How language forms from early childhood to adult
The "In Fantis"
The term "in fantis" comes from Latin and means "not speaking". It refers to the early developmental period when infants cannot yet articulate words or sentences but are still capable of understanding and producing communicative behaviors like cooing, babbling, and gestures.
Discrimination of Speech & Sounds in infants
infants can discriminate speech sounds. This ability, known as phonemic discrimination, is present from birth and plays a crucial role in language acquisition.
How Is This Studied?
Habituation Studies: Infants are repeatedly exposed to a specific sound until their attention decreases (habituation). A new sound is then introduced. If the infant shows renewed interest (dishabituation), it indicates they can discriminate between the sounds.
High-Amplitude Sucking (HAS): Infants' sucking rates increase when they hear a novel sound, indicating recognition of the difference.
Head-Turn Paradigm: Infants are trained to turn their heads when they detect a change in sound, demonstrating their ability to distinguish between phonemes.
Infants Prefer to Look at Pictures That Match Sounds
Research indicates that infants prefer to look at pictures that match the sounds they hear. For example, when hearing the word "dog," infants are more likely to focus on a picture of a dog rather than an unrelated image. This preference suggests early development of associations between words and visual representations.
the Stages of Language Development
1. Pre-Linguistic Stage (Birth–12 months)
Characteristics: Includes cooing, babbling, and vocal play.
Milestones: Infants experiment with sounds and begin to recognize phonemes in their native language. By 6–9 months, babbling becomes more speech-like.
2. One-Word Stage (12–18 months)
Characteristics: Infants produce single words (holophrases) to convey entire ideas or needs (e.g., "milk" for "I want milk").
Milestones: Vocabulary grows slowly at first, but understanding outpaces speech.
3. Two-Word Stage (18–24 months)
Characteristics: Infants begin combining two words to form simple phrases (e.g., "want toy" or "go park").
Milestones: Grammar emerges, and word order begins to reflect the structure of their language.
4. Telegraphic Speech Stage (2–3 years)
Characteristics: Speech resembles telegrams, with key content words included but function words often omitted (e.g., "want cookie now").
Milestones: Vocabulary expands rapidly, and sentences become more structured.
5. Early Grammatical Development (3–5 years)
Characteristics: Children use more complex sentences and apply grammatical rules, often overgeneralizing them (e.g., "I goed to the park").
Milestones: Pronouns, plurals, and verb tenses are used more consistently.
6. Later Language Development (5+ years)
Characteristics: Language skills refine, with improved grammar, vocabulary, and pragmatics (e.g., understanding sarcasm or idioms).
Milestones: Children begin mastering more abstract concepts and can hold longer conversations.
B.F. Skinner, a behaviorist, proposed that language development occurs through operant conditioning and environmental influences. In his book Verbal Behavior (1957), he explained that language acquisition is a learned behavior shaped by reinforcement, imitation, and practice. Here’s how Skinner would explain language development:
1. Reinforcement
Children learn language by receiving positive reinforcement when they produce sounds, words, or sentences that are meaningful to their caregivers or others in their environment. For example:
When a baby says "mama" and the caregiver smiles or responds enthusiastically, the positive reaction reinforces the behavior, making the child more likely to repeat the word.
2. Imitation
Children imitate the speech they hear in their environment. By copying sounds, words, and sentence structures modeled by adults and peers, they learn the patterns of their language.
3. Shaping
Through gradual reinforcement, children’s language evolves from simple sounds to more complex forms:
Initially, caregivers might reward any vocalization.
Later, they selectively reinforce specific sounds or words, leading the child to refine their speech to match the target language.
4. Association
Children associate words with objects or actions through repeated pairings. For example, hearing the word "ball" while seeing or playing with a ball helps the child connect the sound with the object.
Basically, Language development from early childhood to adulthood begins with infants' innate ability to discriminate speech sounds and understanding language progresses through stages of growth.
References
Lampi, N. (2023, January 31). The 5 stages of language development in children. WonderBaby. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://www.wonderbaby.org/articles/stages-of-language-development
Simply Psychology. (n.d.). Language acquisition theory. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html
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