endow them with word meaning. For example, baby

may say "Num-num" when asking for food. Such a protoword can be picked up by parents and used then when offering food to the baby. Some words are ono­ matopoeic, such as "Bzzzz" for a bee, or Arf-arf" to mean the dog that baby hears barking in the distance. A baby must use a word intentionally, under different con­ ditions, and consistently with the same meaning for that vocalization to be con­ sidered a real word. "Dar" cannot mean car one time and a bit of bread the next time. Babies sometimes overextend the meaning of an early word. A baby who crows "juice" when given juice in his sippy cup can also call the water in a nearby pond "juice/, because both are liquids. Or the baby calls all men II daddy." Underextension occurs when a baby has a narrow domain for a word meaning. Baby insists that only the fam­ ily poodle can be called "dog." Sometimes a baby cannot yet pro­ nounce a difficult word but substitutes sounds with the same intonation in his struggle to learn a new word. A young toddler whose grandmother said "We are gOing to go down in the elevator" called out "abililee/, his four-syllable attempt at saying elevator. He continued to use this word whenever the family took him in the elevator. II

Telegraphic Speech. Somewhere between fifteen and twenty-four months, toddlers put two words together to create a mean­ ingful phrase. Because they leave out all the small function words, such as "with" or "is," their two- and three-word speech is called telegraphic speech. Toddlers are now able to judge when an adult is refer­ ring to an event, an action, or an object or person. "We need to wash our hands now" means that dinner time is coming

Language " when asking for d can be picked up en when offering e words are ono­ zzzz" for a bee, or dog that baby hears e. A baby must use under different con­ tly with the same . tion to be con-

~ overextend the word. A baby who : given juice in his call the water in a ~ because both are by calls all men !Sion occurs when a iomain for a word J that only the fam­ ed "dog." y cannot yet pro­ ord but substitutes ,e intonation in his ew word. A young lather said "We are :he elevator" called ur-syllable attempt e continued to use he family took him

omewhere between months, toddlers ~r to create a mean­ ~ they leave out all [ds, such as "with" I three-word speech r,Jeech. Toddlers are m an adult is refer­ :ion, or an object or wash our hands ler time is coming II

I

soon. "I'll read your book to you after I finish the dishes" conveys ideas about actions sequenced in time. At about eighteen months, toddlers who now have object permanence firmly learned (things out of sight can be kept in mind and searched for) can remember what hap­ pened at the zoo yesterday when they are prompted. Some toddlers may initially reply "nothing" when parents ask what they did that day in child care. But if the teacher has sent home a note saying they were dancing and the parent asks, the tod­ dler will agree and add some details. As toddlers enter Piaget's early preopera­ tional stage of cognitive development, their ability to conjure events not present and their ability to create categories of objects and line them up in some order [e.g., size) are cognitive skills that aid tod­ dlers in labeling and reporting. At this stage, toddlers begin fast map­ ping. They grasp that a newly heard word applies to a particular event or object, and they quickly learn the new word. This ability usually develops quite close to when the vocabulary spurt occurs. Scientists have found that a baby at this stage needs just 'Orf~ example of a new or nonsense word to learn. If an adult labels a strange new object, an apple corer, as "dax," the baby will correctly point to the II dax" weeks and even months later. Nouns or names for people and objects are easiest for babies to learn. Verbs are more complex. A verb expresses action or a state of being. Verbs have tense (pres­ ent, past, future). They have number ("he eats"; "they ate"). They can be inflected depending on the person ("I have"; "he has"); they occur in active and in passive voice ("The cat chases the mouse"; liThe mouse was chased by the cat"); and they can indicate moods: narrative ("I drink") or imperative ("Drink!"). Babies do seem

397

to learn some verbs more easily. For example, a toddler carrying his teddy bear will readily comply when directed to "give Teddy a hug." The language functions of telegraphic speech are quite varied and consist of the following categories: • • • • • • • • • • •

agent object ("doggie ball"li agent location ("daddy couch"); action object (" eat cracker") ; action location ("go seesaw"); action instrument ("cut knife"); entity location ["shoe bed"); negation ("no night-night"); disappearance ("all gone juice"); recurrence ["more cookie"); possession (limy toy!"h entity attribute or description ("stove hot"; "wed dar [red car]"); • greeting ("Hi, fishy"); • demonstrative naming ("dat boo fowah" [that'S a blue flowerll; • what, where, and who questions ("Who dat?," "Whazzat?" Where cookie gO?").

Because how, why, and when questions have greater semantic and cognitive com­ plexity, children develop cohercnt use of these more abstract questions after the infant/toddler period. Curiously, toddlers do imitate the why question in their expressive speech. They ask "Why?" interminably, although they cannot yet decode a parent's patient answer. During the two-word stage, a concerned toddler may ask "Mommy tired?" but he does not yet know how to insert the copula. Nei­ ther does he know how use the transport rule that if a declarative sentence states "Mommy is tired" then the question has to transport the "is" to the beginning of the phrase to create the syntactically cor­ rect question "Is mommy tired?" Neither

398

Language

can the young toddler make the even more complex switch to "Are you tired, mommy?" During the two-word stage, no gram­ matical forms are used to indicate past tense or prepositions or articles that modify nouns. However, receptive lan­ guage can be impressive. Although vocabulary is in short supply, some babies do answer questions such as "What does the doggie [cow, sheep] say?" by giving an approximation of "woof­ woof," "moo-moo," and "bah-bah." The toddler may be able to point correctly to blue, yellow, and red toy cars when asked. Although a wide variety of telegraphic utterances are produced, toddlers still have trouble with specific English con­ versational requirements, such as chang­ ing "you" to "I" or "my" to "yours." Shifting request forms for different lis­ teners is hard. Yet an older toddler does master such switches of deictic pro­ nouns, particularly when speaking about themselves. Early pronoun usage by toddlers is mostly exophoric rather than anaphoric. In anaphoric speech, a pronoun refers back to the prior referent in a sentence (e.g., "Yesterday, Benjy went to the zoo where he saw the bears"). Katherine Nel­ son observed that more than 90 percent of the pronouns used by two-year-olds referred to nonlinguistic information shared by the listener and physically present in the environment. The Vocabulary Spurt. Toward the end of the second year, toddlers sharply increase their vocabulary, which may be about 100-300 words. Vocabulary devel­ opment signifies that toddlers are acquir­ ing new words and linking them to their meanings at a rapid rate. The rate of

increase has been estimated at more than sixty new words per week. The vocabu­ lary spurt occurs after several words (esti­ mated at fifty to 100) have been learned. There is a wide developmental "win­ dow" for accomplishing this vocabulary spurt. Some toddlers reach this vocabu­ lary spurt before eighteen months; others achieve this spurt a year after that. This spurt results in a 5,OOO-word vocabulary by four years of age. Once toddlers have discovered that words can be used to refer to categories, they assume that if they hear a word it must relate to a single concept; for exam­ ple, they are able to learn a word for a new color very rapidly. Although tod­ dlers can now construct many phrases, sometimes they do not entirely under­ stand the concepts involved. Ask a thir­ ty-six-month-old toddler how old he is and he may hold up three fingers cor­ rectly. He may even rote count to ten correctly. But he may not be able to give you three crayons if you ask him for that specific number. Thus, the language of an older toddler may not reflect accurately all aspects of the cognitive concepts he is lr;arning. Recording the early stages of multi­ word speech, Bloom noted that toddlers she studied used two different strategies to tackle learning the language system. With a pronominal approach, two boys began to encode relationships between objects and events using many pronouns (limy truck"; "play it"). The two girls used more nouns to encode the meaning of specific objects. When the MLU of the toddlers approached 2.5, the two systems began to overlap. Toddlers using the pronominal strategy began to combine more content words, and the nominal children began to use more pronouns in their phrases.

Language Lated at more than reek. The vocabu­ everal words Iesti­ lave been learned. elopmental "win­ Ig this vocabulary 'each this vocabu­ :en monthsi others :ar after that. This )-word vocabulary

The Grammatical Spurt. By the end of the toddler period, between thirty and thirty-six months, average sentences are often as long as six words and children are adding more complex forms to their talk. They are even using embedded sen­ tences. Their language expresses rela­ tionships and causal contingencies that the younger toddler is unable to use in a single phrase.

~ discovered that refer to categories, tey hear a word it concepti for exam­ earn a word for a ly. Although tod­ lct many phrases, ot entirely under­ rolved. Ask a thir­ ler how old he is three fingers cor­ rote count to ten not be able to give IU ask him for that the language of an . reflect accurately tive concepts he is

Skills Required for Early Success with Literacy Although toddlers are not ready to read text, it is important for parent/caregivers to know what language skills in the infant/toddler years predict later success with literacy. Caring adults can find help­ ful books to support their efforts to give a solid foundation for infant language learning.

r stages of multi­ toted that toddlers different strategies i language system. pproach, two boys Uonships between pg many pronouns t"). The two girls ~code the meaning ~n the MLU of the ~, the two systems ~ddlers using the Pegan to combine and the nominal more pronouns in

Phonological Development. Older tod­ dlers become increasingly able to pro­ nounce words clearly. Even difficult-to­ pronounce consonants are mastered, so that by three years of age most young­ sters speak quite clearly. Older toddlers take pleasure in' I1stening to rhyming words. On their own, they make up non­ sense rhyming sounds, such as "oogie" and "poogie." The children create humorous sounds and recognize and take pleasure in listening to poems and learn­ ing rhythmic chants. They are alert to the differences and similarities in begin­ ning sounds and will enjoy a game where they have to pick out the different initial sound in words from a series such as "Pick, big, pill, pig, pit./I Parents and other concerned caregivers help toddlers learn basic level categories as well as superordinate terms. Adults need to emphasize the similarities within cate­ gories at first, so that a baby learns to call

399

many different breeds and shapes of dogs "doggie." For basic words, adults use ostension. They point and say "That's a dog." When they teach superordinates, adults use an inclusion strategy. They mention both the basic level term and the superordinate term. During a visit to a farm, parents say, "Look, doggies and kitty cats and chickens and cows. See all the animals!" Because babies find super­ ordinate terms more difficult to learn, adults are important teachers who label carefully as they see a toddler is ready for more sophisticated naming and semantic learning.

Oral Language. In a laboratory setting, fourteen-month-old babies observed interacting with their mothers used an average of 4.4 communicative attempts per minutei at twenty months this increased to an average of almost eight per minutei at 32 months, about eleven per minute. Parents prime the infant's ability to express communicative intent effectively by responding to early nonver­ bal interactions such as rolling a ball together, showing and labeling toys, giv­ ing toys back and forth to each other, and trying to attract attention with gestures and sounds. Increasing use of new lexical terms. An older toddler's receptive and expres­ sive vocabulary increases steadily. She enjoys listening to longer poems, stories, and songs. She uses language for many functions and in surprising ways. For example, if you say "No, thank you" when offered a dish at the table, the tod­ dler may chime in with "1 don't want any either. The child uses words in more precise ways and can name and describe a wide variety of objects and events. Older toddlers use language for planning, /I

400

Language

making hypotheses, for assigning and acting out roles in dramatic play, and for using /I scripts" such as playing fireman or daddy or space explorer. A toddler even reassures an adult "I p'etendingl" as he puts a large wooden bead near his mouth as if it is a piece of popcorn. In a group, the child begins to be able to follow con­ versational rules, such as staying on topic and taking conversational turns. Ability to respond with polar oppo­ sites. Older toddlers provide a large number of polar opposites, such as "lit­ tle" for "big/' "happy" for "sad," "wet" for "dry." They enjoy listening to books that illustrate opposites with pictures, for example, of ice cream for "cold" and steaming chocolate for "hot." Many polar opposites, such as "shallow" versus "deep," are still too difficult for toddlers Increasing ability to carry out requests and to enjoy linguistic humor. Infants are able to carry out a single request. For example, one parent remarked "I wish I had a doggie bone so doggie would not pester us while I am reading to you." The thirteen-month-old baby looked alert as he said "Bone?" Then he quickly padded on all fours to the kitchen and returned with the dog's bone to his surprised and delighted parent. As they mature, toddlers can carry out a series of simple directions in sequence. They ask relevant questions and some­ times stay on topic as they participate in discussions. If a toddler feels ignored, however, he may even announce reproachfully "Nobody talking to me." Or he may mischievously jump up to say something absurd. After Dantel had been asked "Do you have any friends? What is your friend's name?" by an adult who did not wait for an answer, the toddler

grinned and said "Wynken, Blinken, and Nod!" Toddlers begin to use humor as they acquire several word phrases. A two-year­ old teased her papa by coyly asserting "Papa, doggies say 'meow."' First her father corrected her by explaining that doggies say "woof-woof. II She looked crestfallen and repeated her phrase. It took her father a while to realize she was playing with word meanings to make a joke. Then he grinned and said "Sure. And kitties say 'Woof woof,"' which sent the little girl into happy giggles. A longitudinal study (Harris, 1992) of infants from fifteen to forty-two months in Bristol, England, reported that toddlers whose MLU developed fastest were those whose parents asked them to do some­ thing that related to an object or action to which the toddler was aheady paying attention. Parental directives gave the language names for actions and events on which the child was already focused. These parents gave significantly more acknowledgements, corrections, imita­ tions of child talk, questions, repetitions, ap.d instructions than parents of toddlers \vith slower MLU development. Their toddlers, who were between eighteen and twenty-one months with an MLU of about 1.5 initially, reached an MLU of 3.5 within six months. In contrast, infants whose parents had not provided such extensive language scaffolding took twelve months to reach an MLU of 2.5. When parents provided the most fre­ quent and varied language exchanges, their toddlers showed the most rapid rate of MLU development. Repair ability during conversational interactions. Parents try hard to under­ stand babies and speak for them when articulation is poor. Parents use routines

Language lken, Blinken, and

se humor as they rrases. A two-year­ ,y coyly asserting neow. 1II First her ,y explaining that oo£." She looked ted her phrase. It : to realize she was ~s to make a d and said "Sure. woof, III which sent )y giggles. y rHarris, 1992) of forty-two months lorted that toddlers l fastest were those them to do some­ l object or action to ras already paying irectives gave the tions and events on S already focused. significantly more torrections, imita­ ~stions, repetitions, :parents of toddlers ~velopment. Their tween eighteen and lwith an MLU of ~hed an MLU of 3.5 ~ contrast, infants . ot provided such scaffolding took h an MLU of 2.5. ge exchanges, the most rapid rate

conversational hard to under­ ~ for them when ~arents use routines

i

try

and scripts in their interactions to scaf­ fold the structure of language interac­ tions in order to provide for semantic continuity in conversations. Adults use verbal games, pretend telephone conver­ sations, joint book-reading, rituals for greeting and saying goodbye, and chants and songs to signal times for bedtime and other daily routines long before a baby can sustain language interactions. But play with peers provides a new challenge. When peers do not understand a toddler, the child must struggle to make herself understood. Topic maintenance has been observed starting at about sixteen months of age with a play partner. Thus, toddler-toddler peer interactions have been noted to contribute more to conver­ sational repair skills and conversational self-reliance. Parental conversational styles affect early language. Parents encourage tod­ dlers' conversational competence, vocab­ ulary, and skills at keeping conversations going. Yet their helping styles differ. Katherine Nelson and her colleagues described different approaches to infant language learning that resulted from dif­ fering parental styles. Some infants were termed referential (they tended to imitate object labels); others were expressive (they tended to imitate large units of social expressions). When toddlers learned more nouns early, typically they were faster language learners than their less ref­ erential peers. Mothers of referential chil­ dren noted more often that their children preferred manipulative toys. Referential language was more frequent among tod­ dlers whose mothers referred to and described objects, requested names from their children, and rewarded the children for providing names. The pragmatic style of these mothers included playing more

401

routinized naming games. Nelson noted that 28 percent of the first fifty words acquired by referential children referred to body parts, learned through these naming routines. In contrast, the expressive tod­ dlers learned many conventional and for­ mulaic personal/social expressions such as "Oh, dear" and "Let's go." Book-reading. Book-reading styles and frequency in families differ. It has been reported that during book-reading moth­ ers of active infants asked frequent ques­ tions such as "What's that?" in an elicit­ ing style. This style resulted in children's achieving a large productive vocabulary. When mothers used more "Where's X?"-type questions, the infants devel­ oped a larger comprehension vocabulary. Dialects and registers. Social dialects are variations in spoken language that depend on region, social class, ethnicity, and gender. Dialects vary according to the user. Dialect differences can be found in all five domains of language discussed above. In southern dialects in the United States, the vowel sound in "pan" can be elongated and pronounced as a diphthong so the word sounds like "Pay-yun." The word "pen" is pronounced with the same sound as "pin." Syntactic variations in Black English as spoken in some inner­ city families in the United States allow for double negatives (e.g., "l ain't got no paste") and for deletion of the copula in a present tense phrase le.g., "My marna, she pretty"). Verb tense agreement with subject is not required; neither are plural morphemes (e.g., "She want some candy tOO"j "I got five cent"). Alternative mor­ phemes may be used (e.g., "certificary" rather than "certificate"). When an infant has exposure to one dialect system only, then the infant will learn the complex

402

Language

rules of that system. Child-care and schooling experiences with sensitive and caring teachers permit a young child to learn to code-switch from his own horne dialect into Standard English comfort­ ably and back again, so that the child develops skills at using both language systems in appropriate settings. Register is language variation according to use [an adolescent student speaks dif­ ferently to his baseball teammates than to the boss at his weekend job). Semantic softeners such as "please" are taught early to toddlers. They are not yet ready to learn further politeness registers, such as using indirect requests. In modeling, toddlers will simply imitate formulaic family words, without understanding their meaning (semantic intent). Knowledge of Letters and Print. Read­ ing daily and with pleasure in one-on-one intimate togetherness with infants and young children is one of the most power­ ful predictors of early language ability. When read to frequently and regularly, toddlers know that the letters and words in a book tell the story even though the pictures in a storybook make the tale more interesting. They recognize favorite books by the cover and ask for specific books by title. Families differ markedly in how much they read to young children. Middle-class children enter first grade with parents having given more than 1,500 hours of individual picture book-sharing time, whereas children from low-income fami­ lies average only twenty-five hours of one­ on-one picture book-reading. Although 3 percent of professional families have no alphabet books in the horne, almost half of families receiving public assistance have no such books. Children's readiness for literacy learning differs greatly as a

function of infant/toddler reading experi­ ences in the horne. Toddlers sing the alphabet song, although some letters are slurred. They announce the first letter of their own name and also identify some alphabet letters. Toddlers will name and then eat up cinnamon cracker letters. Some toddlers know that an author is someone who writes a book. They learn that print runs from left to right and that people read from the top of a page to the bottom before turning the page. Even some infants can turn pages and babble with sing-song intonations that mimic the reading styles of their parents. Toddlers have learned that books are special and are to be handled with care. Treasured stories may be memorized. Hours after story time, a toddler can answer questions about the story when the adult provides encouraging reminder words to scaffold toddler responses. Toddlers like to chime in and repeat cadences in stories. Thus, when a care­ giver has read the tale "Something from Nothing" many times over, and then pauses in just the right place in the story , ~here cadenced repetition occurs (grand­ father is refashioning a new piece of clothing for the boy in the story), toddlers chime in enthusiastically "and his scis­ sors went snip snip snip" (Gilman, 1992). Some toddlers already notice letters in community places, such as the M on a fast food sign and the S on a stop sign. Social-Class Differences in Early

Language Environments

Social environments differ greatly in the amount and variety of supports they offer for infant/toddler language learning. Social class rather than ethnic differences accounts for strong variations in parental language support.

Language 403 r reading experi­

alphabet song, re slurred. They !r of their own some alphabet me and then eat ters. hat an author is lOOk. They learn to right and that ) of a page to the the page. Even ~ages and babble ions that mimic ir parents. d that books are mdled with care. be memorized. e, a toddler can t the story when IUraging reminder :r responses. lIe in and repeat lUS, when a care­ IlSomething from ; over, and then place in the story ion occurs (grand­ a new piece of he story), toddlers Ily "and his scis­ II (Gilman, 1992). notice letters in h as the M on a :m a stop sign.

1 in

Early

fer greatly in the lpports they offer guage learning. thnic differences tions in parental

Toddlers' early vocabulary levels are related to their later ability to read, to write, and to analyze stories. Preschool children from middle-class homes have larger vocabularies and use language for a greater variety of functions, such as plan­ ning, hypothesizing, and making if/then causal inferences. Such differences have been observed during formal assessments and in more informal settings. In a detailed naturalistic study of U.S. mother-toddler interactions in the home, researchers pinpointed the reasons for some of these differences. From audio­ tapes, they calculated that the average child in a welfare family heard fewer than 620 words per houri the working­ class child, about 1,250i and the child in a professional family, nearly 2,150. Far more negatives and demands rather than responses to child-initiated comments or sustained conversation bouts occurred in low-social-class homes. During the span of one year, the intimate language envi­ ronments of toddlers differed greatly, and these differences seemed to account for large differences in the toddlers' produc­ tive language skills .... Research has also revealed wide vari­ ability in interaction styles among tod­ dlers and preschoolers in low-income families where second-grade siblings showed either successful or unsuccessful achievement on the Gray Oral reading tests. Parents whose second-graders were successful at reading the ABCs spent four times as much time supplying encour­ agement compared to discouragement, played school more, and gave more explanations. In these families, toddlers' MLU was 3.9 compared with 2.9 for the children in the families with less sup­ portive verbal parental interactions. A few years later, when the younger sib­ lings reached school, those who became

successful readers were found to have received seven times more encourage­ ment than discouragement. The now unsuccessful readers had received 1.6 times as much discouragement. Thus, regardless of income and education level, parental encouragement and support proved a powerful force for literacy. Infant Child Care and Language Development Increases in the number of working par­ ents with infants/toddlers leads to a con­ cern as to the quality and richness of lan­ guage supports offered to children under three. Emphasizing careful attention to staff training, researchers demonstrated that well-trained caregivers provided just as high a level of verbal inputs for infant/toddlers as for preschoolers. Reading to babies may not be as fre­ quent as needed in group care. In one study of metropolitan child care, reading to infants under thirteen months was very rare. Reading episodes with toddlers, whether younger or older, lasted only a little longer than one minute. Yet older toddlers often love to be read to for lengthy periods and will ask the engaging adult reader for IlMore book." Caregiver training is certainly a crucial factor in helping adults learn how to engage and sustain infants' interest in picture book-sharing. Language experiences "wire in" synapse connections in the growing brain. Enriching infants' and toddlers' daily routines with language turn-taking interactions, responsive talk, and picture book-sharing are important ways that caregivers can ensure language com­ petence as infant/toddlers grow into pre­ schoolers. Parents seeking quality infant/ toddler child care will want to make sure that in addition to nurturing experiences,

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Language

rich language experiences are provided frequently for babies. One researcher studied family day care where providers came from different ethnic groups. The only difference influencing more positive infant/toddler language outcomes was associated with the degree of language mastery experiences provided, not the ethnicity of the care providers. Group­ care research during the first two years of life confirms that when the adults pro­ vide rich language stimulation children have larger vocabularies and use more complex sentence structures when they reach three years. Teacher questions to toddlers are a technique for promoting toddler advance­ ment in language interactions. Others analyzed more than 800 teacher ques­ tions for toddlers about twenty-seven months old in child-care centers serving low-income families. Of the true ques­ tions asked, more than 80 percent were convergent. They required either a "yes" or "no" answer or had only one correct response. Only 1 percent of teacher ques­ tions allowed for child choice (e.g., "Do you want juice or milk?"); 20 percent of teacher questions were divergent. It has been hypothesized that adults who offer divergent or Socratic questions challenge the toddler to create spatial, psychologi­ cal, or temporal distance from the imme­ diate behavioral environment. Adults thus enhance cognitive development as well as sharpen memory skills.

Nursery Organization and Language Competence. Work in British residential nurseries revealed that the higher the staff autonomy (i.e., the greater number of day-to-day decisions that caregivers themselves could make for babies in their care), the higher the children's lan­ guage comprehension and expression

scores on the Reynell language scales. Caregiver sentences were longer and more complex when daily timetables were not as rigid. The children's language scores were also higher when nurses were more verbally responsive to them. When two nurses were together, they tended to talk more with one another than with the children. Staff organization and supports for personnel are critical for maintaining an environment richly sup­ portive of infant language.

Music in Child Care. Music experiences are an integral part of quality group care. Throughout the ages, babies have drifted into sleep listening to lullabies. Babies move their bodies rhythmically to adults' sing-song tones. Young toddlers whose articulation is still difficult to decipher sing all the words (though somewhat gar­ bled) to beloved songs. Songs and chants are a particularly powerful way to help toddlers gain new vocabulary, learn long verses, and experience the pleasure of bouncing, swaying, and singing together. When an infant is new in child care, usjng the baby's name in a reassuring , chant helps lessen the stress of unfamil­ iar caregivers (Honig, 1996). She may quiet her crying in order to hear her name sung frequently in reassuring tones. Bilingual Language Learning. Children who learn a second language before the age of three are referred to as simultane­ ous bilinguals. When the home language and the language of child care differ, and as long as both environments provide abundant interactive language experi­ ences for the babies, then they will become proficient at two languages. Typ­ ically, they do tend to show some amount of language mixing. Thus, a bilingual child may ask her English

Language

1 language scales. were longer and daily timetables :hildren's language :her when nurses ~sponsive to them. ~re together, they with one another . Staff organization mel are critical for nment richly sup­ age.

Music experiences group care. )abies have drifted ) lullabies. Babies lmically to adults' g toddlers whose ncult to decipher tgh somewhat gar­ Songs and chants erful way to help lbulary, learn long ~ the pleasure of I singing together. ~w in child care, e in a reassuring stress of unfarnil­ 1996). She may r to hear her nanle ;uring tones. ~uality

~arning.

Children 19uage before the I to as simultane­ Ie home language ld care differ, and onments provide language experi­ then they will o languages. Typ­ to show some nixing. Thus, a tsk her English

speaking parent for "agua/l occasionally rather than "water./I Toddlers will gener­ ally address each speaker in the appropri­ ate language. The infant brain is exquisitely primed for learning language. In some Asian cul­ tures, such as Singapore and Malaysia, children are expected to learn several lan­ guages in their early years. When infant/ toddlers have many opportunities to learn two different languages in a variety of interactive and emotionally satisfying settings, they can become quite profi­ cient by three years of age, not only with vocabulary and syntax but also the prag­ matic ways in which the languages con­ strain a child. The best strategy for bilin­ gual learning is when an adult in one location speaks one language and a care­ giver speaks a different language.

Language Delays Because infants vary so widely in when they begin to use words and put them together, it is sometimes difficult to tell if there are language delays that need profes­ sional assessment and help. If a toddler rarely babbles, does not respond to whis­ pers, has not learned basic infant social conventions, has only a few single words by two years, avoids eye contact during communications, has trouble pointing to pictures of familiar toys or objects in a book, or tunes out other people and prefers to focus on objects, then language delays may be suspected. Autism [which gener­ ally appears between eigllteen and thirty months) and mental retardation need to be ruled out if the above signs are present. Drdinality and Gender Effects. Parents worried about possible language delays in later-born babies need to keep in mind that firstborn infants get more opportuni­ ties for one-on-one language interactions

405

with parents and thus may speak earlier and more than later-born children. Female infants have been found to be faster in language development compared to males. In a British study, mothers rou­ tinely labeled toddlers' irmer emotional states but used more of these labels with girls. By age two, girls referred to feeling states, such as happy, sad, and mad, more than males did. Data using the MacArthur parent sur­ vey found that female infants tended to talk earlier than boys. Girls understood and used more words in combinations and in sentences. This difference may be biologically based. In addition, because males have higher activity levels than girls, boy toddlers may not stay as close to caregiver figures and thus not be as likely to have as many intimate commu­ nication opportunities. Dyslexia, any impairment in learning to read, also occurs more frequently with male children but cannot be diagnosed during the infant/toddler period.

Medical Concerns and Language Delay. If a baby has had frequent episodes of oti­ tis media (repeated middle ear infections), the fluid buildup can prevent children from hearing clearly. Unable to hear well, these infants carmot take advantage of the clear word modeling and simple expan­ sions of their utterances that caregivers provide. After courses of antibiotics and sometimes after ear tubes are inserted to drain the fluid, babies get a chance to catch up in their language learning. If tod­ dler articulation is poor, this may not be a concern. More than 100 different muscles in the vocal tract need to be coordinated to produce clear speech. Aphasia is the name for a variety of language disorders due to damage to dif­ ferent parts of the brain. Damage to

406

Language

Broca's area in the left hemisphere of the frontal cortex in older children results in severe difficulty in producing speech. Damage to Wernicke's area produces aphasia where there is fluent but empty speech, poor comprehension, and the cre­ ation of neologisms, or made-up words not in the language. However, due to an infant's brain plasticity, even when there is damage to the brain's left hemisphere an infant will probably completely re­ cover the ability to understand and use language as other parts of the brain take over these functions. Babies born deaf, or those who become deaf as a result of severe illness, and tod­ dlers who are diagnosed with autism require special language experiences. Teaching Sign Language. When language delays are marked, as with an autistic toddler who started to use language as an infant and then withdrew from the use of language, the teaching of a sign language (American Sign Language, or AMESLAN) has been actively promoted. Infants born deaf need to receive early instruction in using signs. They will make some signs poorly with their hands, just as normal infants mispronounce many phonemes as they attempt their first words. Deaf infants receive much less signing than hearing infants receive speech. This is because infants need to be looking when the parent is signing, and there are more opportunities for a parent to talk to a hearing baby who is not looking directly at the adult. Also, many deaf infants receive mostly single signs, whereas par­ ents normally use multiword phrases with hearing infants, even when the adults are using simplified parentese. Sometimes, deaf parents of a hearing child believe that the television can teach their infant to talk. Infants/toddlers learn

language in an interactive, responsive environment where adults talk about things babies are interested in and where adults adapt their speech to the level of the baby's understandings. There is no time or way in which TV characters adapt to the language-learning needs of infants. However, when carefully planned educa­ tional programs are adapted to a toddler's level, and especially when the caregivers support language development and point out what is being learned, then two-year­ olds have higher word comprehension than toddlers who have not watched edu­ cational TV. Such programs, geared to toddler tempos and language levels, work best when an interested adult watches with the toddler and comments on the program themes. Emotional Concerns. When young minds race ahead of their ability to produce lan­ guage, their tension can result in stutter­ ing or dysfluencies that occur between two and four years of age. A calm, relaxed, attentive caregiver can help decrease these dys£luencies. Child abuse and neglect sometimes result in language delays. There is a criti­ cal period in the early years during which the learning of specific skills such as mas­ tery of language are more likely to be suc­ cessful. The case of Genie, a child tied to a potty chair and locked in a room for years from toddlerhood to preadoles­ cence, is an extreme example. When res­ cued, Genie was given loving care and five years of intensive daily language ther­ apy. Her vocabulary improved to that of a preschooler. Yet her grammar was more like toddler telegraphic speech, and she never learned the turn-taking require­ ments of conversation. Social workers need to recognize when an infant/toddler is in danger of language delays. Signs of

Language active, responsive adults talk about ested in and where ~ch to the level of lings. There is no ~ characters adapt Ig needs of infants. lly planned educa­ lpted to a toddler's hen the caregivers lopment and point led, then two-year­ rd comprehension ~ not watched edu­ 19rams, geared to guage levels, work :ed adult watches comments on the

lV'hen young minds ity to produce lan­

11 result in stutter­ at occur between ;e. A calm, relaxed, m help decrease

eglect sometimes rs. There is a criti­ 'ears during which ;kills such as mas­ re likely to be suc­ Ilie, a child tied to :ed in a room for od to preadoles­ :.ample. When res­ I loving care and illy language ther­ ~roved to that of a aromar was more : speech, and she n-taking require­ . Social workers an infant/toddler e delays. Signs of

concern include: no hair on the back of the baby's head from being left in a crib all day; all bottles propped; and no adult who ever talks with the baby. Home visitation programs can help teach parents simple interactive games that arouse infant pleasure in language learning. More subtle signs of language disability have been noted during the preschool years if parents did talk with their babies but were unable to relate emotionally to the infant so that the baby did not form a secure attachment to the parent. This linkage has been demonstrated in the lab­ oratory by interviewing six-year-olds whose infancy attachment classifications had been assessed. Children whose attach­ ments had been secure at one year of age were more likely to provide coherent sto­ ries. Children who had initially been rated as insecurely attached to mother in infan­ cy exhibited more dysfluency and pro­ vided less coherent story responses.

Assessing Infant Language Assessments of early receptive and expressive language and of language-pro­ cessing abilities are critical when there are worries about·ianguage delays. How­ ever, many measures do not provide norms for languages other than English. An intervention program needs to be sen­ sitive to the cultural and linguistic milieu of a baby's family when deciding how to assess an infant's ability prior to and after language enrichment is pro­ vided. For example, using the MLU measure of early morphemic develop­ ment, an examiner would have to consid­ er the morphemes of an infant's home language if other than English. An ingenious method called the forced choice preferentiallooking paradigm has been pioneered to assess infants' compre­ hension abilities when they are as young

407

as twelve months old. The infant is seated on mother's lap equidistant from two video monitors. The mother keeps her eyes closed and does not interact with the baby. Baby watches two simultaneously presented color videos. A centrally placed loudspeaker, in synchrony with the video­ taped scenes, directs the infant to attend to one of the monitors. Hidden from baby's view, an experimenter directly observes the child's eye movements and records how much time baby spends watching the videos. Using this method, the researchers demonstrate that seven­ teen-month-old infants do use word order to comprehend multiword sentences. So if the message was "Cookie Monster is tick­ ling Big Bird," babies looked more at that scene rather than the scene presented at the same time which depicted the reverse: Big Bird tickling Cookie Monster. Head-turning preferences have been used to assess whether young toddlers perceive permissible versus ungrammati­ cal sentences. At eighteen months, tod­ dlers recognize the grammar rule that any verb ending in "-ing" must be pre­ ceded by the verb /Ito be." Thus, seated on her mother's lap, an eighteen-month­ old toddler listens intently to a recorded voice saying, /I At the bakery, workers will be baking bread. /I She, however, turns away her head in response to a recorded sentence that states, "The peo­ ple have going to work." The MacArthur Communicative Devel­ opment Inventories tCDIs) were designed to yield information from families on the typical course of their infants' language development and the variability in that pattern. The CDI/Words and Gestures program is designed for babies eight to sixteen months; the CDI/Words and Sen­ tences program is for toddlers sixteen to thirty months. Research with the CDI

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Language Assessment

indexed language lags among toddlers from poverty families. Of l03 toddlers who were younger siblings of Head Start children, 75 percent fell below the me­ dian CDI scores for vocabulary produc­ tion and sentence complexity. But for a sample of more than 2,000 families, it was found that low-education, low­ income parents tended to overestimate their child's abilities. Parent training to improve accuracy might enhance the usefulness of this parent-report tool, par­ ticularly if it were used to assess whether a language enrichment program for infants actually was effective. Screening instruments, such as Coplon's Early Language Milestones scale, are easy and quick for nurses to administer during a routine pediatric checkup to assess receptive and expres­ sive infant/toddler language. Language items from standardized infant intelli­ gence tests, such as the Bayley or the Cattell, could also be useful as measures of the effectiveness of language enrich­ ment efforts with infant/toddlers. Conclusion Language development depends on intact biological preparation for learning words and syntax and meanings. For language development to proceed well, the baby's intimate caregivers need to engage in responsive turn-taking talk. Babies need pleasurable interactions with caregivers in game-like exchanges that include naming and questioning during daily rou­ tines and special playtimes. Rhyming games, chants, finger plays, songs, and daily reading experiences attuned to the baby's alertness and interests boost early language development. Providing inter­ esting arrays of toys and arranging play experiences with other toddlers will give additional impetus to a toddler's lan­

guage development, positive socializa­ tion, and learning. See also Book-Reading; Songs and Sensory Development References and further reading Berko-Gleason, Jean. 1997. The Development of Language. 4th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon. Bloom, Lois. 1993. The Transition from Infancy to Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gilman, Phoebe. 1992. Something from Nothing. New York: Scholastic. Golinkoff, Roberta M., and K. Hirsh­ Pasek. 1999. How Babies Talk: The Magic and Mystery of Language in the First Three Years of Life. New York: Dutton. Harris, Lamen Julius. 1992. "Lefthanded­ ness." In Isabelle Rapin, and Sidney j. Segalowitz, eds. Handbook of Neuro­ psychology, Child Neuropsychology. Vol. 6, sec. 10, pt. 1. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., pp. 145-208. Honig, Alice S., and Holly Brophy-Herb. 1996. Talking with Your Baby: Family as the First School. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Piaget, Jean. 1926. The Language and

Thought of the Child. New York:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Language Assessment See-Language

Lateralization In 1865, French physician and surgeon

Paul Broca declared, "We speak with the left hemisphere./I He even named a spe­ cific region that encompassing the lower­ most, or third, convolution of the left frontal lobe (Broca's area). Broca based his statement on evidence from adult patients who, following cortical damage to this region, became aphasic: largely unable to speak but, evidently, still able to under­ stand the speech of others. In 1874, British neurologist John Hughlings Jackson, also drawing from clinical evidence, proposed