A form of communication

Whether spoken, written, or signed

Phoneme

Smallest unit of sound in a language

2-3 dozen phonems per language

units of meaning

For example, Go would be one, Going would be two morphemes

Vocabulary and sentances make sense

Word order and grammar

Adjective proceeds noun

-or-

Noun proceeds adjective

up to six months, children are "students of the world", and understand all phonemes in all languages

THEN

children get better at perception of phonemes in only their own language and get worse in recognizing phonemes in other languages

Called CATEGORICAL sound perception

Understands name

First words

Usually a name or noun

200 words

2-word sentences

escelates due to infant talking back to caregiver, who, in turn, will talk more to child

learn and application of syntaxses

Overgeneralize morphological rules

i.e. you take a rule, it makes sense, so you keep using it

i.e. Mine's

14,000 words

Fast mapping enhancements

14,000 at 6

40,000 by age 11

Categorization facilitates vocabulary

Metalinguistic awareness

i.e. knowledge about language

Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple word/sentences

NOT THE SAME AS BABY TALK!

Think of when Gwen played with baby dolls

simplified materials to be sounded out

Emphasized in Kindergarten and 1st grade, special ed

Severe impairment in ability to read and spell

UNRELATED to low IQ, emotional disorders, etc

Probable causes include environment (unlikely), genetics (3 times more likely in boys than girls), or specialization of language centers not becoming as specialized, more diffuse activities across both hemispheres

Left-frontal lobe

Left for language

Speech production and grammar

Left hemisphere

Language comprehension