Infancy Task 8 Language development and delays
Learning goals:
1. Develoment of language
2. Measuring language
3. Measuring language learning impairments
1. Development of language
Infants are born with the capacity to discriminate speech-sound contrasts from all of the
worlds’ languages, and experience listening to one versus another language functions to
maintain those distinctions that are heard, so speech sounds you do not have experience with,
will be lost due to selective pruning of neural connections.
The critical period is a specific period of time during which development of neural
functioning and behaviour if open to effects of external input. Before and after the CP, there is
no alteration possible. Pro: easy to learn during this period, con: inadequate inut can have
permanent consequences. However, many biobehavioural systems have elasticity in onset and
offset and periods can be extended. A better term is an optimal period (OP), which indicates a
period during which an organism’s neural and behavioural functioning is more sensitive to
specific external factors. Outside these periods, learning is still possible but les effective and
takes longer.
For acquiring language there is need for endogenous (preference en privileged processing for
speech) and environmental factors (hearing a certain language). Exposure to language can
have different effects, depending on age, even in infancy it can have a lasting impact on level
of attainment and neural organization.
Phonology refers to the rules governing language usage at the level of the sound.
- Phonemic rules: phonemes are phonetic segments that are used to contract meaning ( b
vs p)
- Allophonic rules: a subphonemic rule that regards differences in pronouciations of the
same letter
- Phonological rules: regarding sequence of phones. (str can be used at start but not end
of word and rst other wat around). Determines how adjacent and nonadjacent phones
condition one another and encompasses the rules for syllable form and the metrical
rules for stress and timing. It determines the rhythmical structure of a language as
well.
Different OPs for the acquisition of phonology itself and subsystems. The degree of openness
to experience of the various parts of the system varies from level to level as a function of the
changing demands. Infants already have good phonetic perception and recognize errors.
Phonetic perception appears to involve specialized networks in the left temporal lobe.
Maintenance
Adults have difficulty discriminating acoustically similar phonetic contrasts that are not used
in their native language whereas young infants discriminate phonetic contrasts in all
languages. Listening experience is necessary to maintain sensitivity to a speech contrast. The
reorganization in phonetic perception occurs during the first year of life. At 6 to 8 months of
age, English-learning infants successfully discriminate non-English distinctions, but by 10 to
12 months of age, they don’t. However, when infants aged 10 to 12 months were exposed to a
Learning goals:
1. Develoment of language
2. Measuring language
3. Measuring language learning impairments
1. Development of language
Infants are born with the capacity to discriminate speech-sound contrasts from all of the
worlds’ languages, and experience listening to one versus another language functions to
maintain those distinctions that are heard, so speech sounds you do not have experience with,
will be lost due to selective pruning of neural connections.
The critical period is a specific period of time during which development of neural
functioning and behaviour if open to effects of external input. Before and after the CP, there is
no alteration possible. Pro: easy to learn during this period, con: inadequate inut can have
permanent consequences. However, many biobehavioural systems have elasticity in onset and
offset and periods can be extended. A better term is an optimal period (OP), which indicates a
period during which an organism’s neural and behavioural functioning is more sensitive to
specific external factors. Outside these periods, learning is still possible but les effective and
takes longer.
For acquiring language there is need for endogenous (preference en privileged processing for
speech) and environmental factors (hearing a certain language). Exposure to language can
have different effects, depending on age, even in infancy it can have a lasting impact on level
of attainment and neural organization.
Phonology refers to the rules governing language usage at the level of the sound.
- Phonemic rules: phonemes are phonetic segments that are used to contract meaning ( b
vs p)
- Allophonic rules: a subphonemic rule that regards differences in pronouciations of the
same letter
- Phonological rules: regarding sequence of phones. (str can be used at start but not end
of word and rst other wat around). Determines how adjacent and nonadjacent phones
condition one another and encompasses the rules for syllable form and the metrical
rules for stress and timing. It determines the rhythmical structure of a language as
well.
Different OPs for the acquisition of phonology itself and subsystems. The degree of openness
to experience of the various parts of the system varies from level to level as a function of the
changing demands. Infants already have good phonetic perception and recognize errors.
Phonetic perception appears to involve specialized networks in the left temporal lobe.
Maintenance
Adults have difficulty discriminating acoustically similar phonetic contrasts that are not used
in their native language whereas young infants discriminate phonetic contrasts in all
languages. Listening experience is necessary to maintain sensitivity to a speech contrast. The
reorganization in phonetic perception occurs during the first year of life. At 6 to 8 months of
age, English-learning infants successfully discriminate non-English distinctions, but by 10 to
12 months of age, they don’t. However, when infants aged 10 to 12 months were exposed to a
