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Study questions
1. Can you describe fourtypical features of caregiver speech?
Key: Simplified words; frequent useof questions; exaggerated intonation; extra loudness and slower tempo.
2. Whyare some of the infant’s first sounds described as “cooing”?
Key: They are the earliest speechlike sounds.
3. During which stage do children typically firstproduce syllable sequences similar to “mama” and “dada” and how old are they?
Key: This stage is called babblingand this occurs between 9 and 10 months.
4. At about what age dochildren typically begin producing varied syllable combinations such as ma-da-ga-ba?
Key: During the tenth and eleventhmonths
5. Which of these twoutterances was produced by the older child and why?
(a) I nothurt him
(b) No thesun shining
Key: The more advanced form is mostlikely (a) because the negative element is placed before the verb inside thestructure and not simply added to the front, as it is in (b).
6. What is the term used to describe the processinvolved when a child uses one word like ball to refer to an apple, an egg, agrape and a ball?
Key: The term is called overextension.
Tasks
D. The following examples are from the speech ofthree children. Identify which child is at the earliest stage, which is next inorder, and which is at the most advanced stage. Describe those features in theexamples from each child’s speech that support your ordering.
CHILD X: Youwant eat?
I can’t seemy book.
Why youwaking me up?
CHILD Y: Wherethose dogs goed?
You didn’teat supper.
Does lionswalk?
CHILD Z: Nopicture in there.
Where mommaboot?
Have some?
Key:Developmental stages
Child Z seems to be at the earliest stage, forming negatives bysimply putting No at the beginning and forming questions by adding Where to thebeginning of an expression or uttering a short expression (Have some?) with,most likely, rising intonation. The examples seem typical of the telegraphicspeech stage, with a functional morpheme (in), but no inflectional morphemes(i.e. not "momma's boot") in evidence yet.
Child X is using the negative form can't in front of the verb andbeginning a question with Why, both typical Stage 2 features. He or she stillappears to be using rising intonation to form questions (You want eat?) and isnot yet using inversion in questions. The -ing form may be evidence ofmorphological development, and more complex sentence structures, using subject-verb-object, indicate that Child X is probably at a more advanced stage thanChild Z.
Child Y is the most advanced of the three, with a negative form(didn't), in the appropriate position, and a question structure (inversion inDoes lions) typical of Stage 3. This child is also using more inflectionalmorphemes (dogs, goed, Does, lions) than the other two.