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Child Language Development: Speaking - Coggle Diagram
Child Language Development: Speaking
Cognitive Theory
The belief that language is just a part of the wider cognitive development in children
Jean Piaget said that children need to be able to understand something before they are able to use language around it
Plus, there is already correlation between language use and cognitive ability, as the understanding of object permeance leads to a big boost in the child's ability to use language
Lev Vygotsky believed that language had two purposes, one for language and one for thought and that thought was crucial for developing understanding
1990 research by Waxman showed that language labels can help children differentiate between categories
Piaget proposed 4 stages that children go through as their cognitive capability increases
Sensorimotor - egocentric child uses senses to interact with the world around them, start of object permanance
Pre-operational - the child begins to speak, develops imaginative focus, is able to represent the world symbolically in play, largely egocentric, child questions frequently (heuristic)
Concrete operational stage - the child begins to develop empathy and to start to understand other POVs, able to classify objects and has understanding of conservation
Formal operational - logical thought no longer a problem, thinking becomes more abstract, able to problem solve
Nativism
Chomsky pointed out that children are able to make sentences with remarkably little information, he used this as evidence that we have a inbuilt affinity for language, a LAD.
Chomsky has since moved away from the idea of a LAD, and has since focused on a LASS, which holds no information about the specifics of the language use but is adept for coping with grammar systems, etc.
Evidence supports this, due to the existence of a 'voca tract' which exists only in human purely for language
Wernicke's area and Broca's area both have linguistic functions, as highlighted in stroke survivors.
It also appears as if we have a natural propensity for grammar, as apes are able to grasp words but not grammar
The existence of Creole seems to support nativism, as the evolution from pidgin came purely from time and a change in generation
Critics say that nativists ignore the importance of interaction with the child
NY Jim case study
Social Interactionalism
Maintains that social interaction is at the heart of language acquisition, not necessarily to copy, but to 'scaffold' learning
Jerome Bruner moved away from a LAD suggesting a LASS
Vygotsky drew attention to the importance of scaffolding by caregivers
Drew attention to MKOs who can help a child
Vygotsky coined the ZPD
Behaviourism
Pioneered by B.F. Skinner in 1959 'Verbal Behaviour' after discovering how rewards and 'positive reinforcement' can change behaviour.
Believed that children coped the language of the caregivers around them, but adjusted it in accordance to the feedback they got - through 'operant conditioning' parents would react positively or negatively to the child's use of language and the children revise their use of language in response
However, Nelson highlighted that children do not respond to feedback well, and often resist it, therefore the process behind 'negative reinforcement' falls apart
Brown, Cazden and Bellugi noted that parents seem to be more bothered about politeness than completely correct syntax and therefore could not be trusted to guide children's grammar correctly
One of the biggest criticisms of this theory came from Chomsky, who pointed out that children often make 'virtuous errors' that they would not have heard around them
He also pointed out that children follow predictable stages of learning which seems to go against the idea that learning is just coping,
He believed that the language used by general adults was 'too fractured' to be able to accurately teach and instruct children