DeCasper & Fifer Findings for Newborns

DeCasper & Fifer Findings for Newborns

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1. Prefer the human voice over

"acoustically complex stimuli" (1176)

2. Can discriminate between speakers

3. Show a preference for their mother's voice with limited contact (at most 12 hours)

DeCasper, Anthony J. and William P. Fifer. 26 February 1980. Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science 208: 1174-1176.

Characteristics of Caretaker Speech

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Prosody, etc.Higher in pitch More variable in pitch More exaggerated in intonational contours SlowerSmoother pitch contours More rhythmicMore pauses

ContentMore repetitionsMore based in the here and now

Carroll, David W. 1994. Psychology of Language, second edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 250.

Gestures Showing Communicative Intent

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1. Pointing at things (Assertion or request)

2. Showing things to parent (NOT to give)

3. Giving you things

4. Reaching

5. Showing off (Repeating things that get approval; dancing)

Bates, Elizabeth, et al. 1979. Cognition and communication from nine to thirteen months: Correlational findings. In E. Bates, editor, The Convergence of Symbols: Cognition and Communication in Infancy. New York: Academic Press.

Major Criteria for Assigning Intentionality

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1. Waiting (for adult to pay attention)

2. Persistence

3. Development of alternative plans (flexibility)


Gestures then Speech

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"To sum up, prelinguistic children use gestures to get the receiver's attention and to communicate. The transition to speech acts can then be viewed as learning how to do with words what already has been done without words."


Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified - 1

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Age Motor Development Language, etc. months

1 Can distinguish consonants

3 Supports head when Smiles when talked to; prone; no grasp gurgles / coos (vowels)

4 Shakes rattle; Responds to human sounds : supports head turns head, eyes search

5 Sits with props Vowel-like cooing interspersed with more consonantal sounds


7


6 Sits; can bear weight; Cooing becomes reaches; grasps but no (reduplicated) babbling thumb opposition (babababa)

8 Stands holding on; Intonation patterns distinct;

grasps with thumb can signal opposition emphasis and emotion;

reduplication;

communicative intentions


8


10 Crawls; side-steps holding Sound play: gurgling,on; bubble blowing; seems to try to imitate;pulls self up to stand differentiates between

sounds heard

11-12 Variegated babbling (bigodabu)

12 Walks with help; seats self; More reduplication almost stopped mouthing (mama); signs of things

some words and simple

understanding; commands: Show me...


9


18 Grasp fully developed; 30-50 words; ONE-word phase; walks; sits on chair so-so; several syllable babbling;

crawls down stairs intricate intonation pattern; backward; difficulty NOT frustrated when not building 3 cube towers understood; understanding

progressing rapidly

24 Runs; sudden turns Vocabulary 50+ words; not good; stand and TWO-word phase; phrases

sits easily; walks up own creation; increase in and down stairs communicative behavior


10


30 Jumps; stands on one foot; Fastest increase in vocabulary; good hand and finger frustrated if not understood; coordination; can build 6 two (even three or five) word cube tower; tiptoes a few utterances; intelligibility not steps very good; seems to

understand everything directed to them

36 Tiptoes 3 yards; runs Vocabulary: 100 or so words; smoothly; makes turns 80% intelligible even to

well; jumps 12 inches; strangers; grammar roughly can ride tricycle like adults, though still makes mistakes


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48 Jumps over rope; hops on Language well established; one foot; catches ball in deviations from adult norm arms; walks line tend to be more in style

than in grammar

Milestones in Motor and Language Development—Simplified

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Milestones Chart based on:

Nick Cipollone, Steven Hartman Keiser & Shravan Vasishth, editors. 1998. Language Files, seventh edition. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, pp. 287-289.

Cipollone et al.'s version was based on Eric H. Lenneberg. 1967. Biological Foundations of Language. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

With additions from Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Chapter 10: Early Language Acquisition.

Comparison of English and Spanish Bilabial Stops

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1 2 3 4

Voicing Prevoiced Voiced Voiceless Voiceless

VOT* negative zero short longer

[b] [p]

Spanish besos pesos [besos] [pesos] 'kisses' 'pesos' (money)

English bases paces [besz] [pesz]

* VOT times are impressionistic; not given as precise numbers

Adapted from Ladefoged, Peter. 2001. Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp. 119-121.

Early Language Developmental Stages

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1. Cooing (2 months): Mostly vowels

2. Babbling (6 months) Reduplicated babbling (6-7 months):

ba ba ba ba

Variegated babbling (11-12 months): bi go da bu

3. First true words (12+ months)

Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 259.

Phonological Processes Used by Children

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Reduction tore/store

baw/bottle

Coalescence paf/pacifier

Assimilation nance/dance

fweet/sweet

Reduplication dada/daddy


Possible Explanations for Children's Pronunciation Errors

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1. Child cannot discriminate between the

sounds

2. Child cannot produce the sounds

3. Overload of information processing

capacity

Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, pp. 261-262.

First Words

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Nominals: ball, car

Proper nouns: Mommy

Action words: up, go

Modifiers: dirty, pretty

Personal/social:please, want

Function: what, for

From K. Nelson. 1973. Sturcutre and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (1-2 Serial No. 149). Cited in Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 263.

Adult Input In Vocabulary Acquisition

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1. The Original Word Game

2. Basic level vocabulary

3. Ostensive definitions for whole

object


Cognitive Constraints in Vocabulary Acquisition

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1. Whole Object Bias

2. Taxonomic Bias

3. Mutual Exclusivity Bias

a. Each object has only one name

b. Each name refers to only one object


Brown's Early Language Development Stages

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Stage MLU

I 1.75

II 2.25

III 2.75

IV 3.5

V 4.0

From Roger Brown. 1973. A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cited in Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, p. 270.

First Language Acquisition Strategies

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Referential Strategy Naming objectsVocabulary-building oriented: mostly nounsLanguage is individual words (bottom-up) Part to whole

Expressive Strategy Social interactionMore diverse vocabularyLanguage is whole sentences (top-down)Whole to part More likely to use 'dummy terms'


Documents

DeCasper & Fifer Findings for Newborns