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Child Language Acquisition

Child Language Acquisition. Phonological Development. Phonological development …. This lecture deals with how children develop the ability to use and understand the sounds of language. The first year ….

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Child Language Acquisition

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  1. Child Language Acquisition Phonological Development

  2. Phonological development … • This lecture deals with how children develop the ability to use and understand the sounds of language.

  3. The first year … • The phonological development that occurs during the first year of a child’s life was outlined last week: • Crying • Cooing • Babbling • Phonemic expansion and contraction

  4. Be careful … • Be careful not to make sweeping generalisations when talking about later phonological development. • Order in which vowels and consonants are acquired varies from child to child. • Sometimes children appear to have mastered a sound in one word, but then not in another.

  5. General trends … • Age 2 ½ : all vowels and 2/3 of consonants mastered. • Age 4: difficulty with only a few consonants. • Age 6-7: confident use.

  6. General trends … • Consonants are first used correctly at the beginnings of words. • Consonants at the end of words present more difficulty. • Example: ‘push’ versus ‘rip’

  7. General trends … • Frequency: generally, sounds which occur frequently in a large number of words will be acquired before sounds that occur less frequently.

  8. Making words easier (phonemic simplification) … • Deletion • Final consonants may be dropped. • Unstressed syllables are often deleted. • Consonant clusters are reduced.

  9. Making words easier (phonemic simplification) … • Substitution • Easier sounds are substituted for harder ones: • ‘r’ becomes ‘w’ • ‘th’ becomes ‘d’, ‘n’ or ‘f’ • ‘t’ becomes ‘d’ • ‘p’ becomes ‘b’

  10. Understanding … • Remember: last week we learned that comprehension is often ahead of speech (e.g. first words). • The same can be true in phonological development.

  11. Berko and Brown (1960) … • Child: fis • Adult: This if your fis? • Child: No-my fis. • Adult: Oh, this is your fish. • Child: Yes, my fis.

  12. Berko and Brown (1960) … • Child with indistinguishable pronunciation of: • mouse/mouth • cart/card • jug/duck • Could point to corresponding pictures in a comprehension task.

  13. Intonation … • As a child grows older, a wider range of meanings is expressed through intonation. • Example: two-word stage: • ‘my car’ versus ‘MY car’

  14. Intonation … • Although intonation patterns can be reproduced from an early stage, understanding of their meaning is still developing into the teenage years.

  15. Cruttenden (1974) … • Football results. • Intonation used in first team’s score enabled adults to accurately predict home win, away win or draw. • Children (aged 7-11): youngest were largely unsuccessful and oldest were significantly less successful than adults.

  16. New vocabulary … • Phonemic simplification • Deletion • Substitution

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