Child Language Acquisition:
All children go through the same stage, but language learning varies
Before birth:
Language learning before birth. A child born (4 days old) in France could distinguish between French
and other languages: when he heard French, he sucked the feeder more vigorously than on hearing
other languages
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Babies become attuned to the rhythm and intonations of the language around them
The First Year:
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All babies cry in some manner around the world
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At six weeks, cooing starts which makes reduplication
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At six months, babbling sounds are closer to language
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Parents help develop peaking
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Caretaker language of parents-teachers turn taking
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Exposed to language more
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The entire environment is language
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Parents converse with child-teach him conventions of turn taking. Repeating key words lead
him to understand vocabulary and syntax better
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Babies between 0-3 months can even differentiate between voices
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In early months, phonemes produced are hot culture specific (i.e. well – “we” sound is
phoneme, bell, “ba” sound is phoneme).
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Around 10 months, these sounds develop into the native language like vocabulary or sound
so, then child language differs

Body recognizes simple and often repeated phrases as bye-bye, night, moon, toys.
Language Acquisition:
From one to two years, the Holophrastic stage:
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Age of rapid vocabulary acquisition and basic syntax
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First word spoken at about 12 months of age
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Gain vocabulary of 200 words before 2nd birthday
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Term Holophrastic means the first grammar
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Lexical items learned are nouns (referring to things, toys, noun, etc.)
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Vocabulary items relate to personal interactions
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Long/speech is linked with child’s wants and needs
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Express emotions
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Vocabulary is limited, car may refer to anything with wheels
Two-word stage; e.g; train go/plane fly
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Sentences are not inflected-no indication of tenses
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Use consonant sound example; m, h, b
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Certain sounds (phonemes arrive before others)
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Indulges plosive sounds: b+p and nasal sounds in response m+h
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They babble
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Language is limited but understanding is wider
Age 2-3:
Including the telegraphic stage
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Huge increase in vocabulary
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Learns vocabulary of 2000 words by the age of five and most are learned at this stage
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Over-extension when a word is used more broadly then it is over extension e.g,
‘daddy’ might be used for all men
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Under-extension-word used is used in a narrative context (shoes for everyone/plate)
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Telegraphic stage is: child’s utterance has some longer, grammatically complex/some parts
missing)
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Words have greater meaning like food-all-we going now
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Child is logically coherent
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Straight forward with subject (food) and verb (gone)
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Often use auxiliary verb (is)
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Not use → prepositions-determines (the/a) suffices tenses etc. at this stage
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Use wider range of consonants- p, t, d, n, w, f
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Can’t say polysyllabic words like ba /ra /na- repetition
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Language repetitions from adults
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Now understood to clause commands, hot or cold, day and night
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Understanding contrasting concepts, hot or cold, day and night
Types of child languages
Monologues
About two children provide a running
commentary. As they become older, monologues
change into narratives
Dialogue
Children engage in a dialogue and need parents or
somebody to talk to
3-5 years-pre-operational stage:
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Cognitive and social development with language development
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Following feature develop with speed:
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Connecting words example, because/if
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Number words
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Words connected with emotions
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Family terms (aunt/brother)
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Colors
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Contrasting concepts (cold/hot, day/night)
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Vocabulary includes hypernyms (words for categories like animals/vegetables)
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Vocabulary in hyponym (words within those families)
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Home environment and family members are important
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Use longer words with three or more syllables (el/e/phant-he/li/cop/ter)
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Become competent in communication
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Increase knowledge of syntax/tenses and plurals)
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They make virtuous errors, applying regular grammatical endings with irregular forms
e.g, runned/mouses/wented/thoughted
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Berko Wug Test – 1958
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Use questions and negotiations (rot)
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Mixed up homophones-one/won (words with same sound)