CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

roadmap
Language acquisition in children: overview
◦ Prenatal
◦ neonatal
◦ Childhood language development

major theoretical standpoints; Nature/nurture debate

◦ Skinner, Chomsky, Luria, Vygotsky, Piaget, Sellers, Bandura, Bruner.
Language acquisition and social cognition
Critical period hypothesis
Theory of Mind and its role in language development; typical and atypical children.
Role of joint attention.
Some latest developments
overview
Children learn languages.
Most of the time they learn whatever language they hear in their environment
Only exception are those with some kind of language disorder/delay due to specific reasons
What appears effortless is, in reality, the result of mastering enormous challenges that takes place in
the background
This itself is baffling enough and hence merits study.
Also, child language acquisition is studied to better understand evolution of language.
Stages of language development
Children are not born silent
They make vegetative sounds from birth
Around 6 weeks: cooing
16 weeks onward: they start to laugh
16 weeks to 6 months: vocal play. Making speech like sounds.
6-9 months: babbling. This is different from vocal play, because now they have syllables
9 months- 1.5 years: one word stage : holophrastic stage
18 months onward: 2 word stage. Telegraphic speech
From 2 years onward: sentences emerge
2 years and 6 months: full and complex sentences emerge.

Now, how does this happen?

How does a non-speaking and non-comprehending infant grow into a linguistically competent
individual?
 Why is it surprising?

Because major part of learning in other domains, is dependent on language use.

But learning language itself has no such ‘vehicle’.

Parents do not teach children rules of grammar (like teachers do, eventually).

Parents themselves do not explicitly know the rules themselves (unless they are linguists, in which
case the matter will only get more complicated)
Fun fact
Children acquire language through same stages throughout the world
Language acquisition processes: focus of research

Phonological
◦ Perception
◦ production
Morphological or word level
◦ Lexicalist constraint-based approach
◦ Social pragmatic account

Syntactic
◦ Holophrases
◦ Telegraphic speech
◦ Grammatical morpheme
◦ Questions and negation
pragmatic
Theoretical standpoints

Behaviorist: believes that learning is a behavior and thus develops like other skills, through
stimulus-response-feedback loop. Skinner , Bandura (social learning theory: Bobo doll exp).

Nativist: believes that children are born with a language learning innate capacity and universal
grammar dictates the trajectory of stages of acquisition. Chomsky.

Constructivist: language learning is part of cognitive mechanism and language learning is

constructed through active interaction. Luria (?), Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner,
Behaviorism: B F Skinner
Stimulus-response system
Feedback system: positive and negative reinforcement
Language learning is like any other skill, learnt through observation, imitation, repetition, errors,
rewards, and punishments.
He called it operant conditioning = learning through consequence of behavior.
Also important: classical conditioning = learning through association between stimuli (remember
Pavlov’s dog?)
Habit formation and imitation method for second language acquisition: audio lingual method of
language teaching.
Pros and cons
Imitation is key. This still is held as important.

However, the stages of development, understanding grammatical structures and generativity

cannot be explained by his theory.
Bandura
Albert Bandura(1977) believed that children can acquire language through vicarious
learning.
Bandura’s social learning theory is quite similar to the Skinner’s behaviorist learning theory
which includes reward and punishment.
Though his theory is similar with the behaviorist learning theory but Cognitive processes
and internal brain mechanism is the key features of his theory.
He added mediating process and observational learning to the existing classical conditioning
and operant conditioning.
He firmly believes in social learning and says that it’s a four stage process : Attention,
Retention, Motor reproduction and Motivation.
 Retention Motor
Attention reproduction Motivation

Observe other store information reproduce Reward and

behaviours, pay for future reference behaviour Punishment
attention
Bobo doll experiment

Experiment by Bandura in ther domain of child psychology

72 children (36 boys + 36 girls, age range 3-7 years)
24 control group: no experiment done on them
24: group exposed to aggression
24 group non-aggression

Exp: learning through observation and imitation using sensory input

The experiment: part 1
An adult and a child go into a play room
The child gets some attractive things like stickers and stamps to play with
Another corner of the room, the adult has a bobo doll, a mallet ( a hammer type tool, with soft
non metal head) and toy set
The instruction is: only adult is supposed to play with these toys
Once the experimenter leave the room, 2 possible scenarios emerge
Scene 1: aggression condition: the adult hits the bobo doll, uses words like ‘hit him, crush him
etc. the experimenter returns after 10 min and dismisses the adult and takes the child to
another room.
Scene 2: adult plays with other toys and ignores the bobo doll
Experimenter returns after 10 min and dismisses the adult and takes the child to another room
Part 2
The child is taken to another room with more toys.

He/she plays with them for 2 minutes and then is told that they cannot play any longer with
these as they are for other kids ( this is done to build up frustration).
The child is then taken to the previous room and allowed to play for 20 min.
Their behavior was recorded.
Result:
The children exposed to aggressive models showed aggressive behavior to the dolls when left
alone
The children from non –aggressive group did not show such behavior
Same-gender models had higher impact. More so on boys.
Chomsky: Innateness hypothesis
Noam Chomsky’s criticism of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior brought in a new understanding of
language acquisition.

He proposed that humans are born with a Language Acquisition Device (later Universal
Grammar).

This is responsible for language learning and not stimulus-response system.

Modularity: language function is autonomous, syntax is of primary concern. Meaning is not

important.
Innateness hypothesis
As per Chomsky, children are born with the underlying universal grammar or structural rules
They only need to learn the language specific aspects
This is how he answered as to how children can produce structures they have never heard.
‘Poverty of stimulus’
Structure dependent rules that they seem to ‘figure out’ without being taught
◦ Is the child, who is playing, feeling happy about his linguistic skills? (auxiliary inversion)
Wilfrid Sellars

Sellars (Empiricism and the Philososphy of mind, 1956) agrees with innateness, and thinks that
awareness of abstract entities and acquisition of linguistic knowledge are connected.

He says that there is a prior abstract knowledge before the acquisition of language.

Sellars compares language to games in which thoughts, assertions etc are positions and
communication, interaction, intelligibility etc are goal.

What is important according to Sellars is how we learn to move from one position to another.
Sellars suggests the distinction between pattern-governed and rule-governed behaviour.

A competent language user without intention exhibits pattern governed behaviour.

Whereas a beginner language game player initially recognises rules in the linguistic pattern and
gradually becomes competent as he acquires a clear understanding of them.

Conditioning and conforming to the pattern is needed to be a language player.

constructivists
Knowledge resides in the human mind.

Knowledge is constructed, it is neither innate or passively absorbed.

The learner has an active part in it.

Learner gradually builds up the knowledge upon the foundation of previous experience.

The psychologists supporting constructivism believe that cognitive development takes place in
tandem with the agent’s interactions with the world, natural or socio-cultural.
Luria

Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Romanovich Luria.

His work was a result of his treatment of numerous brain injured soldiers of WWII.

Luria’s functional organization of the brain: dynamic interaction between experience and brain structure.

Psychology of language functions and dysfunctions.

Contribution: sensory, semantic, and motor aphasias.

Luria’s model of cognitive processes

language, and in general psychological processes, represent brain functional systems.

Brain areas work together for any functions to be carried out, including language.

Attention/arousal, motivation, planning and processing.

planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive processing: PASS model of cognitive function.
 stages
Input= from sensory organs.
Processing =sorting, analyzing, interpreting
Output =behavior, action
Arousal= what is it? Questioning the input
Attention= a pattern that surveys the input
Lexical ambiguities can be processed simultaneously, whereas syntactic ambiguity of deep
structure and surface structure is part of successive processes.

Planning and decision making.

In terms of language functions, certain features may be more emphasized than others.

He studied arousal, motivation and dialogue in spontaneous speech to arrive at the automatic
verbal behavior.

Along with Vygotsky, he looked at cultural differences in language as well.

Through these investigations, he arrived at the conclusion that language cannot be studied
independently, but must be tied to understanding cognition.
Jean Piaget

As a child psychologist, Jean Piaget stressed that language learning was an integral part of
cognitive development, linked to biological maturation.

1. Sensorimotor stage: birth to 18-24 months

2. Preoperational stage: 2 -7 years

3. Concrete operation stage: 7-11 years

4. Formal operational stage: age 12 years and above

In the first stage mental representations and schemas are formed.

language starts to appear at the end of the first stage when the child realises that words can be
used to represent objects and feelings.

In this stage a child starts thinking, but it is egocentric, driven by self gain.

Thus according to Piaget, mental development occurs before language development.

Piaget does not address the socio-cultural or environmental setting.

He was of the opinion that language did not contribute towards mental development.

According to Piaget, language is driven by thought and mental development precedes language
development.

Ego-centric speech not important.

 Vygotsky

Vygotsky based his theory on constructivist learning theory and put emphasis on culture and
environment.

He stressed the importance of social environment in understanding human interactions.

A child’s development appears on two planes: social and psychological plane, and there is a strong
relationship between these two planes.

According to Vygotsky’s philosophy, language plays a crucial role in shaping the overt behavior of an
individual as well as influencing the covert behaviour (e.g: thinking).
Zone of Proximal development (ZPD) and scaffolding
This concept refers to what a child can achieve on his own and what he can learn from MKO
(More knowledgeable Other) through proper guidance (eg: child learning from parents).
Vygotsky views this area as crucial for skill development of a child, which the child can use for
developing higher mental functions on his own.
This view expresses the idea that an individual’s experiences forms and shapes the behaviour.
Inner/private speech

He was the first psychologist to talk about private speech and regarded it as the transition
between social and inner speech. Through interaction with the social environment, a child
develops ability for private, inner speech and through inner speech, a child is able to
differentiate between thought and language and thus giving the ability to express his thoughts
to others through language.

This private speech diminishes as children grow older and follow a curvilinear trend. Vygotsky
proposes that this is because it goes underground to become inner speech or verbal thought.
PIAGET VYGOTSKY

Biological maturation leads to cognitive Society and cultural environment leads to cognitive
development
development
language learning is a part of cognitive
development His language learning theory is based on
constructivist learning theory.
Gives little emphasis to social interaction as a part
of language learning Stressed the importance of social environment in
Says that mental development and Language understanding human interactions.
development are two separate processes.
Emphasis on culture and environment for Language
Radical constructivist. Activity should be individual. learning.
Development leads to learning. Social constructivist. Activity should be with others.
Thought precedes language Learning leads to development.
Language and thinking separate initially, later (age
3) combine.
 SELLARS BANDURA

Believes in the innateness theory of Believes in the behaviorist theory of

language acquisition (Chomsky:1957). punishment and rewards ( Skinner: 1938).

He compares language to the games in He formulates four principles of language

which thoughts , assertions are positions & learning : Attention, Retention, Motor
communication, interaction are goal. Reproduction, Motivation.
Believes that both environmental and
He considers that important thing in cognitive processes interact to influence
Language learning is how we learn to move language learning
from one position to another.
Jerome Bruner (Discovery learning theory , 1960)

Bruner is also a constructivist. Proposed three stage model of children’s cognitive development:

Enactive stage (0-1 year) : psycho- motor stage ( this is action based stage). At this stage
knowledge is stored as motor actions. This corresponds broadly to Piaget’s sensory-motor stage.

Iconic stage (1-6 years): use of visual imagery. Information is stored as sensory images (icons),
usually visual ones, like pictures in the mind.

Symbolic stage ( 7 years onward): abstract images (Language based). This is the last stage of
learning and here knowledge is stored primarily as language, mathematical symbols, or in other
symbol systems. (corresponding to Piaget’s concrete operational stage).
Symbols are flexible in that they can be manipulated, ordered, classified, etc. so the user isn’t
constrained by actions or images (which have a fixed relation to that which they represent).
According to Bruner’s taxonomy, these differ from icons in that symbols are “arbitrary.” For
example, the word “beauty” is an arbitrary designation for the idea of beauty in that the word
itself is no more inherently beautiful than any other word.
Language is important for the increased ability to deal with abstract concepts.
Bruner argues that language can code stimuli and free an individual from the constraints of
dealing only with appearances, to provide a more complex yet flexible cognition.
The use of words can aid the development of the concepts they represent and can remove the
constraints of the “here & now” concept.
He is different from Piaget in that he does not connect stages to age.
Also, he talks about autonomous learners
•Bruner would likely agree with Vygotsky that language serves to mediate between
environmental stimuli and the individual’s response.
Both Bruner and Vygotsky adhere to social nature of learning, through scaffolding.

Bruner and Piaget agree on some points like, children are pre-adaptive to learning and that
cognitive development happens in stages, with children playing an ‘active’agentive’ part in it.
However there are differences between the two. Like,

◦ - Language is a cause, rather than an effect of cognitive development.

◦ - social factors, like language aids in cognitive growth.

◦ - cognitive development can be sped up with adequate scaffolding, thus stages of development are not
strictly age dependent.
To summarize
Universal Grammar : language is a task too demanding to acquire without specific innate
equipment,

the constructivists: the importance of linguistic input along with the general cognitive
mechanism and social interactions.
Some important variables in child language acquisition research

1. Critical Period Hypothesis

Critical period
This is a temporal window in early postnatal life, when specific experiences are crucial for the development of
certain skills.

For many other (less complex nervous system) animals, behavioral repertoire, like foraging, fighting strategies
are developed by intrinsic developmental mechanisms and are in place early.

Nervous system of complex (higher) animals are influenced by particular circumstances. And these experiences
are crucial for the development of those innate qualities

Imprinting in birds happen in severely restricted time window in early postnatal/post hatching period of life
Critical period hypothesis
Language learning is innately guided (innateness hypothesis)

Thus, language as a skill is also dependent on this type of time window, though
it is relatively more difficult to delimit this time.

Similarly language acquisition also is said to have a sensitive period or time

window during which impeccable learning takes place
Some cases: feral children
Genie: the case of Genie is a famous one. She was locked in a room without any human social
contact till she was 13.
Did not learn any language
After being rescued, there were efforts to teach her and she did eventually learn some aspects
of language but never really mastered it
There are controversies as to the degree to which she learnt, if at all.
 Isabelle
Was prisoned in a dark room till the age of seven
Her only human contact was her deaf and mute mother
Had no language
When found, she was thought to be deaf and mute like her mother as she could only make some noises
Had extremely low IQ and had a mental age of about one and half year old
But through intense training, she later caught up and learnt language.
The success of Isabelle as against Genie is thought to prove the CP hypothesis.
Language dependent on auditory-vocal loop are found to be represented in particular cortical regions
The same cortical regions are also found to be representing language for native speakers of American
Sign Language (Bellugi and Klima, 1996)
This points to the fact that left hemispheric specialization is a characteristic feature of language itself, in
its abstract form and not as a by product of sensory-motor factors
This points to a considerable rigidity of the cortical arrangement and developmental pattern
plasticity
Findings from neuroscience have raised criticism about critical period hypothesis
Brain of vertebrates have been found to have astonishing plasticity
Proof from humans include studies like the ones reported by Sadato et al(1996)

❖ They found that blind individuals who are asked to discriminate Braille dots have
significantly higher blood flow, compared to sighted controls, in the visual cortex.

❖ This suggests that when the primary visual cortex is no longer activated by vision, it can
get activated by touch
In the domain of language, research has proved brain plasticity with regard to learning
languages

Tallal et al (1996) showed extensive training in rate modified speech and

temporal discrimination to language learning impaired children resulted in
them learning language

That too at the age which is well beyond the proposed critical period
Vargha et al reported a case where a child

✓had her damaged left hemisphere removed

✓Went on to learn language at the age of 9 years

✓This suggests language can be learnt with the residual abilities of the right hemisphere if the inhibitory
effects of the damaged left hemisphere is removed, even at an advanced (for learning language) age.
Hence
Inability to learn a new language at a later period in life is more because of reasons other than
critical period

Latest findings also suggest that critical period might hold, only for certain grammatical aspects
but not language learning as a whole.
 .
2 Theory of mind
What is theory of Mind?
This is an important prerequisite for developing socio-cognitive skills.

This includes developing a sense of other’s thoughts and intentions.

And consequently, help form responses.

Humans are not born with the understanding that people have unique beliefs and
thoughts. This is learnt.

This stage is arrived at through various developmental ladders that children go

through.

This includes the notion of attention and intention of others as well as imitation of
other’s mental states
First stage is that of attention.

Children learn very early that looking is not just seeing but also a tool to be
selectively used to gather more information.

In fact infants have been found to be using this mechanism in their parents to getting
attention to themselves.

Infants as early as 7-9 months of age are capable of understanding attention in

others; the development of this social skill is an important predecessor to developing
ToM [Simon Barron Cohen].
This stage is followed by acting

And knowing that people act on what catches their attention: goal directed behavior

This behavior is dependent upon intention

People can have varying intentions and, therefore, different behavior

Imitation is often understood to be another important component of developing Theory of
Mind. It has however, been contested.

Children use pretend play. This shows that they have developed the understand the different
mental states attributable to different characters
So,
ToM refers to the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others.

The idea that others have intents, beliefs, pretension, knowledge etc. and that these can be
different from one’s own.

In normal population this grows by the time humans are about 5 year old.

However, atypical population, like ADHD, autism spectrum disorder etc. are shown to have
delayed development of this attribute.
It entails,

Others have beliefs, thoughts, intents etc…in short, a mind that may be different from our own.

Mental states cause behavior. This difference may result into different behavioral outcome
hence having a theory of mind helps us predict other people’s behavior.

This is an innate and potential ability that also requires social and other experiences to fully
develop.

This is not only a human behavior but also found in other primates, even birds and rodents
How does one check ToM in children?
Whether a child is developing normally can be ascertained from various factors, like language, social
behavior and so on.

Theory of Mind underlies social cognition and thus is an important landmark in the development of
children.

One of the most important test of Theory of Mind in children is the false belief task.

This task is designed to elicit if a child can show his/her understanding of false belief.

One such task is the various versions of Sally-Ann story.

 An illustration of Sally-Ann task

Performance of children show that:

irrespective of language and cultural background,

children aged 4 can perform correctly

whereas 3 year old cannot.

Copyright: nobaproject.com
Two assumptions:

change is dependent upon the child’s language development.

Mastery of the grammatical rules of embedding, tensed complement clauses enables ToM
reasoning.

◦ However, recent findings do not support the link between understanding sentence complements and
ToM reasoning. Young children who do well on syntax and semantics tasks are still found unable to
pass false belief tasks.

◦ attributed to the development of strengthening of inhibitory processes and pragmatic skills or

general purpose executive functions
Irrespective of the theoretical account, it seems that the child’s performance on story based
ToM reasoning depends on the child’s early exposure to conversations that teaches them that
people have beliefs that can differ from their own
A strong data source for this assumption is work on deaf children from different
backgrounds: sign language environment Vs verbal language environment.

◦ Deaf children from sign language environment have early exposure to others’
conversations about people’s beliefs etc. and hence perform on par with hearing children.

◦ In contrast, deaf children of hearing parents are commonly not exposed to conversations
early and get the exposure only after they go to school. These children have difficulties in
ToM tasks.
ToM and language

Mental states cannot be observed directly.

Nor is there any simple correlation between mental states and observable behavior.
Hence one valuable way to learn about the elusive content of mind is to listen how
people talk about the mind.
Research in developmental psychology suggests the importance of verbal
communication for developing a theory of mind. Language ability seems to predict
success in false belief task, independent of age [Dunn and Brophy 2005].
A similar correlation was also found in samples of both healthy children and children
with autism and other developmental disorders.
3. JOINT ATTENTION
 What is Joint attention ?
Joint attention refers to the eye- movement in which two people use their gaze or gestures
to show an object or event in the space for the purpose of interaction.

There are also other ways to achieve joint attention such as gestures, pointing, verbal as
well as non-verbal means.

It has been said that ability to share a common point of reference develops in the first year
of life. ( Scaife and Bruner,1975)
Joint attention behaviour falls in two categories: (Mundy et al., 2007)
I) RJA – Responding to joint attention
II) IJA – initiating joint attention

RJA refers to the ability of infants to follow the gaze or gestures of others is order to attain
the common point of reference.

IJA refers to infants behaviour in which they themselves initiate the gestures or gaze to
direct others attention towards that object or event.
Joint attention is identified as the early stage of language learning.
In order to learn the novel-word , infants follow the gaze of their parents to know about the
referent.(Baldwin, 1995)
i) ii)
Infant
Infant (Following the
(Facing the parent gaze)
parent) Ball
(Referent)

Parent
Parent (pointing towards the
(Sitting in front of child) referent)
Several studies directly relate joint attention to language acquisition i.e, the frequency with
which infants engage in joint attention shows their ability of language acquisition. It is also
related to mental and behavioral process and facilitate learning ability and development.
(Mundy & Newell, 2007)

Joint attention is said to be the outcome of integration of posterior attention system and
anterior attention system in which posterior attention is related to RJA and anterior is
related to IJA. ( Posner & Rothbart, 2007)
 Attention joint attention Social Cognition

Posterior attention Anterior attention

system system

Responding to Initiating joint

joint attention(IJA)
attention(RJA)
What is social cognition ?

Social cognition focuses on the mental and behavioral process of people about other people
and social circumstances. It includes the role of cognitive processes in social interaction.
It generally begin to develop in the infants around 9-12 months.
Social cognition model argues that as infant monitor and represent their own goal – related
intentional activities , they also monitor and represnt the goal related activities of others.
(Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, & Moll, 2005)
Like infants understand their own feeling they also become able to comprehend the mental state of
others.
Joint attention and social cognition : in typical and atypical child
Social cognition is the outcome of joint processing of information about the attention of self
and others.

Social cognition is necessary for the development of the functional joint attention in infants.

Thus, it has equal importance in the both the categories of joint system I,e. RJA and IJA.

It has been characterized in clinical research that impairment in initiated joint attention (IJA)
leads to disease such as autism in the children. It means that child lacks the ability to
initiate the attention. Such children are referred as atypical children.
Atypical child refers to the child who are different from the same- age child in terms of
behaviour , development ,etc. Whereas typical child exhibits the normal generic behaviour and
development compared to the peers of same age.

Autism is a common disorder of neural development. Primary cognitive deficit in social cognition
defines all the features of autism.
Symptoms that atypical children shows in early childhood includes :
severe difficulties in social interaction
Difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication,
lacks in initiating the attention
lacks the ability to share common point of reference.
Limited eye contact.
Problem in the term of intellectual functioning.
More on language acquisition of atypical children will be discussed later in the course.