First Words
Vocabulary Growth
Morphology
Syntax
Pragmatics
100

What is the typical age range for children to produce their first words?


Around one year of age.

100

How many words does a typical 20-month-old child produce on average?


About 150 to 180 words.

100

What are morphemes?


   

The basic units of meaning in a language.

100

At what age do children begin to combine two words?


Around 18 to 24 months.

100

What are pragmatics in the context of language development?


The social rules and world knowledge that allow speakers to successfully communicate messages.

200

How many words can normal one-year-old children typically produce?


Ranges from 0 to about 50 words.

200

How many words does a typical 28-month-old child produce on average?

About 380 words.

About 380 words.

200

Give an example of overregularization.


Using "mouses" instead of "mice" or "runned" instead of "ran."

200

What are some common two-word utterances children use?


Possessor–possession (e.g., "Mama dress"), action–object (e.g., "Eat cookie"), agent–action (e.g., "Teddy fall").

200

Give an example of how children’s pragmatic skills might be inappropriate.


Announcing loudly during a church service that their daddy is trying to sleep.

300

What types of concepts do children's first words usually refer to?


People, objects, and their own activities.

300

What activities by caregivers can enhance children's vocabulary growth?


Frequently reading to them and talking about activities they are doing with the child.

300

What is the term for the tendency to add regular grammatical morphemes to irregular words?


Overregularization.

300

By what age are most children reasonably accurate with respect to both morphology and syntax?

By 3.5 years of age.

300

 How do children adapt their language when speaking to different listeners?


They simplify their language for younger listeners and use more complex language for peers and adults.

400

How does a baby’s concept of “animal” differ from an adult’s concept?


A baby’s concept of “animal” may refer to any object that moves by itself.

400

What is fast mapping?


Using context to make a reasonable guess about a word’s meaning after just one or two exposures.

400

According to Marcus’s theory, how do children handle regular and irregular past-tense verbs?


They learn a general rule for regular past-tense verbs but store the past tenses for many irregular verbs in memory.

400

How do children understand who the actor is in the sentence “Pat hit Chris”?


They use word order to determine that "Pat" is the actor.

400

At what age do children show an understanding of turn-taking in conversations?


As early as two years old.

500

Who suggested that children's first words may refer to different concepts than adults' words?


Mandler (2006).

500

 How do children’s comprehension of words compare to their production of words?



Children typically understand about twice as many words as they can produce.

500

At what age do children typically show a substantial decrease in overregularizations?


From preschool age (4%) to fourth grade (1%).

500

What strategy do children learning Turkish or Polish use to decode the meaning of sentences?


They use the endings of words rather than word-order information.

500

What did the study by Shatz and Gelman (1973) demonstrate about children's pragmatic skills?


That four-year-olds modify their speech substantially depending on whether the listener is a two-year-old, a peer, or an adult.

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