definition of speech language and communication development

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What Is Communication and Language Development

• Answer when your baby makes sounds. This will help him/her learn to use language.
• Read to your baby. This will help him/her develop and understand language and sounds.
• Help to develop your toddler’s language by talking with him/her and adding words. For example, if your toddler says "baba,” you can respond, "Yes, you are right – that is a bottle."
• Encourage your child to tell you his/her name and age.
• Teach your child simple songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” or other cultural childhood rhymes.
• Help your child develop good language skills by speaking in complete sentences and using "grown-up" words. Help your child to use the correct words and phrases.

If you have concerns about a child's development and think a child might need extra help to learn and grow , don't hesitate to refer a child.

The family will be contacted by the local school district to arrange for a screening or evaluation to determine if their child is eligible for Infant and Toddler Intervention or Preschool Special Education services in Minnesota.

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Speech and Language Developmental Milestones

On this page:

How do speech and language develop?

What are the milestones for speech and language development, what is the difference between a speech disorder and a language disorder, what should i do if my child’s speech or language appears to be delayed, what research is being conducted on developmental speech and language problems.

• Your baby's hearing and communicative development checklist

Where can I find additional information about speech and language developmental milestones?

The first 3 years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing, is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others.

There appear to be critical periods for speech and language development in infants and young children when the brain is best able to absorb language. If these critical periods are allowed to pass without exposure to language, it will be more difficult to learn.

The first signs of communication occur when an infant learns that a cry will bring food, comfort, and companionship. Newborns also begin to recognize important sounds in their environment, such as the voice of their mother or primary caretaker. As they grow, babies begin to sort out the speech sounds that compose the words of their language. By 6 months of age, most babies recognize the basic sounds of their native language.

Children vary in their development of speech and language skills. However, they follow a natural progression or timetable for mastering the skills of language. A checklist of milestones for the normal development of speech and language skills in children from birth to 5 years of age is included below. These milestones help doctors and other health professionals determine if a child is on track or if he or she may need extra help. Sometimes a delay may be caused by hearing loss, while other times it may be due to a speech or language disorder.

Children who have trouble understanding what others say (receptive language) or difficulty sharing their thoughts (expressive language) may have a language disorder. Developmental language disorder  (DLD) is a language disorder that delays the mastery of language skills. Some children with DLD may not begin to talk until their third or fourth year.

Children who have trouble producing speech sounds correctly or who hesitate or stutter when talking may have a speech disorder. Apraxia of speech is a speech disorder that makes it difficult to put sounds and syllables together in the correct order to form words.

Talk to your child’s doctor if you have any concerns. Your doctor may refer you to a speech-language pathologist, who is a health professional trained to evaluate and treat people with speech or language disorders. The speech-language pathologist will talk to you about your child’s communication and general development. He or she will also use special spoken tests to evaluate your child. A hearing test is often included in the evaluation because a hearing problem can affect speech and language development. Depending on the result of the evaluation, the speech-language pathologist may suggest activities you can do at home to stimulate your child’s development. They might also recommend group or individual therapy or suggest further evaluation by an audiologist (a health care professional trained to identify and measure hearing loss), or a developmental psychologist (a health care professional with special expertise in the psychological development of infants and children).

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) sponsors a broad range of research to better understand the development of speech and language disorders, improve diagnostic capabilities, and fine-tune more effective treatments. An ongoing area of study is the search for better ways to diagnose and differentiate among the various types of speech delay. A large study following approximately 4,000 children is gathering data as the children grow to establish reliable signs and symptoms for specific speech disorders, which can then be used to develop accurate diagnostic tests. Additional genetic studies are looking for matches between different genetic variations and specific speech deficits.

Researchers sponsored by the NIDCD have discovered one genetic variant, in particular, that is linked to developmental language disorder (DLD), a disorder that delays children’s use of words and slows their mastery of language skills throughout their school years. The finding is the first to tie the presence of a distinct genetic mutation to any kind of inherited language impairment. Further research is exploring the role this genetic variant may also play in dyslexia, autism, and speech-sound disorders.

A long-term study looking at how deafness impacts the brain is exploring how the brain “rewires” itself to accommodate deafness. So far, the research has shown that adults who are deaf react faster and more accurately than hearing adults when they observe objects in motion. This ongoing research continues to explore the concept of “brain plasticity”—the ways in which the brain is influenced by health conditions or life experiences—and how it can be used to develop learning strategies that encourage healthy language and speech development in early childhood.

A recent workshop convened by the NIDCD drew together a group of experts to explore issues related to a subgroup of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not have functional verbal language by the age of 5. Because these children are so different from one another, with no set of defining characteristics or patterns of cognitive strengths or weaknesses, development of standard assessment tests or effective treatments has been difficult. The workshop featured a series of presentations to familiarize participants with the challenges facing these children and helped them to identify a number of research gaps and opportunities that could be addressed in future research studies.

What are voice, speech, and language?

Voice, speech, and language are the tools we use to communicate with each other.

Voice is the sound we make as air from our lungs is pushed between vocal folds in our larynx, causing them to vibrate.

Speech is talking, which is one way to express language. It involves the precisely coordinated muscle actions of the tongue, lips, jaw, and vocal tract to produce the recognizable sounds that make up language.

Language is a set of shared rules that allow people to express their ideas in a meaningful way. Language may be expressed verbally or by writing, signing, or making other gestures, such as eye blinking or mouth movements.

Your baby’s hearing and communicative development checklist

Birth to 3 months, 4 to 6 months, 7 months to 1 year, 1 to 2 years, 2 to 3 years, 3 to 4 years, 4 to 5 years.

This checklist is based upon How Does Your Child Hear and Talk ?, courtesy of the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association.

The NIDCD maintains a directory of organizations that provide information on the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language.

Use the following keywords to help you find organizations that can answer questions and provide information on speech and language development:

• Early identification of hearing loss in children
• Speech-language pathologists

For more information, contact us at:

NIDCD Information Clearinghouse 1 Communication Avenue Bethesda, MD 20892-3456 Toll-free voice: (800) 241-1044 Toll-free TTY: (800) 241-1055 Email: [email protected]

NIH Publication No. 00-4781 September 2010

*Note: PDF files require a viewer such as the free Adobe Reader .

Speech and Language Development

What is speech and language development.

Speech and language are the skills we use to communicate with others. We form these skills during the first years of life. By age 6, most children learn the basics. Try to talk and read to your child often to boost these skills.

Speech is making the sounds that become words—the physical act of talking.

Language is our system of using words to communicate. It includes using words and gestures to say what we mean, and understanding what others say.

When does speech and language development begin?

Infants start learning in the womb, where they hear and respond to familiar voices. The fastest learning occurs from ages 2 to 5 years.

Speech and language milestones help tell whether a child is developing as expected. Milestones are certain skills, such as babbling, saying "mama" or "dada," or putting two words together. Usually, a child needs to master one milestone before reaching the next.

Babies usually start cooing at around 2 months and are babbling by about 6 months. Most children speak by one year, but it may still be hard to understand what they're saying. At 15 to 18 months, a typical toddler understands much more than they are able to put into words. Starting around 18 months, many children have a burst in talking. By 24 months, children tend to use at least 50 words and are also starting to use two-word phrases.

Keep in mind that the age at which children reach milestones varies from child to child. Some children are advanced. Others develop more slowly.

Why do speech and language problems develop in some children?

Speech and language problems mean your child has trouble speaking or saying words. Or your child may find it hard to understand or explain ideas.

Hearing problems can cause speech and language delays in children. All children with speech and language delays should have their hearing tested. Certain disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, can also cause a delay. Speech and language problems may also run in families.

A child can overcome many speech and language problems with treatment such as speech therapy. Speech therapy helps your child learn speech and language skills. Treatment works best when problems are caught early.

• What You Can Expect

Birth to age 1

Here are some of the things babies may do at each age milestone.

Less than 1 month old

• Listen to the rhythm and melodies of speech.
• Pick out their mother's voice.
• Learn the rhythm of two languages when both are spoken at home.
• Use crying that sounds the same no matter what they need.

Ages 1 to 4 months

• Prefer "baby talk" and voices with a high pitch.
• Blink or widen eyes when noticing sounds.
• Become startled or turn toward a sound to look for its source.
• Become quiet to their mother's voice.
• Make cooing sounds, such as "ah-ah-ah" or "ooh-ooh-ooh." Babies may also make cooing sounds back to someone who is talking to them.

Ages 5 to 6 months

• Recognize their own name.
• Make sounds like "goo" and blow bubbles at the same time.
• Start to babble or repeat sounds, such as "ma-ma-ma" or "bah-bah-bah" to get attention or express feeling.
• Vary their cries to signal specific needs.

Ages 7 to 9 months

• Hear words as distinct sounds.
• Recognize the meaning of some facial expressions and tone of voice, such as when a parent says "No!"
• Repeat sounds that they hear.
• Mimic the rhythm of the way others talk.
• May say words like "mama" and "dada."
• May wave "bye-bye" when asked.

Ages 10 to 12 months

• Start to follow simple commands like "Give me the toy."
• Usually understand "mama" and "dada."
• Correctly refer to each parent as "mama" or "dada."
• Point to things they want or need.
• Say a few single words besides "mama" or "dada."

Ages 1 to 3

Here are some of the things children may do at each age milestone.

Ages 1 to 2 years

• Understand that words have meaning.
• Know the names of family members and familiar objects. Start to know the names of other people, body parts, and objects.
• Make simple statements and understand simple requests, such as "All gone" and "Give daddy the ball."
• Use gestures, such as pointing.
• Make one- or two-syllable sounds that stand for items they want, such as "baba" for "bottle."
• Use their own language that is a mix of made-up words and real words.
• Say 20 to 50 words that family understands.

Ages 2 to 3 years

• Recognize the names of at least seven body parts, and can name some of these.
• Increase their understanding of the names of things.
• Follow simple requests, such as "Put the book on the table."
• When asked, point to a picture of something named, such as "Where is the cow?"
• Continue to learn and use gestures.
• Develop a way to communicate using gestures and facial expressions if they are quiet and don't talk much.
• Name favorite toys and familiar objects.
• Use pronouns like "me" and "you," but may get them mixed up.
• Make phrases, such as "No bottle" or "Want cookie."
• Say 150 to 200 words by age 3. Strangers may be able to understand them about 75% of the time.

Ages 3 to 5

Age 3 years.

• Follow two-part requests, such as "Put your pajamas in the hamper and your slippers in the closet."
• Learn new words quickly.
• Know the names of most common objects.
• Understand the concept of "two."
• Understand the differences between girls and boys.
• Know their own full name.
• Begin correctly using plurals, pronouns, and prepositions more consistently.
• Frequently ask "why" and "what."
• Often use complete sentences of 3 to 4 words.

Age 4 years

• Know the names of colors.
• Understand the difference between things that are the same and things that are different, such as the difference between children and grown-ups.
• Follow three-step instructions, such as "Go to the sink, wash your hands, and dry them on the towel."
• Use the past tense of words.
• Use sentences of 5 to 6 words.
• Describe something that has happened to them or tell a story.
• Speak clearly enough so that strangers can understand them almost all of the time.

Age 5 years

• Understand relationships between things, such as "the girl who is playing ball" and "the boy who is jumping rope."
• Carry on a conversation with another person.
• Call people or things by their relationship to others, such as "Bobby's mom" instead of "Mrs. Smith."
• Define words such as "spoon" and "cat."
• Infant Crying
• Common Concerns

It's common for parents to have questions about their child's speech and language development.

Speech and language delays

Many different things affect a child's speech development. Some of these things may cause a child to start speaking a little later than others of the same age. For example:

• Children who have older siblings may start to talk slightly later than their older brothers or sisters did.
• Children raised in bilingual homes may have a slight delay in starting to speak. But they don't have more trouble learning to talk, read, and write than those who learn only one language. In fact, learning two or more languages may boost a child's overall ability to learn.

True delays are related to developmental or health issues, such as some types of hearing loss or a family history of speech and language delay.

Signs of speech or language delays are generally based on standard speech and language milestones. For example, if your child is not babbling by 9 months or not saying any words by 15 months, talk with your doctor. The first step may be a hearing test.

Talk to your child's doctor anytime you have concerns. It's important to find speech and language delays early and rule out other conditions. Early treatment can help prevent long-term problems.

Behavioral issues

While they learn and master new language skills, children sometimes talk in ways that are demanding or impolite. For example, a child may say "Give me!" when they want a toy. Often this behavior is because children can't find the words that fit their feelings. Or they may simply repeat what is being said around them. Gently remind your child to use an appropriate voice and manners. And always model polite speech and behavior.

Some parents think that their child is constantly talking or chattering. This is a child's way of practicing. Parents don't have to listen and respond to everything a talkative child says. But don't completely tune out your chatterer either. Singing and dancing with your child and playing music or reading stories geared toward children will help your child learn to listen and to express themself.

Common mistakes

Most children make "mistakes" when they first learn to talk. This is a natural part of language development. For example, children commonly mispronounce words, such as saying "pasghetti" for "spaghetti." As children listen to other people, they often correct their mistakes. They learn to say words clearly and use grammar correctly through practice.

• Speech and Language Delays: Common Misconceptions
• Speech and Language Development: Signs of Possible Problems
• Routine Checkups

Regularly scheduled checkups begin shortly after birth and last through the teen years. They are often called well-child visits.

These visits let your doctor keep a close watch on your child's general health and development. Finding possible problems early gives your child the best chance for proper and successful treatment. Also, any concerns you have about your child can be discussed at these visits.

During the visits, the doctor examines your child. The doctor also asks you questions about your child's development and behavior. And immunizations and screenings are either given or scheduled at this time.

Your child's doctor will recommend a schedule for well-child visits.

Checking for speech and language delays

Mild and temporary speech delays can happen. And some children learn to communicate faster than others do.

Your doctor will check your child's speech and language skills during regular well-child visits. But call your doctor anytime you have concerns about how your child is developing. A child can overcome many speech and language problems with treatment, especially when you catch problems early.

Screening for hearing problems

Almost all 50 states require newborn hearing tests for all babies born in hospitals. Hearing should be checked by a doctor at each well-child visit and anytime you or your child may notice changes. Some hearing problems can delay your child's speech and language development. Be sure your child has regular hearing exams.

• Screening for Hearing Problems
• Well-Child Visits

• When to Call a Doctor

Call your doctor anytime you or another caregiver has concerns about your child's speech and language development. Be aware of signs that point to a possible developmental delay , such as when your child does not make sounds that are expected for your child's age.

Your doctor will do a physical exam and ask questions about your child's medical history. This information can help your doctor identify developmental patterns and assess whether any other conditions, such as hearing loss, are interfering with development.

Your doctor may also recommend other tests to:

• Rule out other conditions. For example, hearing tests done by an audiologist may be recommended to rule out hearing loss.
• Assess speech and language developmental progress. Questionnaires and evaluations by a speech-language pathologist can help define where your child's abilities are in relation to other children of the same age.
• Find out whether other problems, such as behavioral difficulties or developmental delays in other areas, are also occurring.
• Building Skills at Home

To help your child develop speech and language skills, make sure to talk and read to your baby. Later, encourage conversation with your child. The size of a 2-year-old's vocabulary is directly related to how much parents and other caregivers have spoken to that child since the child was born.

Newborn babies are programmed to learn. And parents are naturally excellent language teachers. The kinds of interactions and conversations parents normally have with their children, from "baby talk" to repeating words, are perfect language lessons. Talking, reading, listening, and responding to babies and young children usually are all that they need to help them learn to talk.

Teaching sign language to babies 6 months or older could also help them in several ways. Signing gives babies a way to express their wants and needs when they can't talk. And it gives you another way to bond with your child.

Start reading to your child before he or she is 6 months old. Read to your child each day. Reading to your young child is a very important learning activity for several reasons. While reading, you and your child share a comforting closeness. You also both focus on the same picture and the same concept. Your child can ask you questions, and you can reinforce his or her observations. Reading gives children a chance to learn new words that they wouldn't normally hear in everyday conversation. If you often read to your child, you may help with his or her speech development. It may also help your child's later reading abilities and school performance.

If you have concerns about your own reading skills, seek out an adult reading program at your local library or public school system. You can also go to America's Literacy Directory at www.literacydirectory.org to find reading programs in your area.

Helping your baby, birth to age 1

These are some things you can do to help your baby develop speech and language.

Interacting with your baby and sharing a loving environment will help make your baby more curious, build confidence, and help your baby get familiar with language. These traits will provide a strong foundation for speech and language development.

When you play or read with your child, leave the TV off. Even a show playing in the background can distract you and your baby.

Helping your child, ages 1 to 2

There are things you can do to encourage and support your child's speech and language development.

• Involve your child in conversations.
• Talk about the names of favorite toys and other common objects around the house.
• Speak slowly and clearly, and praise your child's attempts to speak.

To help your child's brain develop, play and read together instead of letting your child watch TV, watch movies, or play games on a screen.

When you play or read with your child, leave the TV off. Even a show playing in the background can distract you and your child. For children younger than 18 months, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to avoid screen time.

Helping your child, ages 2 to 4

These are some things you can do to help your 2- to 4-year-old learn new words and say sentences.

When you can, gently encourage your child to talk to others, including other children near the same age.

When your child makes a language mistake, gently rephrase, repeat, or relabel.

• Read to your child every day.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to limit screen time to an hour or less each day of high-quality programs.

Helping your child, ages 3 to 5

The best way to help your child learn is to talk and read to your child. Doing these things will help your child learn language skills faster. Try these ideas:

• Read books to your child that tell stories with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Choose stories about your child's interests. Stories about facing fears and solving problems are also good.
• As you read, talk with your child about the story. Ask questions like "What's going to happen next?" and "Why do you think the character did that?"
• Listen to and talk with your child every day.
• Play games that require listening and following instructions.
• Speak clearly and correctly. Avoid "baby talk."
• Encouraging Language Development in Your Preschooler
• Speech and Language Development: Helping Your 1- to 2-Year-Old
• Related Information
• Growth and Development, Ages 1 to 12 Months
• Growth and Development, Ages 12 to 24 Months
• Growth and Development, Ages 2 to 5 Years
• Growth and Development, Newborn
• Hearing Loss

Current as of: October 24, 2023

Author: Healthwise Staff Clinical Review Board All Healthwise education is reviewed by a team that includes physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, registered dieticians, and other healthcare professionals.

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What do we mean by speech, language and communication?

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Speech refers to:

• Speaking with a clear voice, in a way that makes speech interesting and meaningful
• Speaking without hesitating too much or without repeating words or sounds
• Being able to make sounds like ‘k’ and ‘t’ clearly so people can understand what you say

Language refers to:

• Knowing and choosing the right words to explain what you mean
• Joining words together into sentences, stories and conversations
• Making sense of what people say

Communication refers to:

• Using language or gestures in different ways, for example to have a conversation or to give someone directions
• Being able to consider other people’s point of view
• Knowing when someone is bored
• Being able to listen to and look at people when having a conversation
• Knowing how to take turns and to listen as well as talk
• Knowing how close to stand next to someone

What are speech, language and communication needs?

• Difficulty in communicating with others
• Difficulties saying what they want to
• Difficulty in understanding what is being said to them
• Difficulties understanding and using social rules

Speech, language and communication needs can occur on their own without any other developmental needs, or be part of another condition such as general learning difficulties, autism spectrum disorders or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

For many children, difficulties will resolve naturally when they experience good communication-rich environments. Others will need a little extra support from you. However, some may need longer term speech and language therapy support.

It is important for practitioners to recognise what level of support children require as early as possible. Contact your local Children's Centre speech and language therapist or use our website to find the support and training you feel you need.

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What is speech, language and communication.

Speech: When we use the term ‘speech’, we are referring to the production of sounds to form words.  

Language: In the simplest sense, we think of language as being the understanding and use of words, sentences and grammar. This involves both receptive language (understanding) and expressive language (use of language).

Communication: Communication involves conveying thoughts, needs, wants and ideas to another person or people. We communicate using language but also non-verbal means such as gesture, facial expression, body language, eye contact etc. Speech is not essential.

Children develop their Speech, Language and Communication skills at different rates and ages. Typically, children will do this through the development of the skills represented in the Communication Pyramid below.

The skills at the bottom of the pyramid act as the foundations for the skills at the top. 

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Cognitive Development in Infancy through Adolescence

Language development.

Language is a system of communication that uses symbols in a regular way to create meaning. Language gives us the ability to communicate our intelligence to others by talking, reading, and writing. Although other species have at least some ability to communicate, none of them have language.

Given the remarkable complexity of a language, one might expect that mastering a language would be an especially arduous task; indeed, for those of us trying to learn a second language as adults, this might seem to be true. However, young children master language very quickly with relative ease. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement. Noam Chomsky (1965) criticized this behaviorist approach, asserting instead that the mechanisms underlying language acquisition are biologically determined. The use of language develops in the absence of formal instruction and appears to follow a very similar pattern in children from vastly different cultures and backgrounds. It would seem, therefore, that we are born with a biological predisposition to acquire a language (Chomsky, 1965; Fernández & Cairns, 2011). Moreover, it appears that there is a critical period for language acquisition, such that this proficiency at acquiring language is maximal early in life; generally, as people age, the ease with which they acquire and master new languages diminishes (Johnson & Newport, 1989; Lenneberg, 1967; Singleton, 1995).

There are many components of language that will now be reviewed.

The Structures of Language

All languages have underlying structural rules that make meaningful communication possible. Every language is different. In English, an adjective comes before a noun (“red house”), whereas in Spanish, the adjective comes after (“casa [house] roja [red].”) In German, you can put noun after noun together to form giant compound words; in Chinese, the pitch of your voice determines the meaning of your words; in American Sign Language, you can convey full, grammatical sentences with tense and aspect by moving your hands and face. But all languages have structural underpinnings that make them logical for the people who speak and understand them.

Figure 1. Major levels of linguistic structure. This diagram outlines the relationship between types of linguistic units. Speech sounds make up phonemes, which make up words. Words make up sentences, which have literal meanings and contextual meanings.

A  phoneme  is  the smallest unit of sound that makes a meaningful difference in a language . This small sound may cause a change of meaning within a language, but that doesn’t have meaning by itself. For example, in the words “bake” and “brake,” only one phoneme has been altered, but a change in meaning has been triggered. The phoneme /r/ has no meaning on its own, but by appearing in the word it has completely changed the word’s meaning.  In spoken languages, phonemes are produced by the positions and movements of the vocal tract, including our lips, teeth, tongue, vocal cords, and throat, whereas in sign languages phonemes are defined by the shapes and movement of the hands.

Phonemes correspond to the sounds of the alphabet, although there is not always a one-to-one relationship between a letter and a phoneme (the sound made when you say the word). For example, the word “dog” has three phonemes: /d/, /o/, and / g /. However, the word “shape,” despite having five letters, has only three phonemes: /sh/, /long-a/, and /p/. There are hundreds of unique phonemes that can be made by human speakers, but most languages only use a small subset of the possibilities. English contains about 45 phonemes, whereas other languages have as few as 15 and others more than 60. The Hawaiian language contains fewer phonemes as it includes only 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and 7 consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, and w).

Babies can discriminate among the sounds that make up a language (for example, they can tell the difference between the “s” in vision and the “ss” in fission); early on, they can differentiate between the sounds of all human languages, even those that do not occur in the languages that are used in their environment. However, they lose their ability to do so as they get older; by 10 months of age, they can only discriminate among those phonemes that are used in the language or languages in their environments (Jensen, 2011; Werker & Lalonde, 1988; Werker & Tees, 1984). Phonemes that were initially differentiated come to be treated as equivalent (Werker & Tees, 2002).

Whereas phonemes are the smallest units of sound in language, a  morpheme  is  a string of one or more phonemes that makes up the smallest units of meaning in a language . Thus, a morpheme is a series of phonemes that has a special meaning. If a morpheme is altered in any way, the entire meaning of the word can be changed. Some morphemes are individual words (such as “eat” or “water”). These are known as free morphemes because they can exist on their own. Other morphemes are prefixes, suffixes, or other linguistic pieces that aren’t full words on their own but do affect meaning (such as  the “-s” at the end of “cats” or the “re-” at the beginning of “redo.”) Because these morphemes must be attached to another word to have meaning, they are called bound morphemes.

Semantics  refers to  the set of rules we use to obtain meaning from morphemes . For example, adding “ed” to the end of a verb makes it past tense.

Grammar and Syntax

Because all language obeys a set of combinatory rules, we can communicate an infinite number of concepts. While every language has a different set of rules, all languages do obey rules. These rules are known as grammar. Speakers of a language have internalized the rules and exceptions for that language’s grammar. There are rules for every level of language—word formation (for example, native speakers of English have internalized the general rule that -ed is the ending for past-tense verbs, so even when they encounter a brand-new verb, they automatically know how to put it into past tense); phrase formation (for example, knowing that when you use the verb “buy,” it needs a subject and an object; “She buys” is wrong, but “She buys a gift” is okay); and sentence formation.

Syntax  is  the set of rules of a language by which we construct sentences . Each language has a different syntax. The syntax of the English language requires that each sentence have a noun and a verb, each of which may be modified by adjectives and adverbs. Some syntaxes make use of the order in which words appear. For example, in English “The man bites the dog” is different from “The dog bites the man.”

The social side of language is expressed through  pragmatics , or  how we communicate effectively and appropriately with others.  Examples of pragmatics include turn- taking, staying on topic, volume and tone of voice, and appropriate eye contact. Lastly, words do not possess fixed meanings but change their interpretation as a function of the context in which they are spoken. We use  contextual information ,  the information surrounding language , to help us interpret it. Examples of contextual information include our knowledge and nonverbal expressions such as facial expressions, postures, and gestures. Misunderstandings can easily arise if people are not attentive to contextual information or if some of it is missing, such as it may be in newspaper headlines or in text messages.

Pre-Linguistic Pragmatics

Video 1. Talking Twin Babies demonstrates how children can learn and use pragmatics even before they can produce language.

Language Development Progression

Children begin to learn about language from a very early age (Table 1). In fact, it appears that this is occurring even before we are born. Newborns show a preference for their mother’s voice and appear to be able to discriminate between the language spoken by their mother and other languages. Babies are also attuned to the languages being used around them and show preferences for videos of faces that are moving in synchrony with the audio of spoken language versus videos that do not synchronize with the audio (Blossom & Morgan, 2006; Pickens, 1994; Spelke & Cortelyou, 1981).

Intentional Vocalizations

In terms of producing spoken language, babies begin to coo almost immediately.  Cooing  is a one-syllable combination of a consonant and a vowel sound  (e.g., coo or ba). Interestingly, babies replicate sounds from their own languages. A baby whose parents speak French will coo in a different tone than a baby whose parents speak Spanish or Urdu. These gurgling, musical vocalizations can serve as a source of entertainment to an infant who has been laid down for a nap or seated in a carrier on a car ride. Cooing serves as practice for vocalization, as well as the infant hears the sound of his or her own voice and tries to repeat sounds that are entertaining. Infants also begin to learn the pace and pause of conversation as they alternate their vocalization with that of someone else and then take their turn again when the other person’s vocalization has stopped.

At about four to six months of age, infants begin making even more elaborate vocalizations that include the sounds required for any language. Guttural sounds, clicks, consonants, and vowel sounds stand ready to equip the child with the ability to repeat whatever sounds are characteristic of the language heard. Eventually, these sounds will no longer be used as the infant grows more accustomed to a particular language .

At about 7 months, infants begin  Babbling , engaging in  intentional vocalizations that lack specific   meaning   and   comprise   a   consonant-vowel   repeated   sequence,   such   as   ma-ma-ma,   da-da- da . Children babble as practice in creating specific sounds, and by the time they are 1 year old, the babbling uses primarily the sounds of the language that they are learning (de Boysson- Bardies, Sagart, & Durand, 1984). These vocalizations have a conversational tone that sounds meaningful even though it isn’t. Babbling also helps children understand the social, communicative function of language. Children who are exposed to sign language babble in sign by making hand movements that represent real language (Petitto & Marentette, 1991).

Children communicate information through gesturing long before they speak, and there is some evidence that gesture usage predicts subsequent language development (Iverson & Goldin-Meadow, 2005). Deaf babies also use gestures to communicate wants, reactions, and feelings. Because gesturing seems to be easier than vocalization for some toddlers, sign language is sometimes taught to enhance one’s ability to communicate by making use of the ease of gesturing. The rhythm and pattern of language is used when deaf babies sign just as it is when hearing babies babble.

Video 2. Baby Sign Language demonstrates how infants can be taught sign language to communicate before they can speak. Most infants will begin gesturing on their own around 10 months old, but infants can be taught gestures, like signs, before they are 6 months old.

Receptive Language

At around ten months of age, the infant  can understand more than he or she can say, which is referred to as  receptive language . You may have experienced this phenomenon as well if you have ever tried to learn a second language. You may have been able to follow a conversation more easily than contribute to it. One of the first words that children understand is their own name, usually by about 6 months, followed by commonly used words like “bottle,” “mama,” and “doggie” by 10 to 12 months (Mandel, Jusczyk, & Pisoni, 1995).

Infants shake their head “no” around 6–9 months, and they respond to verbal requests to do things like “wave bye-bye” or “blow a kiss” around 9–12 months. Children also use contextual information, particularly the cues that parents provide, to help them learn language. Children learn that people are usually referring to things that they are looking at when they are speaking (Baldwin, 1993), and that that the speaker’s emotional expressions are related to the content of their speech.

Productive Language

Children begin using their first words at about 12 or 13 months of age and may use partial words to convey thoughts at even younger ages.  These one word expressions are referred to as h olophrasic speech.  For example, the child may say “ju” for the word “juice” and use this sound when referring to a bottle. The listener must interpret the meaning of the holophrase, and when this is someone who has spent time with the child, interpretation is not too difficult. But, someone who has not been around the child will have trouble knowing what is meant. Imagine the parent who to a friend exclaims, “Ezra’s talking all the time now!” The friend hears only “ju da ga” to which the parent explains means, “I want some milk when I go with Daddy.”

First words and Cultural Influences

First words if the child is using English tend to be nouns. The child labels objects such as cup, ball, or other items that they regularly interact with. In a verb-friendly language such as Chinese, however, children may learn more verbs. This may also be due to the different emphasis given to objects based on culture. Chinese children may be taught to notice action and relationships between objects, while children from the United States may be taught to name an object and its qualities (color, texture, size, etc.). These differences can be seen when comparing interpretations of art by older students from China and the United States.

Two-word Sentences and Telegraphic Speech

By the time they become toddlers, children have a vocabulary of about 50-200 words and begin putting those words together in telegraphic speech, such as “baby bye-bye” or “doggie pretty”. Words needed to convey messages are used, but the articles and other parts of speech necessary for grammatical correctness are not yet used. These expressions sound like a telegraph, or perhaps a better analogy today would be that they read like a text message.  Telegraphic Speech/Text Message Speech  occurs when unnecessary words are not used . “Give baby ball” is used rather than “Give the baby the ball.”

Language Errors

The early utterances of children contain many errors, for instance, confusing /b/ and /d/, or /c/ and /z/. The words children create are often simplified, in part because they are not yet able to make more complex sounds of the real language (Dobrich & Scarborough, 1992). Children may say “keekee” for kitty, “nana” for banana, and “vesketti” for spaghetti because it is easier. Often these early words are accompanied by gestures that may also be easier to produce than the words themselves. Children’s pronunciations become increasingly accurate between 1 and 3 years, but some problems may persist until school age.

A child who learns that a word stands for an object may initially think that the  word can be used for only that particular object,  which is referred to as  Underextension .  Only the family’s Irish Setter is a “doggie”, for example. More often, however, a child may think that  a label applies to all objects that are similar to the original object,  which is called  Overextension.  For example, all animals become “doggies”.

Link to Learning

Read this article to learn more about common linguistic mistakes that children make and what they mean:  10 Language Mistakes Kids Make That Are Actually Pretty Smart .

Child-Directed Speech

Why is a horse a “horsie”? Have you ever wondered why adults tend to use “baby talk” or that sing-song type of intonation and exaggeration used when talking to children? This represents a universal tendency and is known as  child-directed Speech.  It involves exaggerating the vowel and consonant sounds, using a high-pitched voice, and delivering the phrase with great facial expression  (Clark, 2009) .  Why is this done? Infants are frequently more attuned to the tone of voice of the person speaking than to the content of the words themselves, and are aware of the target of speech. Werker, Pegg, and McLeod (1994) found that infants listened longer to a woman who was speaking to a baby than to a woman who was speaking to another adult. It may be in order to clearly articulate the sounds of a word so that the child can hear the sounds involved. It may also be because when this type of speech is used, the infant pays more attention to the speaker and this sets up a pattern of interaction in which the speaker and listener are in tune with one another.

Video 3. This video examines new research on child-directed speech.

  Vocabulary

A child’s vocabulary expands between the ages of two to six from about 200 words to over 10,000 words. This “vocabulary spurt” typically involves 10-20 new words per week and is accomplished through a process called  fast-mapping .  Words are easily learned by making connections between new words and concepts already known . The parts of speech that are learned depend on the language and what is emphasized. Children speaking verb-friendly languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, learn verbs more readily, while those speaking English tend to learn nouns more readily. However, those learning less verb-friendly languages, such as English, seem to need assistance in grammar to master the use of verbs (Imai et al., 2008).

One of the reasons that children can classify objects in so many ways is that they have acquired a vocabulary to do so. By fifth grade, a child’s vocabulary has grown to 40,000 words. It grows at a rate that exceeds that of those in early childhood. This language explosion, however, differs from that of younger children because it is facilitated by being able to associate new words with those already known, and because it is accompanied by a more sophisticated understanding of the meanings of a word.

Children can repeat words and phrases after having heard them only once or twice, but they do not always understand the meaning of the words or phrases. This is especially true of expressions or figures of speech which are taken literally. For example, a classroom full of preschoolers hears the teacher say, “Wow! That was a piece of cake!” The children began asking “Cake? Where is my cake? I want cake!”

Those in middle and late childhood are also able to think of objects in less literal ways. For example, if asked for the first word that comes to mind when one hears the word “pizza”, the younger child is likely to say “eat” or some word that describes what is done with a pizza. However, the older child is more likely to place pizza in the appropriate category and say “food”. This sophistication of vocabulary is also evidenced by the fact that older children tell jokes and delight in doing do. They may use jokes that involve plays on words such as “knock- knock” jokes or jokes with punch lines. Young children do not understand play on words and tell “jokes” that are literal or slapstick, such as “A man fell down in the mud! Isn’t that funny?”

30 Million Word Gap

To accomplish the tremendous rate of word learning that needs to occur during early childhood, it is important that children are learning new words each day. Research by Betty Hart and Todd Risley in the late 1990s and early 2000s indicated that children from less advantaged backgrounds are exposed to millions of fewer words in their first three years of life than children who come from more privileged socioeconomic backgrounds. In their research, families were classified by socioeconomic status, (SES) into “high” (professional), “middle” (working class), and “low” (welfare) SES. They found that the average child in a professional family hears 2,153 words per waking hour, the average child in a working-class family hears 1,251 words per hour, and an average child in a welfare family only 616 words per hour. Extrapolating, they stated that, “in four years, an average child in a professional family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words, an average child in a working-class family 26 million words, and an average child in a welfare family 13 million words.” The line of thinking following their study is that children from more affluent households would enter school knowing more words, which would give them advantage in school.

Hart and Risley’s research has been criticized by scholars. Critics theorize that the language and achievement gaps are not a result of the number of words a child is exposed to, but rather alternative theories suggest it could reflect the disconnect of linguistic practices between home and school. Thus, judging academic success and linguistic capabilities from socioeconomic status may ignore bigger societal issues. A recent replication of Hart and Risley’s study with more participants has found that the “word gap” may be closer to 4 million words, not the oft-cited 30 million words previously proposed. The ongoing word gap research is evidence of the importance of language development in early childhood.

Video 4. Watch as Dr. John Gabrieli, from the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Development explains how early language exposure affects language development. His research uses the current technology to correlate home language experiences with brain function. They determined that the number of conversational turns was more important to development in Broca’s area (brain region linked to speech production) than the number of words heard or the family’s socioeconomic status.

Grammar and Flexibility

Older children are also able to learn new rules of grammar with more flexibility. While younger children are likely to be reluctant to give up saying “I goed there”, older children will learn this rather quickly along with other rules of grammar.

Bilingualism

Although monolingual speakers often do not realize it, the majority of children around the world are  Bilingual ,  meaning that they understand and use two languages  (Meyers- Sutton, 2005). Even in the United States, which is a relatively monolingual society, more than 47 million people speak a language other than English at home, and about 10 million of these people are children or youths in public schools (United States Department of Commerce, 2003). The large majority of bilingual students (75%) are Hispanic, but the rest represent more than a hundred different language groups from around the world. In larger communities throughout the United States, it is therefore common for a single classroom to contain students from several language backgrounds at once. In classrooms, as in other social settings, bilingualism exists in different forms and degrees. At one extreme are students who speak both English and another language fluently; at the other extreme are those who speak only limited versions of both languages. In between are students who speak their home (or heritage) language much better than English, as well as others who have partially lost their heritage language in the process of learning English (Tse, 2001). Commonly, a student may speak a language satisfactorily but be challenged by reading or writing it. Whatever the case, each bilingual student poses unique challenges to teachers.

The student who speaks both languages fluently has a definite cognitive advantage. As you might suspect and research confirmed, a fully fluent bilingual student is in a better position to express concepts or ideas in more than one way, and to be aware of doing so (Jimenez, Garcia, & Pearson, 1995; Francis, 2006). Unfortunately, the bilingualism of many students is unbalanced in the sense that they are either still learning English, or else they have lost some earlier ability to use their original, heritage language. Losing one’s original language is a concern as research finds that language loss limits students’ ability to learn English as well or as quickly as they could do. Having a large vocabulary in a first language has been shown to save time in learning vocabulary in a second language (Hansen, Umeda & McKinney, 2002). Preserving the first language is important if a student has impaired skill in all languages and therefore needs intervention or help from a speech-language specialist. Research has found, in such cases, that the specialist can be more effective if the specialist speaks and uses the first language as well as English (Kohnert, Yim, Nett, Kan, & Duran, 2005).

Video 5. This video explains some of the research surrounding language acquisition in babies, particularly those learning a second language.

Theories of Language Development

Psychological theories of language learning differ in terms of the importance they place on nature and nurture. Remember that we are a product of both nature and nurture. Researchers now believe that language acquisition is partially inborn and partially learned through our interactions with our linguistic environment (Gleitman & Newport, 1995; Stork & Widdowson, 1974).

Video 6. Theories of Language Development discusses the major theories of how language develops in children.

Learning Theory

Perhaps the most straightforward explanation of language development is that it occurs through the principles of learning, including association and reinforcement (Skinner, 1953). Additionally, Bandura (1977) described the importance of observation and imitation of others in learning language. There must be at least some truth to the idea that language is learned through environmental interactions or nurture. Children learn the language that they hear spoken around them rather than some other language. Also supporting this idea is the gradual improvement of language skills with time. It seems that children modify their language through imitation and reinforcement, such as parental praise and being understood. For example, when a two-year-old child asks for juice, he might say, “me juice,” to which his mother might respond by giving him a cup of apple juice.

However, language cannot be entirely learned. For one, children learn words too fast for them to be learned through reinforcement. Between the ages of 18 months and 5 years, children learn up to 10 new words every day (Anglin, 1993). More importantly, language is more  generative  than it is imitative .  Language is not a predefined set of ideas and sentences that we choose when we need them, but rather a system of rules and procedures that allows us to create an infinite number of statements, thoughts, and ideas, including those that have never previously occurred. When a child says that she “swimmed” in the pool, for instance, she is showing generativity. No adult speaker of English would ever say “swimmed,” yet it is easily generated from the normal system of producing language.

Other evidence that refutes the idea that all language is learned through experience comes from the observation that children may learn languages better than they ever hear them. Deaf children whose parents do not speak ASL very well nevertheless are able to learn it perfectly on their own, and may even make up their own language if they need to (Goldin-Meadow & Mylander, 1998). A group of deaf children in a school in Nicaragua, whose teachers could not sign, invented a way to communicate through made-up signs (Senghas, Senghas, & Pyers, 2005). The development of this new Nicaraguan Sign Language has continued and changed as new generations of students have come to the school and started using the language. Although the original system was not a real language, it is becoming closer and closer every year, showing the development of a new language in modern times.

The linguist Noam Chomsky is a believer in the nature approach to language, arguing that human brains contain a  Language Acquisition Device  that includes a  universal grammar  that underlies all human language (Chomsky, 1965, 1972). According to this approach, each of the many languages spoken around the world (there are between 6,000 and 8,000) is an individual example of the same underlying set of procedures that are hardwired into human brains. Chomsky’s account proposes that children are born with a knowledge of general rules of syntax that determine how sentences are constructed. Language develops as long as the infant is exposed to it. No teaching, training, or reinforcement is required for language to develop as proposed by Skinner.

Chomsky differentiates between the  deep structure  of an idea; that is,  how the idea is represented in the fundamental universal grammar that is common to all languages , and the  surface structure  of the idea or  how it is expressed in any one language . Once we hear or express a thought in surface structure, we generally forget exactly how it happened. At the end of a lecture, you will remember a lot of the deep structure (i.e., the ideas expressed by the instructor), but you cannot reproduce the surface structure (the exact words that the instructor used to communicate the ideas).

Although there is general agreement among psychologists that babies are genetically programmed to learn language, there is still debate about Chomsky’s idea that there is a universal grammar that can account for all language learning. Evans and Levinson (2009) surveyed the world’s languages and found that none of the presumed underlying features of the language acquisition device were entirely universal. In their search they found languages that did not have noun or verb phrases, that did not have tenses (e.g., past, present, future), and even some that did not have nouns or verbs at all, even though a basic assumption of a universal grammar is that all languages should share these features.

Critical Periods

Anyone who has tried to master a second language as an adult knows the difficulty of language learning. Yet children learn languages easily and naturally. Children who are not exposed to language early in their lives will likely never learn one. Case studies, including Victor the “Wild Child,” who was abandoned as a baby in France and not discovered until he was 12, and Genie, a child whose parents kept her locked in a closet from 18 months until 13 years of age, are (fortunately) two of the only known examples of these deprived children. Both of these children made some progress in socialization after they were rescued, but neither of them ever developed language (Rymer, 1993). This is also why it is important to determine quickly if a child is deaf, and to communicate in sign language immediately. Deaf children who are not exposed to sign language during their early years will likely never learn it (Mayberry, Lock, & Kazmi, 2002). The concept of critical periods highlights the importance of both nature and nurture for language development.

Brain Areas for Language

For the 90% of people who are right-handed, language is stored and controlled by the left cerebral cortex, although for some left-handers this pattern is reversed. These differences can easily be seen in the results of neuroimaging studies that show that listening to and producing language creates greater activity in the left hemisphere than in the right.  Broca’s area ,  an area in front of the left hemisphere near the motor cortex ,  is responsible for language production  (Figure 3.21). This area was first localized in the 1860s by the French physician Paul Broca, who studied patients with lesions to various parts of the brain.  Wernicke’s area ,  an area of the brain next to the auditory cortex ,  is responsible for language comprehension.

Figure 2.  Drawing of Brain Showing Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas for most people the left hemisphere is specialized for language. Broca’s area, near the motor cortex, is involved in language production, whereas Wernicke’s area, near the auditory cortex, is specialized for language comprehension.

Video 7. Language and the Brain reviews major brain structures and functions involved in language.

Interactionist Approach

The  interactionist approach  (sociocultural theory) combines ideas from psychology and biology to explain how language is developed. According to this theory, children learn language out of a desire to communicate with the world around them. Language emerges from, and is dependent upon, social interaction. The Interactionist approach claims that if our language ability develops out of a desire to communicate, then language is dependent upon whom we want to communicate with. This means the environment you grow up in will heavily affect how well and how quickly you learn to talk. For example, infants being raised by only their mother are more likely to learn the word “mama”, and less likely to develop “dada”. Among the first words we learn are ways to demand attention or food. If you’ve ever tried to learn a new language, you may recognize this theory’s influence. Language classes often teach commonly used vocabulary and phrases first, and then focus on building conversations rather than simple rote memorization. Even when we expand our vocabularies in our native language, we remember the words we use the most.

Social pragmatics

Language from this view is not only a cognitive skill but also a social one. Language is a tool humans use to communicate, connect to, influence, and inform others. Most of all, language comes out of a need to cooperate. The social nature of language has been demonstrated by a number of studies that have shown that children use several pre-linguistic skills (such as pointing and other gestures) to communicate not only their own needs but what others may need. So a child watching her mother search for an object may point to the object to help her mother find it.

Eighteen-month to 30-month-olds have been shown to make linguistic repairs when it is clear that another person does not understand them (Grosse, Behne, Carpenter & Tomasello, 2010). Grosse et al. (2010) found that even when the child was given the desired object, if there had been any misunderstanding along the way (such as a delay in being handed the object, or the experimenter calling the object by the wrong name), children would make linguistic repairs. This would suggest that children are using language not only as a means of achieving some material goal, but to make themselves understood in the mind of another person.

Vygotsky and Language Development 

Lev Vygotsky hypothesized that children had a zone of proximal development (ZPD) . The ZPD is the range of material that a child is ready to learn if proper support and guidance are given from either a peer who understands the material or by an adult. We can see the benefit of this sort of guidance when we think about the acquisition of language. Children can be assisted in learning language by others who listen attentively, model more accurate pronunciations and encourage elaboration. For example, if the child exclaims, “I’m goed there!” then the adult responds, “You went there?”

Children may be hard-wired for language development, as Noam Chomsky suggested in his theory of universal grammar, but active participation is also important for language development. The process of  scaffolding  is one in which the guide provides needed assistance to the child as a new skill is learned. Repeating what a child has said, but in a grammatically correct way, is scaffolding for a child who is struggling with the rules of language production.

Private Speech

Do you ever talk to yourself? Why? Chances are, this occurs when you are struggling with a problem, trying to remember something or feel very emotional about a situation. Children talk to themselves too. Piaget interpreted this as egocentric speech or a practice engaged in because of a child’s inability to see things from other points of view. Vygotsky, however, believed that children talk to themselves in order to solve problems or clarify thoughts. As children learn to think in words, they do so aloud before eventually closing their lips and engaging in  private speech  or inner speech. Thinking out loud eventually becomes thought accompanied by internal speech, and talking to oneself becomes a practice only engaged in when we are trying to learn something or remember something, etc. This inner speech is not as elaborate as the speech we use when communicating with others (Vygotsky, 1962).

• Educational Psychology. Authored by : Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose. Provided by : Hudson Valley Community College. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/edpsy/chapter/language-development/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Wrede, B., Schillingmann, L., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2013). Making use of multi-modal synchrony: A model of acoustic packaging. In L. J. Gogate & G. Hollich (Eds.), Theoretical and computational models of word learning: Trends in psychology and artificial intelligence (pp. 224–240). Hershey: Information Science Reference.

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Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Song, L., Fletcher, K.K. (2021). Language Development. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_2410

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Language Acquisition Theory

Henna Lemetyinen

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Language is a cognition that truly makes us human. Whereas other species do communicate with an innate ability to produce a limited number of meaningful vocalizations (e.g., bonobos) or even with partially learned systems (e.g., bird songs), there is no other species known to date that can express infinite ideas (sentences) with a limited set of symbols (speech sounds and words).

This ability is remarkable in itself. What makes it even more remarkable is that researchers are finding evidence for mastery of this complex skill in increasingly younger children.

Infants as young as 12 months are reported to have sensitivity to the grammar needed to understand causative sentences (who did what to whom; e.g., the bunny pushed the frog (Rowland & Noble, 2010).

After more than 60 years of research into child language development, the mechanism that enables children to segment syllables and words out of the strings of sounds they hear and to acquire grammar to understand and produce language is still quite an enigma.

Behaviorist Theory of Language Acquisition

One of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition was provided by Skinner (1957). As one of the pioneers of behaviorism , he accounted for language development using environmental influence, through imitation, reinforcement, and conditioning.

In this view, children learn words and grammar primarily by mimicking the speech they hear and receiving positive feedback for correct usage.

Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative value of words and phrases.

For example, when the child says ‘milk’ and the mother smiles and gives her some. As a result, the child will find this outcome rewarding, enhancing the child’s language development (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011).

Over time, through repetition and reinforcement, they refine their linguistic abilities. Critics argue this theory doesn’t fully explain the rapid pace of language acquisition nor the creation of novel sentences.

Chomsky Theory of Language Development

However, Skinner’s account was soon heavily criticized by Noam Chomsky, the world’s most famous linguist to date.

In the spirit of the cognitive revolution in the 1950s, Chomsky argued that children would never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone.

Noam Chomsky introduced the nativist theory of language development, emphasizing the role of innate structures and mechanisms in the human brain. Key points of Chomsky’s theory include:

Language Acquisition Device (LAD): Chomsky proposed that humans have an inborn biological capacity for language, often termed the LAD, which predisposes them to acquire language.

Universal Grammar: He suggested that all human languages share a deep structure rooted in a set of grammatical rules and categories. This “universal grammar” is understood intuitively by all humans.

Poverty of the Stimulus: Chomsky argued that the linguistic input received by young children is often insufficient (or “impoverished”) for them to learn the complexities of their native language solely through imitation or reinforcement. Yet, children rapidly and consistently master their native language, pointing to inherent cognitive structures.

Critical Period: Chomsky, along with other linguists, posited a critical period for language acquisition, during which the brain is particularly receptive to linguistic input, making language learning more efficient.

Critics of Chomsky’s theory argue that it’s too innatist and doesn’t give enough weight to social interaction and other factors in language acquisition.

Universal Grammar

Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category, that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults.

Universal Grammar contains all the grammatical information needed to combine these categories, e.g., nouns and verbs, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the words of her language (Ambridge & Lieven).

For example, according to the Universal Grammar account, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g., a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats).

This Chomskian (1965) approach to language acquisition has inspired hundreds of scholars to investigate the nature of these assumed grammatical categories, and the research is still ongoing.

Contemporary Research

A decade or two later, some psycho-linguists began to question the existence of Universal Grammar. They argued that categories like nouns and verbs are biologically, evolutionarily, and psychologically implausible and that the field called for an account that can explain the acquisition process without innate categories.

Researchers started to suggest that instead of having a language-specific mechanism for language processing, children might utilize general cognitive and learning principles.

Whereas researchers approaching the language acquisition problem from the perspective of Universal Grammar argue for early full productivity, i.e., early adult-like knowledge of the language, the opposing constructivist investigators argue for a more gradual developmental process. It is suggested that children are sensitive to patterns in language which enables the acquisition process.

An example of this gradual pattern learning is morphology acquisition. Morphemes are the smallest grammatical markers, or units, in language that alter words. In English, regular plurals are marked with an –s morpheme (e.g., dog+s).

Similarly, English third singular verb forms (she eat+s, a boy kick+s) are marked with the –s morpheme. Children are considered to acquire their first instances of third singular forms as entire phrasal chunks (Daddy kicks, a girl eats, a dog barks) without the ability to tease the finest grammatical components apart.

When the child hears a sufficient number of instances of a linguistic construction (i.e., the third singular verb form), she will detect patterns across the utterances she has heard. In this case, the repeated pattern is the –s marker in this particular verb form.

As a result of many repetitions and examples of the –s marker in different verbs, the child will acquire sophisticated knowledge that, in English, verbs must be marked with an –s morpheme in the third singular form (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011; Pine, Conti-Ramsden, Joseph, Lieven & Serratrice, 2008; Theakson & Lieven, 2005).

Approaching language acquisition from the perspective of general cognitive processing is an economic account of how children can learn their first language without an excessive biolinguistic mechanism.

However, finding a solid answer to the problem of language acquisition is far from being over. Our current understanding of the developmental process is still immature.

Investigators of Universal Grammar are still trying to convince that language is a task too demanding to acquire without specific innate equipment, whereas constructivist researchers are fiercely arguing for the importance of linguistic input.

The biggest questions, however, are yet unanswered. What is the exact process that transforms the child’s utterances into grammatically correct, adult-like speech? How much does the child need to be exposed to language to achieve the adult-like state?

What account can explain variation between languages and the language acquisition process in children acquiring very different languages to English? The mystery of language acquisition is granted to keep psychologists and linguists alike astonished decade after decade.

What is language acquisition?

Language acquisition refers to the process by which individuals learn and develop their native or second language.

It involves the acquisition of grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills through exposure, interaction, and cognitive development. This process typically occurs in childhood but can continue throughout life.

What is Skinner’s theory of language development?

Skinner’s theory of language development, also known as behaviorist theory, suggests that language is acquired through operant conditioning. According to Skinner, children learn language by imitating and being reinforced for correct responses.

He argued that language is a result of external stimuli and reinforcement, emphasizing the role of the environment in shaping linguistic behavior.

What is Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition?

Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition, known as Universal Grammar, posits that language is an innate capacity of humans.

According to Chomsky, children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD), a biological ability that enables them to acquire language rules and structures effortlessly.

He argues that there are universal grammar principles that guide language development across cultures and languages, suggesting that language acquisition is driven by innate linguistic knowledge rather than solely by environmental factors.

Ambridge, B., & Lieven, E.V.M. (2011). Language Acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax . MIT Press.

Pine, J.M., Conti-Ramsden, G., Joseph, K.L., Lieven, E.V.M., & Serratrice, L. (2008). Tense over time: testing the Agreement/Tense Omission Model as an account of the pattern of tense-marking provision in early child English. Journal of Child Language , 35(1): 55-75.

Rowland, C. F.; & Noble, C. L. (2010). The role of syntactic structure in children’s sentence comprehension: Evidence from the dative. Language Learning and Development , 7(1): 55-75.

Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal behavior . Acton, MA: Copley Publishing Group.

Theakston, A.L., & Lieven, E.V.M. (2005). The acquisition of auxiliaries BE and HAVE: an elicitation study. Journal of Child Language , 32(2): 587-616.

Further Reading

An excellent article by Steven Pinker on Language Acquisition

Pinker, S. (1995). The New Science of Language and Mind . Penguin.

Tomasello, M. (2005). Constructing A Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition . Harvard University Press.

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Theories of Language Development: A Brief Overview of the Foundational Ideas

Language development is a seriously complex topic.

This post will start you on the road to uncovering the most important figures, theories and facts you’ll most likely hear over and over again in your language learning journey.

Deep breaths everyone, as we delve into the fascinating theories of language development.

A Brief Overview of Language Development Theories

1. chomsky’s nativist language theories, 2. b.f. skinner’s behaviorist perspective, 3. piaget’s cognitive development theory, 4. vygotsky’s constructivist learning theory, what these language development theories mean for you.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The most prominent figure in language development is Noam Chomsky, who’s been studying this ever since his days at MIT. Then there are those who have offered their take on language development from a psychological perspective. This includes psychologists such as B.F. Skinner, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.

We’ll be giving you a brief overview of their theories and perspectives. Fair warning to all: There’s a lot of psychology here, so be prepared for a bunch of fancy new terms (we’ll explain them briefly as we go, of course).

Noam Chomsky has been studying and developing his theories since the 1950s.

In his book  “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” published in 1965, he has pushed forward the fundamental observation that there are deep structures and surface structures in every sentence , no matter what language.

This is the reason why you can form sentences with similar meaning using a theoretically infinite combination of words.

Essentially, deep structures are the thoughts and meanings we want to express and surface structures are the words, sounds and symbols we use to try and express them.

Let’s look at some examples. Take a look at the following sentence:

Language development seems really complicated to me.

I think language development is really complicated .

Both express exactly the same thing using different words and a different word order. The deep structure is the same (the notion that language development is obviously not the simplest thing in the world), though the words used (surface structure) are different.

The use of these words and their structures are refined over the course of time. It changes and evolves on the surface, but the deeper structures remain. This is a part of Chomsky’s transformational-generative grammar theory .

Another important contribution Chomsky made to linguistic studies is the theory of universal grammar . He asserted that the human brain contains a mechanism for language acquisition, meaning that our languages share the same deeper structures despite the largely superficial surface structures .

This is why it’s possible for anyone to learn a foreign language , regardless of the complexity of its grammatical structure or script.

Tackling the issue of language from a different perspective was B.F. Skinner , the behavioral psychologist.

Simply put, the behavioral perspective postulates that everything we do is dictated by our environment and that our behavior is a response to external stimuli through operant conditioning , the process through which behavior changes with positive and negative reinforcement.

B.F. Skinner theorized that language acquisition  is dictated by our environment and the positive or negative reinforcement we receive from it.

Parents, for example, enforce correct usage of a word in children with positive facial or verbal reactions. They play larger roles in our “verbal behavior,”  a concept Skinner describes in his book. Verbal behavior introduces the concept of functions to words , as well as meanings.

For example, a child may know what to call a toilet, but they must also learn what the use of that word will allow them to acquire or express. They’ve heard their parents say this word, but what happens when they say it? Most likely, their parents take them to it.

So in this case, the most basic function of the word is to express a need to use the bathroom. A pretty important thing to be able to express, wouldn’t you say?

Jean Piaget was another prominent psychologist who offered yet another take on language acquisition and development. His focus was on child development and the stages children go through to develop and learn.

He asserted that children would only be able to fully grasp some concepts within specific  developmental stages , due to the fact that certain sections of the brain would only further develop at certain ages.

For example, since the sensorimotor stage develops first during the first two years of a child’s life, children focus on their immediate surroundings, experimenting with the things around them by playing with them, biting them or throwing them.

Throughout this stage, they’ll take things apart, put things back together and explore the concept of things existing in and out of sight. By the end of it all, they’ll be able to visualize things that aren’t there in front of them, which is arguably the most crucial part of this stage when it comes to language and communication.

Next comes the preoperational stage in which children are able to think in slightly more abstract ways. They begin to toy with symbols. They’ll use words in ways that aren’t generally accepted or understood.

For example, they may use the word “pillow” to mean “cloth” purely because of the few shared characteristics between the two objects.

They do this for egocentric communication. Anyone who’s ever tried to communicate with a two-year-old will know that they aren’t all that interested in other perspectives. They’re too busy trying to explore their own mind, so don’t take it personally.

You may have noticed already that these concepts focus less on language and more on cognitive development during childhood and you’d be right.

That being said, it’s still important to know because Piaget did establish that language plays a huge role in cognitive development , chiefly in the way children use language throughout each stage.

During the sensorimotor stage, children experiment with sounds, and language is mostly about the auditory aspects. They don’t care about the meaning, they just like to create sounds.

During the preoperational stage, children use language to express themselves, but they can’t really distinguish conversation from pure expression.

During the concrete operational stage , children state facts and observations. Finally, during the formal operational stage , children are able to use language to express, discuss and debate abstract concepts.

Not completely unrelated is Lev Vygotsky ‘s theory of social development.

It’s referred to as the constructivist perspective  and describes the concept of development through construction of thought and meaning. To understand it completely, you first have to understand his perspective.

It challenges the more widely-held concept of knowledge and proposes that knowledge is a construction of meaning unique to the individual . How a person grew up (their culture) will affect how they think. He emphasizes the importance of others in our development (i.e., social interaction and guided learning).

Vygotsky postulated that language develops similarly, but focused on the development of social speech, private speech and inner speech .

Social speech is the language we use with others while private speech (talking to ourselves) is not meant to communicate with others (this happens around the age of three). Inner speech only really begins to appear around the age of six or seven with private speech being internalized.

It’s a complex idea that goes beyond the scope of this post, but children at this stage begin to internalize language and meaning and, as Vygotsky says, begin “thinking in pure meaning.”

Suffice it to say that our relationship with language becomes increasingly more sophisticated and goes beyond the meaning of the words and into the feelings or ideas the words elicit.

In the same way that these theories have aided children and teachers in refining their learning and teaching techniques, you can use this knowledge to fine-tune your language-learning methods.

With a better understanding of these theories and their roots, you can ask yourself, “Is the approach I’m using right now working for me?”

If we consider Chomsky’s ideas of universal grammar , we can say that all languages adhere to certain grammatical parameters, like word order. Our job is then to figure out those parameters by hearing example sentences and formulating the rules of the second language. 

Or should you try tackling grammar from another angle? For example, you might do that by spending time in a different environment where that foreign language is abundant as the constructivist perspective might suggest.

Of course, if you can’t go to another country, you can immerse yourself in the language at home. There are many programs that can help you do so, like FluentU —which uses authentic videos like movie clips and music videos to teach languages in context. The program also helps you study through the use of interactive subtitles and flashcards, as well as quizzes, transcripts, a contextual dictionary and other useful learner features.

What about those of you who are trying to find ways to teach your children a second language ? Perhaps taking a look at Piaget’s developmental stages could help you figure out where your child’s mind is focused and how best to introduce a new language to them.

With so many theories out there concerning language development, see what works for you and which theories or perspectives you’d like to explore.

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Difference between speech, language and communication

• 25 September 2020
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In our day-to-day language, the terms speech, language, and communication are often used interchangeably. However, are these words synonyms? As it turns out, no, they are not! 

Here is how to better distinguish these terms:

Speech refers to the way we produce and perceive the consonants and vowels that form all the languages in the world. It can be considered the perceptual and motor components of oral language. More specifically, it includes the following elements:

• Voice. This refers to the way we use our vocal folds (sometimes called cords), in the larynx, and our respiration (especially the expiration) to produce speech sounds. Our voice varies in intensity and pitch – that is, it can be more or less loud and have a higher or lower pitch. These parameters are determined by the contraction and extension of the vocal folds.
• Articulation. It is the way we use our articulators, including our lips and our tongue, to produce speech sounds. For example, our lips are rounded to produce the vowel /o/, while they are stretched to produce the vowel /i/.
• Resonance. This refers to the modification of the sound generated by the vocal folds as it travels through the cavities formed by the pharynx as well as the inside of our nose and mouth. Resonance influences the quality of speech sounds (a nasal vowel such as “an” vs an oral vowel such as “a”) and depends mostly on our capacity to control the amount of air that is expelled from our nose when we speak. To block air from going through the nose, we lift soft palate (also called velopharynx); to allow air going into the nose, we drop the soft palate (see figure 1). For example, too much airflow through the nose results in a nasal voice (Kummer). It should be noted that damage to resonance or to the respiratory system is likely to make speech less natural and intelligible (ASHA). 
• Fluency. This concerns the rhythm of our speech and is characterized by the number of hesitations and repetitions of sounds when we speak. Non fluent speech is associated with communication disorders such as stuttering.
• Perception. The ability to detect and perceive fine variations in the acoustic signal of speech, including variations in intensity and frequency in a locutor’s voice or variations in their speech rate, are also key elements of speech at the receptive level.

Language refers to the comprehension and production of words and sentences to share ideas or information. Language can be oral, written, or signed (e.g. Quebec Sign Language). Below are the different spheres of language (ASHA; Bishop et al, 2017): 

• Phonology. At the interface between speech and language, phonology refers to the ability to identify and use speech sounds to distinguish the words of a language. For example, in English, it is important to distinguish the sounds associated with the letters “b” and “p” since words such as “bay” and “pay” do not have the same meaning.
• Morphology. This refers to the rules that regulate the use of morphemes, the smallest units of language that carry meaning. For example, in oral and written English, the plural is often indicated by adding the morpheme “-s” to a noun (eg. anemones). Some morphemes can be added at the beginning or at the end of a word to slightly modify the meaning. For example, the morpheme ‘’-est’’ in English is used to express the superlative. For example, when we add “est” to the adjective  tall, we  create the word  tallest , meaning the person who is the most tall.
• Lexicology and semantics. These components refer to vocabulary as well as the knowledge of the word meaning (e.g., knowing the word  anemone  and that it refers not only to a marine animal, but also to a colorful perennial plant).
• Syntax. This refers to the rules to combine words to create sentences in a language. For example, the sentence ‘’I love anemones’’ is composed of a subject (I) and a predicate (formed by the verb  love  and the noun  anemones ); the two obligatory components in an English sentence.
• Pragmatics. This refers to the rules about the use of language in a specific communication context. These rules include the respect of the turn-taking or the adjustment of the language level or content based on the interlocutor. It also includes the ability to detect humour, irony and sarcasm.

Communication

Communication refers to the process of exchanging information, including emotions and thoughts (Bishop and al., 2016), with others using speaking, writing, signs, facial expressions and body language. Communication thus incorporates speech and language, but also prosody (linguistic and emotional). Prosody refers to the ability to vary the intonation, rate and voice intensity to either emphasize certain syllables or words when we speak or to draw the attention of our interlocutor to a particular piece of information (linguistic prosody), or to convey our emotions, voluntarily or not (emotional prosody; Wilson & Wharton, 2005). 

Although the words  speech ,  language  and  communication  are often used interchangeably, these words have distinct meanings when used in scientific or clinical contexts. While  communication  is a broad concept,  speech  and  language  have very specific meaning. This is important because communication difficulties can affect speech and language independently. For example, a person with a speech impairment may have difficulty articulating correctly without having any language difficulty. Likewise, a person with a language disorder may have difficulty understanding the meaning of words, forming grammatically sentences, respecting speaking turns during a conversation, etc., while having no difficulty related to speech (normal voice, normal articulation).

Suggested readings:

• The cocktail party explained
• Comic strip about speech
• Speech perception: a complex ability
• What is the most important element of communication?

Speech analysis

What is prosody.

References:

American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA). (2020, September 1 rst ). What Is Speech? What Is Language? https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/speech-and-language/

American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA). (2020, September 1 rst ). Language in brief. https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Spoken-Language-Disorders/Language-In–Brief/

American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA). (2020, September 23). Dysarthria in Adults. https://www.asha.org/PRPSpecificTopic.aspx?folderid=8589943481&section=Signs_and_Symptoms

Bishop, D.V.M., Snowling, M.J., Thompson, P.A., Greenhalgh, T., & CATALISE consortium. (2016). CATALISE: A Multinational and Multidisciplinary Delphi Consensus Study. Identifying Language Impairments in Children. PLOS ONE 11 (12): e0168066.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168066

Kummer, A.W. (2020, September 23). Resonance Disorders and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction.  https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/- /media/cincinnati%20childrens/home/service/s/speech/patients/handouts/resonance-disorders-and-vpd.pdf?la=en

Wilson, D., & Wharton, T. (2006). Relevance and prosody. Journal of Pragmatics 38 , 1559–1579. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.04.012

The peripheral auditory system

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The Relationship Between Speech, Language and Communication

• January 20, 2020
• Posted by: Kerry Belgrove
• Category: General , Speech & Language Development ,

As Speech-Language Therapists, my colleagues and I study the changes that occur in speech, language and communication as children grow and develop. These three terms are often interpreted by others as having similar meanings, but they are actually very different and signify different aspects of development and use. Let’s have a look:

Speech is a verbal means of communicating. It includes specific sounds and sound combinations that are characteristic of a particular language. Speech involves an extremely intricate process which requires very precise neuromuscular coordination. Without us even realising it, numerous specific motor sequences need to be planned and executed in order for us to speak. In addition, speech also involves other components that enhance the meaning of our message, such as voice quality, intonation and rate.

Without an orderly system, individual speech sounds are meaningless noises. The relationship between individual sounds, meaningful sound units, and these combined, is specified by the rules of language. Language is therefore a socially shared code, a complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols, for representing concepts in exchanging information. This makes language a tool for social use. Language is a process of use and modification within the context of communication.

Although most languages can be transmitted by speech, speech is not an essential feature of language – just think of Sign Language and Mathematics.

Communication

Communication refers to the exchange of information, ideas, needs and desires between participants. This involves the encoding, transmitting and decoding of an intended message. Both speech and language form part of this process, but other aspects of communication that may enhance or change the linguistic code also play an important role. These are paralinguistic cues (eg. intonation, emphasis, rate and pause), non-linguistic cues (eg. gestures, body posture, facial expressions, physical distance and eye contact) and metalinguistic cues (eg. analysis of the transmission and success of communication).

This visual provides a beautiful illustration of how communication is accomplished through a linguistic code and many means of transmission.

Author: Kerry Belgrove

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Speech, Language, and Communication

There are three terms that people commonly use interchangeably when describing how people interact verbally with each other. The terms are speech, language, and communication. Although these terms are similar they are not synonyms for each other. This post will explain the difference between these three terms.

Speech is not limited to phonemes. Other aspects of speech include the voice quality, intonation, and rate. Voice quality is the phonetic characteristics of a person’s voice. Our example of the  r sound in Spanish relates to voice quality. Intonation is related to the pitch of the voice. Sometimes a language uses different pitches depending on the context. For example, if a question is asked in English the pitch rises at the end. Lastly, the rate is how fast the people talk in the language.

Language code for conveying concepts through the use of symbols. For example, almost all languages have some sort of word for “dog.” In English, the word for this animal is “dog.” In Spanish, the word is “perro.” In French, the word for dog is “chien.” Regardless of the language, when people hear one of these words for dog in their language they connect this word with the concept of a four-legged creature that often barks. The term “dog” is a symbol for an animal. This is thinking in a highly abstract way.

Languages can be expressed verbally through speech and also through writing. In order for each side to understand the other, they must know each other’s language in order to convey and share ideas. An obvious reason that people from different countries do not understand each other is because they speak different languages.

Communication

Communication is a process of exchanging ideas and needs. This process involves encoding, transmitting, and decoding. Encoding is the process of taking a concept identifying a word that is associated with it. If a person has in their mind a barking animal they may think of the word “dog.” Transmitting is sharing the concept through the use language. This is when the person says “dog” verbally.

Decoding is this process in reverse and is done by the receiver. The receiver hears the word “dog” and he translates this into a barking animal in his mind. All of this happens in a split second every day in many peoples lives.

Communication can happen in many was beyond verbal. As mention earlier, people can communicate ideas in writing or through the use of body language. Even art can communicate information through the use of music, painting, or more.

Speech, language, and communication are distinct aspects of understanding how people convey information. Understanding these differences can help people to know how they are trying to share information.

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Chapter 9: Language Development

Language Development Progression

Children begin to learn about language from a very early age (Table 9.1). In fact, it appears that this is occurring even before we are born. Newborns show a preference for their mother’s voice and appear to be able to discriminate between the language spoken by their mother and other languages. Babies are also attuned to the languages being used around them and show preferences for videos of faces that are moving in synchrony with the audio of spoken language versus videos that do not synchronize with the audio (Blossom & Morgan, 2006; Pickens, 1994; Spelke & Cortelyou, 1981).

Intentional Vocalizations

In terms of producing spoken language, babies begin to coo almost immediately.  Cooing simple vowel sounds, such as “ooh” or “aah.” Cooing serves as practice for vocalization, as well as the infant hears the sound of his or her own voice and tries to repeat sounds that are entertaining. Infants also begin to learn the pace and pause of conversation as they alternate their vocalization with that of someone else and then take their turn again when the other person’s vocalization has stopped.

At about four to six months of age, infants begin making even more elaborate vocalizations that include the sounds required for any language. Guttural sounds, clicks, consonants, and vowel sounds stand ready to equip the child with the ability to repeat whatever sounds are characteristic of the language heard. Eventually, these sounds will no longer be used as the infant grows more accustomed to a particular language .

At about 7 months, infants begin  Babbling , engaging in  intentional vocalizations that lack specific   meaning   and   comprise   a   consonant-vowel   repeated   sequence,   such   as   ma-ma-ma,   da-da- da . Children babble as practice in creating specific sounds, and by the time they are 1 year old, the babbling uses primarily the sounds of the language that they are learning (de Boysson- Bardies, Sagart, & Durand, 1984). These vocalizations have a conversational tone that sounds meaningful even though it isn’t. Babbling also helps children understand the social, communicative function of language. Children who are exposed to sign language babble in sign by making hand movements that represent language (Petitto & Marentette, 1991).

Children communicate information through gesturing long before they speak, and there is some evidence that gesture usage predicts subsequent language development (Iverson & Goldin-Meadow, 2005). Because gesturing seems to be easier than vocalization for some toddlers, sign language is sometimes taught to enhance one’s ability to communicate by making use of the ease of gesturing. Deaf and hard of hearing infants use the rhythm and pattern of language in a similar way as hearing babies do when they babble.

Video 9.4   Baby Sign Language demonstrates how infants can be taught sign language to communicate before they can speak. Most infants will begin gesturing on their own around 10 months old, but infants can be taught gestures, like signs, before they are 6 months old.

Receptive Language

At around ten months of age, the infant can understand more than they can say, which is referred to as receptive language . You may have experienced this phenomenon as well if you have ever tried to learn a second language. You may have been able to follow a conversation more easily than contribute to it. One of the first words that children understand is their own name, usually by about 6 months, followed by commonly used words like “bottle,” “mama,” and “doggie” by 10 to 12 months (Mandel, Jusczyk, & Pisoni, 1995).

Infants shake their head “no” around 6–9 months, and they respond to verbal requests to do things like “wave bye-bye” or “blow a kiss” around 9–12 months. Children also use contextual information, particularly the cues that parents provide, to help them learn language. Children learn that people are usually referring to things that they are looking at when they are speaking (Baldwin, 1993), and that the speaker’s emotional expressions are related to the content of their speech.

Productive Language

Children begin using their first words at about 12 or 13 months of age and may use partial words to convey thoughts at even younger ages. These one word expressions are referred to as holophrasic speech .  For example, the child may say “ju” for the word “juice” and use this sound when referring to a bottle. The listener must interpret the meaning of the holophrase, and when this is someone who has spent time with the child, interpretation is not too difficult. But, someone who has not been around the child will have trouble knowing what is meant. Imagine the parent who to a friend exclaims, “Ezra’s talking all the time now!” The friend hears only “ju da ga” to which the parent explains means, “I want some milk when I go with Daddy.”

First words and Cultural Influences

First words if the child is using English tend to be nouns. The child labels objects such as cup, ball, or other items that they regularly interact with. In a verb-friendly language such as Chinese, however, children may learn more verbs. This may also be due to the different emphasis given to objects based on culture. Chinese children may be taught to notice action and relationships between objects, while children from the United States may be taught to name an object and its qualities (color, texture, size, etc.). These differences can be seen when comparing interpretations of art by older students from China and the United States.

How Does socioeconomic status affect language development?

The achievement gap refers to the persistent difference in grades, test scores, and graduation rates that exist among students of different ethnicities, races, and—in certain subjects—sexes (Winerman, 2011). Research suggests that these achievement gaps are strongly influenced by differences in socioeconomic factors that exist among the families of these children. Low-income children perform significantly more poorly than their middle- and high-income peers on a number of educational variables: They have significantly lower standardized test scores, graduation rates, and college entrance rates, and they have much higher school dropout rates. Many of these problems start before the children even enter school.

Psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley (2006) spent their careers looking at early language ability and progression of children in various income levels. In one longitudinal study, researchers found that although all the parents in the study engaged and interacted with their children, middle- and high-income parents interacted with their children differently than low-income parents. The researchers found that middle- and high-income parents talk to their children significantly more, starting when the children are infants. By age 3, high-income children knew almost double the number of words known by low-income children, and they heard about 30 million more words than the low-income counterparts (Hart & Risley, 2003). These gaps become more pronounced by kindergarten, with high-income children scoring 60% higher on achievement tests than their low-income peers (Lee & Burkam, 2002).

There are solutions to this problem. Experts are working with low-income families to encourage them to speak more to their children and designing preschools in which students from diverse economic backgrounds are placed in the same classroom (Schechter & Byeb, 2007).

Two-word Sentences and Telegraphic Speech

By the time they become toddlers, children have a vocabulary of about 50-200 words and begin putting those words together in telegraphic speech, such as “baby bye-bye” or “doggie pretty”. Words needed to convey messages are used, but the articles and other parts of speech necessary for grammatical correctness are not yet used. These expressions sound like a telegraph, or perhaps a better analogy today would be that they read like a text message. Telegraphic speech occurs when unnecessary words are not used. “Give baby ball” is used rather than “Give the baby the ball.”

Language Errors

The early utterances of children contain many errors, for instance, confusing /b/ and /d/, or /c/ and /z/. The words children create are often simplified, in part because they are not yet able to make more complex sounds of the real language (Dobrich & Scarborough, 1992). Children may say “keekee” for kitty, “nana” for banana, and “vesketti” for spaghetti because it is easier. Often these early words are accompanied by gestures that may also be easier to produce than the words themselves. Children’s pronunciations become increasingly accurate between 1 and 3 years, but some problems may persist until school age.

A child who learns that a word stands for an object may initially think that the word can be used for only that particular object ,  which is referred to as underextension .  Only the family’s Irish Setter is a “doggie”, for example. More often, however, a child may think that a label applies to all objects that are similar to the original object ,  which is called  overextension . For example, all animals become “doggies”.

Children learn the rules of grammar as they learn the language. Some of these rules are not taught explicitly, and others are. Often when learning language, intuitively children apply rules inappropriately at first, referred to as overregularization . For instance, two- to three-year-old children may say “I goed there” or “I doed that” as they understand intuitively that adding “ed” to a word makes it mean “something I did in the past.” As the child hears the correct grammar rule applied by the people around them, they correctly begin to say “I went there” and “I did that.”

Link to Learning

Read this article to learn more about common linguistic mistakes that children make and what they mean:  10 Language Mistakes Kids Make That Are Actually Pretty Smart .

Child-Directed Speech

Have you ever wondered why adults tend to use “baby talk” or that sing-song type of intonation and exaggeration used when talking to children? This is known as child-directed speech , and is used in many, but not all, cultures .  It involves exaggerating the vowel and consonant sounds, using a high-pitched voice, and delivering the phrase with great facial expression (Clark, 2009) . Infants are frequently more attuned to the tone of voice of the person speaking than to the content of the words themselves, and are aware of the target of speech. Werker, Pegg, and McLeod (1994) found that infants listened longer to a woman who was speaking using child-directed speech than to a woman who was using adult-directed speech. Why might this be the case? It may be in order to clearly articulate the sounds of a word so that the child can hear the sounds involved. It may also be because when this type of speech is used, the infant pays more attention to the speaker and this sets up a pattern of interaction in which the speaker and listener are in tune with one another.

Video 9.5. This video examines new research on child-directed speech.

A child’s vocabulary expands between the ages of two to six from about 200 words to over 10,000 words. This “vocabulary spurt” typically involves 10-20 new words per week and is accomplished through a process called fast-mapping . Words are easily learned by making connections between new words and concepts already known. For example, children can learn new words, often with only one exposure to the new word.

The parts of speech that are learned depend on the language and what is emphasized. Children speaking verb-friendly languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, learn verbs more readily, while those speaking English tend to learn nouns more readily.

By fifth grade, a child’s vocabulary has grown to 40,000 words. It grows at a rate that exceeds that of those in early childhood. This language explosion, however, differs from that of younger children because it is facilitated by being able to associate new words with those already known, and because it is accompanied by a more sophisticated understanding of the meanings of a word.

Those in middle and late childhood are also able to think of objects in less literal ways. This sophistication of vocabulary is also evidenced by the fact that older children tell jokes and delight in doing do. They may use jokes that involve plays on words such as “knock-knock” jokes or jokes with punch lines. Young children do not understand play on words and tell “jokes” that are literal or slapstick, such as “A man fell down in the mud! Isn’t that funny?”

30 Million Word Gap

To accomplish the tremendous rate of word learning that needs to occur during early childhood, it is important that children are learning new words each day. Research by Betty Hart and Todd Risley in the late 1990s and early 2000s indicated that children from less advantaged backgrounds are exposed to millions of fewer words in their first three years of life than children who come from more privileged socioeconomic backgrounds. In their research, families were classified by socioeconomic status, (SES) into “high” (professional), “middle” (working class), and “low” (welfare) SES. They found that the average child in a professional family hears 2,153 words per waking hour, the average child in a working-class family hears 1,251 words per hour, and an average child in a welfare family only 616 words per hour. Extrapolating, they stated that, “in four years, an average child in a professional family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words, an average child in a working-class family 26 million words, and an average child in a welfare family 13 million words.” The line of thinking following their study is that children from more affluent households would enter school knowing more words, which would give them advantage in school.

Hart and Risley’s research has been criticized by scholars. Critics theorize that the language and achievement gaps are not a result of the number of words a child is exposed to, but rather alternative theories suggest it could reflect the disconnect of linguistic practices between home and school. Thus, judging academic success and linguistic capabilities from socioeconomic status may ignore bigger societal issues. A recent replication of Hart and Risley’s study with more participants has found that the “word gap” may be closer to 4 million words, not the oft-cited 30 million words previously proposed. The ongoing word gap research is evidence of the importance of language development in early childhood.

Video 9.6  Watch as Dr. John Gabrieli, from the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Development explains how early language exposure affects language development. His research uses the current technology to correlate home language experiences with brain function. They determined that the number of conversational turns was more important to development in Broca’s area (brain region linked to speech production) than the number of words heard or the family’s socioeconomic status.

Bilingualism

Although monolingual speakers often do not realize it, the majority of children around the world are  bilingual , meaning that they understand and use two languages(Meyers- Sutton, 2005). Even in the United States, which is a relatively monolingual society, more than 47 million people speak a language other than English at home, and about 10 million of these people are children or youths in public schools (United States Department of Commerce, 2003). The large majority of bilingual students (75%) are Hispanic, but the rest represent more than a hundred different language groups from around the world. In larger communities throughout the United States, it is therefore common for a single classroom to contain students from several language backgrounds at once. In classrooms, as in other social settings, bilingualism exists in different forms and degrees. At one extreme are students who speak both English and another language fluently; at the other extreme are those who speak only limited versions of both languages. In between are students who speak their home (or heritage) language much better than English, as well as others who have partially lost their heritage language in the process of learning English (Tse, 2001). Commonly, a student may speak a language satisfactorily but be challenged by reading or writing it.

Research suggests that students who speak two languages fluently may have cognitive advantages in some areas. For instance, a fully fluent bilingual student is in a better position to express concepts or ideas in more than one way, and to be aware of doing so (Jimenez, Garcia, & Pearson, 1995; Francis, 2006). Having a large vocabulary in a first language has been shown to save time in learning vocabulary in a second language (Hansen, Umeda & McKinney, 2002). Preserving the first language is important if a student has impaired skill in all languages, and therefore, needs intervention or help from a speech-language specialist. Research has found, in such cases, that the specialist can be more effective if the specialist speaks and uses the first language as well as English (Kohnert, Yim, Nett, Kan, & Duran, 2005).

Video 9.7  This video explains some of the research surrounding language acquisition in babies, particularly those learning a second language.

simple vowel sounds, such as “ooh” or “aah”

can understand more than they can say, which is referred to

one word expressions

speech that omits unnecessary words (e.g., the, a)

a word that is used for only a particular object

a label applies to all objects that are similar to the original object

Language that involves exaggerating the vowel and consonant sounds, using a high-pitched voice, and delivering the phrase with great facial expression

Words are easily learned by making connections between new words and concepts already known

meaning that they understand and use two languages

Child and Adolescent Development Copyright © 2023 by Krisztina Jakobsen and Paige Fischer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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