EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: TODDLERS (chapter 7)

(12-24 mos.)

PowerPoint Outline**

• I. Development in Related Domains• II. First Words• III. Combining Words, Meaning, and Functions• IV. Development in Pragmatics• V. Phonological Processes• VI. Impact of Bilingualism• VII. Intervention for Toddlers Whose Language

is Delayed

We need to know typical language milestones**

• For clinical purposes

• And for the PRAXIS!

Sample PRAXIS questions (not on our exam )

Another one (are we having fun yet?)

I. DEVELOPMENT IN RELATED DOMAINS• A. Social Development

B. Motor Developments

Motor developments continued

A 2-year old can:**• Walk on tiptoe

• Jump with both feet

• Engage in many self-help skills such as feeding herself, opening doors, straightening a bed

C. Cognitive Developments

Cognitive developments continued

II. FIRST WORDS• First word around 12 mos. of age;

• With production of first true• By 24 months, expressive

vocabulary of about 200-300 words

To qualify as a true word:**• It needs to occur with consistency in a given context

in apparent response to an identifiable stimulus

• It should be produced consistently in the presence of the same person, object, or event

• It must bear some phonetic resemblance to a conventional adult word; it can be an approximation of a real adult word

In first words…**

• Front consonants /p, b, d, t, m, n/ are the most common

• These children use simple syllable patterns (e.g., CV, VC, CVCV)

Holophrases**

• Are early one-word utterances that convey a holistic communicative intention

• For example, these utterances can request or describe others’ actions (eat, ride, kiss)

• They can also ask questions (e.g., Why? What? Who?)

Youtube• Toddler Tries to Argue Like an Adult

• This child is 20 months old

There is rapid vocabulary growth:

If the child does not have a major language growth spurt between 18-24 months of

age…

Therapy implication:

Remember that:

Classes of First Words:**

• Nouns are prominent; may be 60% or more of a toddler’s lexicon

• Usually these nouns have been frequently involved in the

• toddler’s interaction with others

• Mark McKibbin’s nouns: (not on test)

Toddlers often use reflexive relations:**

• Reflexive relations are early words that indicate the state of objects

These reflexive relations include:

Reflexive relations also include:**• Existence: “this, that, what’s that?”

• Nonexistence: object not present where it was anticipated to be (“Angel” if dog not in doghouse)

3 types of relational words (that express relationships among objects):

Children’s learning styles have an impact:

Expressive learning style:**

• More peer contacts

• Attempt to produce longer units

III. COMBINING WORDS, MEANING, AND FUNCTIONS**

A. IntroductionCombining words is significant because it

indicates that toddlers:

Characteristics of true 2-word utterances:

B. Semantic-Syntactic Considerations**• Semantic-syntactic rules emphasize that

meaning precedes and influences form

• The meaning most frequently expressed by toddlers in two-word utterances increasingly shifts to action

Semantic Relations (only the ones with an * are on the test)**

• Agent + action* Mommy kiss• Action + object* Pet doggy• Agent + object Cocoa bone (Cocoa is

associated with the bone; this is not

possessive)• Demonstrative + entity* That spoon• Entity + locative* Cereal bowl (the

cereal is in the bowl)

• Action + locative Put car• Possesser + possession* Mark toy• Attribute + entity* Yummy snack

IV. DEVELOPMENT IN PRAGMATICS**• A. Introduction

Toddlers can stand, walk, and run, the world opens up!

Generally understand cause-effect; behavior influences caregivers’ actions

• Have object permanence

C. Developing Dialogue**1. Presupposition—refers to speakers’ ability to judge how much their listeners might know about the subject being introduced and to adapt their utterances accordingly.

Most conversations between toddlers and caregivers are about the here-and-now, so presuppositional skills are not much needed.

2. Turn-taking

• 3. Topic initiation —establishing a subject for a conversation a speaker is about to begin.

• Hey, get this…• Guess what?• By the way…• Did you know that…

• Then, intro subject familiar to both people

• Next, add new info

For example,**

• Hey, get this. You know that PayLess Shoe store on Greenback where we love to get those $15.99 pairs of shoes?

• Well, they closed! Now the only one even remotely nearby is at Arden Fair mall.

Conversations with toddlers…**• Develop out of things that have just engaged

their attention.

• “Drive car!”

• Usually dialogue follows.

The social-cognitive basis for communication…

This is why, in the special day preschool classroom:**

• My absolute #1 goal is joint attention

Joint attention for developing sounds!**

V. PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES**

• Systematic procedures used by children to make adult words pronounceable

• Children produce an approximation of an adult model

VI.IMPACT OF BILINGUALISM** • Higher maternal education is associated

with children having better English vocabularies, faster English vocabulary development, and greater knowledge of English

Simultaneous acquisition…

VII. INTERVENTION WITH TODDLERS WHOSE LANGUAGE IS DELAYED**

• We can use direct intervention, where the child is seen by the speech pathologist

• We can also use indirect intervention, where we train caregivers such as parents and preschool teachers to stimulate children’s language development

Several specific techniques:**

• Incidental teaching: adult carefully observes the child, takes advantage of spontaneous teachable moments

• E.g. , if the child points to a cat, adult can say “Look, there is a gray cat. I wonder why she looks so funny?”

• Ask open-ended and topic-continuing questions rather than closed questions**

• Closed question: “Do you want milk?”• Open-ended question: “What would you like to

drink?”

• When the child says something, respond in a topic-continuing way

• Child: I saw Sesame Street• Teacher: Oh, that’s nice. (NO)• Teacher: Wow! What happened on Sesame Street?

(YES)

Use communicative temptations:

Suggestions for communicative temptations:

Most of all…**• Language develops optimally when children get

plenty of attention

• Attention is the greatest reinforcer of all

PowerPoint Outline**

• I. Development in Related Domains• II. First Words• III. Combining Words, Meaning, and Functions• IV. Development in Pragmatics• V. Phonological Processes• VI. Impact of Bilingualism• VII. Intervention for Toddlers Whose Language

is Delayed