Early Communication Stages
This stage occurs from 0–8 months when adults interpret an infant’s behavior as communicative, even though it isn’t intentional.
What is the perlocutionary stage?
The ability to link a new word to its meaning after minimal exposure.
What is fast mapping?
This conversational device lets speakers leave out information already known to the listener.
What is ellipsis?
Play that involves exploration alone and is least tied to language development.
What is solitary exploratory play?
The majority of children’s first words belong to this grammatical category.
What are nouns?
At around 8–12 months, babies begin intentionally communicating through gestures and vocalizations.
What is the illocutionary stage?
When a child says “breaked” instead of “broke,” this type of error has occurred.
What is overgeneralization?
When a preschooler answers “Playing” to “What are you doing?”, they’re showing this skill.
What is ellipsis?
Pretend play that supports storytelling and symbolic language.
What is symbolic play?
According to universal principles, children learn morphemes at the end of words first due to this rule.
What is paying attention to the ends of words?
The stage beginning around 12 months when true words start replacing gestures.
What is the locutionary stage?
When a child calls all animals “dog,” this type of word learning mistake has occurred.
What is overextension?
A conversational move that both responds to and encourages a child’s next turn.
What is a turnabout?
Adult guidance that helps children extend topics and maintain conversation.
What is scaffolding?
The type of knowledge based on categories and word classes.
What is taxonomic knowledge?
A back-and-forth exchange between infant and caregiver that resembles a real conversation.
What is a protoconversation?
This hypothesis states that children understand word meaning based on how an object is used or what it does.
What is the functional core hypothesis?
This term describes the ability to understand that others have different thoughts and feelings.
What is Theory of Mind?
A child’s ability to keep a topic going for about 12 conversational turns develops around this age.
What is 5 years old?
The narrative organization that centers events around one main theme or character.
What is centering?
A term for a child’s consistent sound pattern used in context but not considered a true word.
What is a protoword?
The stage when most toddlers begin combining two words.
What is 18–24 months?
The pragmatic function that includes protesting and requesting actions.
What is the control function?
The process of linking events so one directly leads to another in a story.
What is chaining?
The principle that states grammatical markers must make semantic sense.
What is “grammatical markers should align with meaning”?