How Learn To Speak
Theories of Language DevelopmentThere are so many different types of theories for language development, here we will look at Behaviorism and Social Cognitive Learning Theory as well as the Cognitive Processing Theory.
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Behaviorism and Social Cognitive Theory has the idea that language is used through imitation. Patricia Kuhl discussed how babies perceive language. According to Kuhl, babies can distinguish different language cues from different cultures in the beginning months. To have an infant respond the way we want them too, we have to continue to condition them in their development of the language we want them to understand. To listen to Patricia Kuhl take a look at the video below.
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Cognitive Processing Theory goes deeper into a child's language development. The cognitive processing theory is when a child processes the language they are hearing. Cognitive processing is argued that a child can learn a language that is not linked to the social abilities of the child(Levine and Munsch). One key aspect of this theory is understand how infants can distinguish different words within the same sentence.
The BrainThe brain is a crucial part to understand how language develops. The left hemisphere's contain two important parts for language development; Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Levine and Munsch define these parts as the Broca's area as being the part of the brain that is involved in psychical production of speech and Wernicke's area as being defined by the area in the brain to understand speech.
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Stages of Language Development |
Prenatal development, Infant communication, Toddler's Development, School-aged development, and Teenager development are the main stages of language development. Language development is more chronological than anything else. From before birth to a growing teenager, language never stops developing.
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Prenatal development happens when the fetus is inside the womb. According to Levine and Munsch, language development starts during the third trimester as the baby can fully hear what the mother is saying. This is crucial to how the baby perceives language before it is even born. The sensors in the brain are activated and the baby can start to develop a sense of language.
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Infant's preverbal communication is just what is sounds like. A lot of crying, babbling and cooing. These show that the baby is slowly but surely learning how to communicate with others. Crying acts as a signal to anything the baby needs or wants. Cooing refers to more positive things. Laughing, and smiling show positive reinforcement, and babbling is when the baby start to make out sounds like "dada and mama."
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Toddler's language development comes after babbling. This is when first words start to form and come out to communicate with others. The toddler learns their ability to talk and understand what they are saying and what they need or want. These won't be full words but they will help others know if the toddler can understand the world around them.
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School-aged development is obviously more complex. The english language is very hard to understand let alone try and learn for the first time. School-aged children have a hard time distinguishing between different meanings of words. Levine and Munsch use the example of "lettuce" and "let us," through this understanding, school-aged children can expand their vocabulary just a little bit more.
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Teenager language development is unique. Of course their development is much more complex and much more diverse than when they were adolescents but they are more likely to use slang words or abbreviations. This kind of language development can come from the use of text messages and communicating with their peer group.
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