Linguistic Masterminds: Children’s Early Language Trajectory Laura Justice

1. Linguistic Masterminds: Children’s Early Language Trajectory Laura Justice The Ohio State University

2. Language development represents one of the most exciting and mysterious aspects of young children’s development. Children who cannot yet count to ten can produce sentence structures as sophisticated as most adults. This webinar discusses language… what it is, what it is not, and how to make sense of the things children are saying. Additionally, this webinar explores what to do when children are ‘late talkers’ and how to facilitate the language growth of children with whom we might be concerned.

4. What Is It? Language is a “system of conventional spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with one another.” Pence Turnbull & Justice, Language Development From Theory to Practice, 2/e

5. “Statue Momma” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ZwNF26snA&feature=player_detailpage#t=5s

6. Language: More Than Just Words It is a multi-dimensional symbol system CONTENT FORM USE

7. Domains of Language FORM: rules governing the structure of sentences and words (e.g., inflections) CONTENT: rules governing the structure of meanings and concepts PRAGMATICS: rules governing the structure of delivery and use of language

8. CONTENT FORM Semantics Syntax Morphology Phonology USE Pragmatics

9. Addie, 2 years: “I’m almost here!!!”

10. Addie, 2 years: “I’m almost here!!!” Form: simple sentence, contracted copular verb (am), subjective pronoun, adverbial phrase (almost here), consonants and vowels Content: locational reference (here), adverb of manner (almost), highly contextualized (need context to understand meaning!) Use: function/intent = inform/explain, clear recipient in range, appropriate paralinguistic cues (eye contact, proximity, etc.)

11. Important Features of Language • Rule-governed • Sensitive period • Innate-learned

12. Rule-Governed NOUN PHRASE ARTICLE ADJECTIVE NOUN + + How many noun phrases can a child make who knows this rule???

13. Rule-Governed SIMPLE SENTENCE SUBJECT VERB OBJECT + + How many sentences can a child make who knows this rule???

14. Rule-Governed SIMPLE SENTENCE him got karate + + How many sentences can a child make who knows this rule???

15. Sensitive Period • In the first years of life, children’s brain matter is rapidly developing • Synaptogenesis • Activity dependence • Synaptic pruning • Interconnections are being made that organize and stabilize language skills • No future period will allow such remarkable gains in language to occur

16. Innate-Learned: Experience Dependent INPUT

17. How do these develop? From: Relationship between preschool teachers’ complex syntax use and children’s Syntactic comprehension. From Huttonlocher, J., Vasilyeva, M., Cymerman, E., & Levine, S. (2002).

18. Why Language? • Language is the “what” of effective communication …Communication is the mechanism • Language is very malleable…. It reflects time and experience • Children show variability in their language skills: and this variability is important for many areas of academics, including reading and content-area skills

19. Why Language? Head Start Outcomes Framework (2010)

20. What Is It NOT? • It is NOT how well children articulate • It is NOT speaking ‘correctly’ • It is NOT simply the size of a child’s vocabulary • It is NOT equated to IQ

21. What Is It NOT? Up here is my brain! • It is NOT how well children articulate

22. What Is It NOT? I dot a daw a diddle biwdie! • It is NOT how well children articulate

23. What Is It NOT? • It is NOT speaking ‘correctly’ Harvard Dialect Survey: beenRED: as in "sit" (64.82%)BLUE: as in "see" (3.59%)GREEN as in "set" (28.60%)PURPLE: other (2.99%)

24. What Is It NOT? • It is NOT the size of a child’s vocabulary Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously…. (Noam Chomsky)

25. The Special Case of Specific Language Impairment What Is It NOT? • It is NOT equated to IQ Language Intelligence

26. General Trajectory Birth: hard-wired for language; no receptive or expressive use; vocal play and reflexive sounds 3 months: coo and goo; engage in back-n-forth routines; orient to others 6 months: Understands approximately 2 words; babbling (mamamadadada) 8-10 months: Becomes an intentional communicator (gesture, persistence, eye contact)! 12 months: understands 10 words, produces first word http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart.htm

27. General Trajectory 18 months: understands 150 words; expressive vocabulary of 50 words; produces simple sentences (two-word combinations); understands simple sentences 24 months: understands 300+ words; expressive vocabulary of 100 words; produces some three-word combinations, including negative sentences! 36 months: ask questions using different forms; uses four-word combinations frequently; understands many wh-questions; makes simple inferences; understands some ‘hard’ words 60 months: language system more or less complete – looks adult-like in terms of grammar, although lexicon and social competence will continue to refine (e.g., ability to enter conversations).

29. Late Talkers

30. Late Talkers • Children who are meeting most/all other milestones typically (walking, eating, playing)… except talking! • Identified between 2 and 3 years of age due to expressive concerns: • small vocabulary (< 50 words used) • not yet combining words to create two-word sentences • Language understanding is typical (but be sure validly assessed!)

31. Late Talkers: Words Spoken Rescorla et al (2000)

32. Late Talkers • Affects more than 1 in 10 children (Zubrick et al., 2010) • Tends to run in families • Tends to affect more boys than girls • Tends to affect more preterms • Tends to occur with increases in externalizing and internalizing behavioral concerns • Although many children will outgrow these problems, some children will not – which argues against the wait and see approach

33. Language Screening • Ages and Stages Questionnaire – 3 • Language Development Survey • MacArthur-Bates Communication Development Inventories Indirect or Direct Treatment Options (often by Speech-Language Pathologist/ SLP)

34. Facilitating Language Growth for ALL Children Children “feast” on the language scraps in the world around them…they learn what they hear

35. learn what they hear… and what they OVERHEAR

36. As children feast, what really matters? QUALITY OF INPUT CHILD’S LANGUAGE SKILL ADULT INPUT TO CHILD

37. FREQUENCY OF EXPOSURES INFORMATIVENESS OF EXPOSURES QUALITY OF INPUT CHILD’S LANGUAGE SKILL ADULT INPUT TO CHILD

38. 2-year-old learning the word VENT Exposure 3 – Increasing mapping and differentiation in lexicon Exposure 1 – establishes a shallow representation of meaning and phonological form Exposure 2 – solidifies phonological form (vent –not went) and refines meaning overgeneralization

39. Frequency of Exposures: Use of known words to “cement” a base • Meets one’s basic communication needs Use of unknown words to “extend” the base • Provides precision and clarity

40. Frequencies of Exposures: Children’s exposure to specific forms and functions occurs repeatedly Children’s exposures build cumulatively over time to become more precise

41. INFORMATIVENESS OF EXPOSURES Adult language features diverse content, form, and use Content: many words, ideas, and concepts Form: many different syntactic structures and word inflections Uses: many different purposes

42. Changing Developmental Trajectories

43. Zone of Proximal Development Knowledge that is beyond the grasp of the child LearningPotential What the child already knows Adult Input

44. Zone of Proximal Development Knowledge that is beyond the grasp of the child HUGE STEER What the child already knows COW Adult Input

45. Zone of Proximal Development Knowledge that is beyond the grasp of the child That is a big dog, you are right! What the child already knows That’s a dog. Adult Input

46. Well-Tuned? Stimulates Language Does Not Stimulate Language Child Language Ability

47. Attitudes, points of view, mental states, motives Providing information about objects, information, or events not present Similarities and differences between people, objects, and events Causes of events (prediction) Meanings of words Connections between text and world van Kleeck et al (2006)

49. THANKS FOR GIVING CHILDREN THE GIFT OF LANGUAGE!