Theories of Language Development

The earliest theory about language development assumed that children acquire language through
imitation (Menyuk & Brisk, 2005). While research has shown that children who imitate the actions
quickly. There is also evidence that imitation alone cannot explain how children become talkers
(Sigelman & Rider, 2009). The following theories explain how children learn their language.

Noam Chomsky
What is the nature of the human capacity to acquire language? This question can be conceptualized in
the following manner: The human capacity for language is a device residing in the human brain that
takes as its input certain information from the environment and produces as its output the ability to
speak and understand a language.
Naom Chomsky’s theory on language development explain that the nativist perspective believes that
nature is most crucial in the process o language development. According to Chomsky, throughout the
universe, infants have an inborn mechanism for acquiring syntax knowledge in any culture and society,
also known as universal grammar. In addition, the language acquisition device is an inborn mechanism
that allows infants to learn and manipulate deep grammatical structures. Through hypothesis testing,
children use natural mechanisms to teach themselves various aspects of language use.
 Chomsky’s Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics is a field of study that combines psychology and linguistics to study how people
process language and how language use is related to mental processes. Studies of children’s language
acquisition and of second language acquisition are psycholinguistics in nature.

Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive
scientist, historian,social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern
linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field
of cognitive science.

Stages of Language Development Chart

There are two main areas of language:

Receptive language (understanding): Comprehension of language.
Expressive language (using language): The use of language through speech, sign or alternative forms
of communication to communicate wants, needs, thoughts and ideas.
 Age Listening Vocabulary

•Attends to sounds and voices •Babbling (e.g. ma-ma, da-da)

6-12 months •Recognises facial expressions and tones •Takes turns vocalising with others
of voice •Recognises names of a few objects

•Responds •Babbling (e.g. ma-ma, da-da)

to familiar requests (e.g. come here) and •Takes turns vocalising with others
1-2 years own name •Recognises names of a few objects
•Understands gestures (e.g. wave for
‘bye’)

•Follows 2 part instructions (e.g. Go to •Names actions (e.g. go, run)

your room and get your shoes) •By 2 years vocabulary is 250-300
2-3 years
•Points to main body parts, words
clothing items, toys and food when asked •By 3 years uses 1000 words
 •Follows 3 part •By 4 years uses nearly 1500 word
instructions (e.g. point to the cat,
3-4 years the dog and the monkey
•Understands longer, more
complex sentences

•Follows the meaning of others’ •Continuing to expand

conversations •Can generally understand colour
4-5 years and shape words (e.g. red, square)
•Can sort objects into simple
categories (e.g. animals, food)

•Follows the meaning of others’ •Vocabulary comprehension

conversations increases
5-6 years •Follows multi-step instructions
•Vocabulary comprehension
increases
 •Ideas are shared •Can classify objects according to
6-7 years •Follows multi-step instructions more specific traits (e.g. form,
colour, use or composition-what it
is made of)

•Can listen for a sustained period •No specific milestones

7-8 years of time (e.g. attend to a guest
speaker at school)
Theories of Cognitive Development (Piaget and Vygotsky)
 Jean Piaget was one of the 20th century’s most influential researchers in the area of
developmental psychology.
 His theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds cognitive structures.
 He also believed that the child’s cognitive structure increased with development.
 Piaget theories of infant development were based on his observations of his own three
children
 According to psychologist Jean Piaget, children progress through a series of four key stages
of cognitive development. Each stage is marked by shifts in how kids understand the
world. Piaget believed that children are like "little scientists" and that they actively try to
explore and make sense of the world around them.

What is Cognitive Development?

Cognitive Development describes how these mental processes develop from birth until
adulthood. In other words, what kind of cognitive skills is a 4 year old child capable of
compared to a 6 year old.
Basic Cognitive Concepts
1. Schema
Piaget used the term schema to refer to the cognitive structures by which
individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their environment. It is an
individuals way to understand or create meaning about a thing or experience.

Example:

If a child sees a dog for the first time, he creates his own schema of what a dog
is. It has four legs and a tail. It barks. It’s furry/hairy. The child then puts this
description of a dog on file in his mind. When he sees another similar dog, he
pulls out the file (his schema of a dog) in his mind, looks at the animal, and
says four legs, tail, barks, furry…. That’s a dog.
For example, at birth the schema of a baby is
reflexive in nature such as sucking and grasping.
The sucking reflex is a schema and the infant
will suck on whatever is put in its mouth such as
a nipple or a finger. The infant is unable to
differentiate because it has only a single sucking
schema. Slowly, the infant learns to differentiate
where milk-producing objects are accepted while
non-milk objects are rejected. At this point, the
infant has two sucking schemas, one for milk-
producing objects and one for no-milk producing
objects.
2. ASSIMILATION
- Is the process of fitting a new experience
or new information into an existing or previously
created cognitive structure or schema.
-a child sees a Zebra for the first time and
immediately calls it a Donkey.
- Why do you think this happened? The
child seeing the object (Zebra), sifted through his
collection of schemas, until he found one that
seemed appropriate. To the child, the object
(Zebra) has all the characteristics of a Donkey-it
fits in his Donkey schema-so the child concludes
that the object is a Donkey. The child has
integrated the object (Zebra) into his Donkey
schema.
3. Accommodation is the process of creating a new
schema/information.
- It involves altering existing schemas, or ideas, as a
result of new information or new experiences.
New schemas may also be developed during this
process.
- The boy who assimilated the Zebra as a Donkey
will eventually accommodate more information
and thus realize the different characteristics
between a Zebra and a Donkey is not a Donkey
but a Zebra, an accommodated ability.
4. Equilibration
Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady
rate, but rather in leaps and bounds. Equilibrium is occurs when a child’s
schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation.
However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new
information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).
Equilibration is a balance between assimilation and accommodation.
Disequilibrium is an imbalance between assimilation and accommodation.
As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is
important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge
(assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge
(Accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how children are able to
move from one stage of thought into the next.
Stages:

1. Sensorimotor Stage
2. Preoperational Stage
3. Concrete Operational Stage
4. Formal Operational Stage

1. The Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 yrs) (Infancy)

The first stage of Piaget’s theory starts from birth to approximately age 2 and is
centered on the infant trying to make sense of the world. During this stage, the
child’s knowledge is limited to sensory perceptions and simple motors activities.
E.g. looking , sucking, grasping.
- The child develop reflexes, habits, hand-eye coordination, object permanence
(Knowing something exists, even though it can’t be seen), Experimentation and
creativity – Piaget referred to the children in this stage as “little scientists”,and
trial and error experiments.
2. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 yrs) (Toddler and
Early Childhood)

This stage begins when the child starts to use

symbols and language. This is a period of developing
language and concepts. So, the child is capable of
more complex mental representations (i.e. words
and images). He is still unable to use “operations”,
i.e. logical mental rules, such as the rules of
arithmetic.
 The stage is highlighted with SYMBOLIC FUNCTION. The
child can use symbols to stand for actions: a toy doll stands
for a real baby or the child role-plays mommy or daddy.
Egocentrism – tendency of the child to see only his
point of view and to assume that everyone also has his
same point of view.
Example: a five year old boy who buys a toy truck for
his mothers birthday and a three year old girl who
cannot understand why her cousins call her daddy
“uncle’ and not daddy.
Animism – treating inanimate objects as living ones.
Example children bathing, dressing and feeding their
dolls as if they are alive
Centration
It refers to the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation, problem or
object, and so cannot see the big picture. Centration is noticed I conservation: the
awareness that altering a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties.
Children at this stage are unaware of conservation. They are unable to grasp the concept
that a certain liquid be the same volume regardless of the container shape. For example,
equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers. The liquid in one
container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup, or a
short and wide cup. Then the child is asked, which one has more water, the tall glass or
the short glass.
Irreversibility - children still have the inability to reverse their
thinking. They can understand that 2 + 3 is 5 but cannot
understand that 5-3 is 2.

Transductive reasoning - the child’s type of reasoning that is

neither inductive or deductive.
Example: her mommy comes home everyday around six o’clock
in the evening, when asked why it is already night, the child will
say “because my mom is already home”.
3. Concrete Operationa Stage (7 to 12 yrs of Age Childhood and Early Adolescence
The Concrete Operational stage is characterized by the appropriate use of logic.
Important processes during this stage are:
1. Seriation- the ability to sort objects in an order according to size, shape or any other
characteristics. Eg. If given different-shaded objects, they may make a colour gradient.
2. Decentering – where the child takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve
it. For example, the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to
contain less than a normally-wide, taller cup.
3. Reversibility - the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed, then
returned to their original state. For this reason, as child will be able to rapidly determine
that if 4 + 4 = T, t – 4 will equal 4, the original quantity.
4. Conservation – understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to
the arrangement or appearance of the object or items.

During this stage, the child begins to develop the fundamentals of logic:
Ability to sort objects, classify objects, and understanding of conservation (Physical
quantities to not change based on the arrangement and/or appearance of the object)
4. Formal operational Stage (from 12 yrs and up ) (Adolescence and
Adulthood)

Hypothetical Reasoning
This is the most complete stage of development. In this stage, the
individual’s
1. Thought becomes increasingly flexible and abstract, i.e. can carry out
systematic experiments.
2. Ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical
way.

Analogical reasoning - is the ability to perceive the relationship in one

instance and the use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in
another similar situation.
example: United Kingdom is to Europe. Then Philippines is to _____
Deductive reasoning - Ability to think logically by applying
a general rule to a particular instance or situation.

It involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive

reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas

During this stage, the child begins to develop:

- Ability to hypothesize, test and reevaluate hypothesis