Fundamentals & Neuroanatomy of Language
What is the difference between receptive language, expressive language, and speech?
SPEECH: Ability to talk: Articulation, Voice, Fluency; Language = Used to convey a message: Word meaning, New word creation, Word combinations, Word combinations by context
RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE: Receptive language is the language understood. So it’s the message received by your brain from the speaker- meaning, syntax, grammar that is understood.
EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE: language that is produced by an individual- meaning, syntax, grammar. It doesn’t have to be spoken explicitly- can be in other modes- signed, AAC, etc…therefore you can have expressive language without speech.
What is joint attention?
Child looks to see if adult notices the same referent
Describe the difference between contextualized and decontextualized language
Contextualized: Language grounded in the immediate/present context
Decontextualized: Language about events or ideas not present in the immediate context
As a bilingual or multilingual learner, what is the silent period?
A period where a child may focus on comprehension and do very little speaking. Thus, their language production may be more delayed than a child who only speaks one language - this is TYPICAL
This theory hypothesizes that language follows a general developmental pattern, and that cognition directly impacts language development in a series of stages
Cognitive theory (Piaget)
Which of Brown’s 14 grammatical morphemes typically develop prior to 36 months of age?
Present progressive - ing
Regular plural – s
Preposition in
Preposition on
Possessive – ‘s
Judah is starting to show signs of true syllables when he starts babbling mamama. What stage of vocalizations is Judah exhibiting?
Stage IV - Basic Canonical Syllables
Provide an example for the three achievements of early literacy
alphabet knowledge - knowing that the letter "K" makes the /k/ sound
print awareness - knowing that those letters are print and it has meaning compared to a scribble
phonological awareness - knowing that sounds can be changed to make rhyming words, identifying sounds at the beginning and ends of words, counting syllables
Describe difference between simultaneous bilingualism versus sequential bilingualism
Simultaneous: When a child acquires two or more languages from birth or simultaneously- they receive language input from these languages at the same time.
Sequential: Two languages learned in succession within the first 3 years of life
This theory hypothesizes that children learn language from routines and responding structured by their caregivers. This could include routine games, or expanding on the language children are already using.
Language Acquisition Support System theory (Bruner)
How does synaptic pruning impact speech and language development in children?
Synaptic pruning is related to perceptual narrowing- when infants start to focus more on the perceptual differences that are relevant to their own language- two native phonemes- and focus less on perceptual differences that are not relevant to them or that they encounter less often- difference between two non-native phonemes)
Describe the role of the still face experiment - why is this an important consideration when considering the development of joint attention?
The still face experiment showed that babies became frustrated and uncomfortable when their caregiver would not respond with any paralinguistic features. Babies look to see if adults are interested in the things they are interested in - it is important for the adult to show that interest
All phonological processes should be resolved by preschool EXCEPT
gliding and stopping
*For studying, you should be able to recognize all phonological processes
A child, who was raised in an English-speaking home and attends an English-speaking preschool, only uses 5 spoken words and a handful of signs. They score a 75 on the standardized language protocol The Preschool Language Scales. How would you describe her language?
A) atypical
B) typical
C) above average
A) atypical
(see bell curve)
This theory hypothesizes that children are born with an innate language ability, but will not reach their full language potential without the help of adult support/teaching
Social Interactionist Theory (Vygotsky)
Describe the relationship between Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area
Broca’s is primarily related to speech production while Wernicke’s is related to comprehension
The process in which adults provide brief exposure to a new word and its referent, children begin to form a new representation of that referent by using the provided word
Fast mapping
Describe the shift from learning to read to reading to learn
You must first learn to decode and recognize the meaning of letter combinations and words to then draw information from those words to build content knowledge
True or False: A primary language impairment is a significant impairment in language resulting from a primary condition impacting other areas of development (e.g., intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, etc)
False - this is a secondary language impairment
This theory hypothesizes that children are born with an innate language center that allows them to discern and produce language easily with exposure
Universal Grammar Theory (Chomsky)
When learning morphology, children typically make errors called overgeneralizations. Describe what this means and give at least one example.
Overgeneralizations are when a child uses a grammatical morpheme on a word it doesn’t belong, but does so in a way to modify that word to fit the tense they intend. A common area this occurs is when toddlers are learning to use past tense morphology and don’t yet understand how to use irregular verbs- they may use -ed on a word that should be changed to an irregular word instead (e.g., goed for went)
Compute the MLU for the following 4 utterances (ALSO indicate what stage of morphological development this child is in):
1. Put truck on mommy
2. That's my bigger brother
3. Daddy drived
4. Ben driving big car
1. Put truck on mommy - 4
2. That's my bigger brother - 6
3. Daddy drived - 3
4. Ben driving big car -5
MLU = 18 morphemes / 4 utterances
MLU = 4.5
Describe the difference between lexical ambiguity and sentential ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity means that words and phrases can have multiple meanings (bass the instrument and bass the fish)
Sentential ambiguity means an expression can be interpreted in more than one way (No, I'M so hungry vs No, I'm so HUNGRY)
Explain the change from language "difference" to language "variation"
As a society, we have been comparing all other dialects to mainstream American English, and calling all others "different", but really, dialect exists on a spectrum. There is no one superior dialect.
This theory hypothesizes that children are motivated to learn language to use it socially as they have a desire to build new relationships - so they need to learn language to manipulate social interactions
Usage-based theory (Tomasello)