The Development of Language and Memory Recall
The ability for an infant to develop speech is dependent upon the ability of the child to distinguish rhythms of sounds and tones. The infant must break down the phrases of speech that at first sound like pieces of music with varying tones and cadences into distinct words which are linked to meaning. Infants begin breaking down language before they are one year old (Swingley, 2000). The ability to distinguish different sounds from each other, identifying the configuration of words, and recognize that some sounds are similar while other sounds are different is called phonological awareness. This awareness begins in infancy and can be measured as early as age 2. The definition of phonological awareness is still under debate; different definitions include contrasting levels of abilities to distinguish different sounds, abilities to blend sounds, and separating sounds into more basic subunits (Anthony & Francis, 2005).
As the child learns to break down long streams of sounds and recognizes that individual groupings and words are present, the child will begin to replicate the sounds. This action is described by Piaget as part of the preoperational stage; the imitation of sounds by the infant has moved beyond simple mimicking and the child is now attempting to influence his/her environment. At approximately 18 months of age, there is a dramatic increase in the use of language by infants, and it is at this age that the child is more self- aware (Courage, & Howe, 2002). Researchers are still attempting to detect the link between these actions. Understanding the biological reasons which prompt language development and self-recognition will permit the medical professionals to better diagnose...
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...le of working through a long term assignment on his/her own.
Works Cited
Anthony, J, & Francis, D. (2005). Development of phonological awareness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 255-258
Courage, M, & Howe, M. (2002). From infant to child: the dynamics of cognitive change in the second year of life. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 253-259.
Kliegel, M, & Mackinlay, R. (2008). Complex prospective memory: development across the lifespan and the role of task interruption. Developmental Psychology, 44(2), 612-617.
Leclerq, A, & Majerus, S. (2010). Serial-order short term memory predicts vocabulary development: evidence from a longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 46(2), 417-427.
Swingley, D. (2008). The roots of the early vocabulary in infants' learning form speech. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(5), 308-311.
Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2014). Infancy. In Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (p. 158). Australia: Wadsworth.
The environmental game cards consisted of the Stepping Stone Game, Syllabication Object box, Vowel-Change Word Family, The Four-Letter Long Vowel Silent-e Words, and Sorting Words by Vowel Sound Game. This article I chose to write about was written by Audrey C. Rule, Jolene Dockstader, and Roger A. Stewart. The article provides 3 table graphs, 5 examples of Phonics Games, and 6 pages of the data collected to better account for how the experiment played out. This article was published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, which really proved to me that it was an excellent way to learn more about Hands-on Learning and Kinesthetic Activities. Summary The article, “Hands-on and Kinesthetic Activities for Teaching Phonological Awareness”, gives a very well detailed overview on the teaching study done between Phonological Awareness and Phonics instruction and how they take different forms from vocal and visual methods.
Especially for infants and children, loss of hearing at such a young age can be detrimental for a developing child (Williams & Jacobs, 2009). The first two years of life are the most important as they hold critical milestones of language acquisition (Zumach, Chenault, Anteunis, and Gerrits, 2011). If these milestones are not met, then the subsequent ones will be harder and take longer to learn. The loss of hearing in young individuals can alter the perception of words and sounds, and this can lead to a difficulty in learning language (Williams & Jacobs, 2009). For example, the child will not be able to determine the difference between similar sounds, which negatively affects speech perception, which then leads to the inability to interpret and acquire language later on (Williams & Jacobs,
Seefeldt, C., & Wasik, A. (n.d.b). Education.com - print. Education.com - print. Retrieved May 6, 2014, from http://www.education.com/print/cognitive-development-preschoolers/
Included in the analysis will be her stage and development of lexical knowledge and what words she uses. Phonological Processes The child seems to conform to the normal development that other children her age demonstrate. According to Carol Stoel-Gammon (1987), 24 month olds should be able to make a /b/ sound in the initial position just as the child does in utterance 6 (p.327). She can also make an /n/ sound in the final position.
From the moment an infant is born, it is bombarded with sounds that the brain attempts to categorize. Within the first year of life alone, infants already show preferences for phonologically legal structures in their native language when compared to illegal consonant structures (Friederici et al., 1993). While a personal lexicon is not developed until later in childhood, the early stages, primarily the recognition of word segmentation, begins within the first year of life. The topic of what the important factors are in babies perceiving speech and building a preference to their own language, however, is shrouded in mystery. For instance, Friedrici et al.’s study on phonotactic knowledge of word boundaries gave results that indicate the combination of simple context cues as well as the use of infant directed speech (IDS) allows babies to recognize phonotactically legal structures by nine months. However, McMurray et al.’s results directly contrast those findings by arguing that IDS simply causes a slower rate of speech but does not highlight contrasts between segmented sounds, nor does it enhance phonetic cues. Infant directed speech is a “speech register characterized by simpler sentences, a slower rate, and more variable prosody” (McMurray et al., 2012). While there is controversy regarding the beneficial factors of infant directed speech, most studies indicate that this register is extremely beneficial for infant speech perception in the first year of life.
The first two years of a humans life are bursting with biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial development. In the first few weeks after conception to two years after birth a child’s brain experiences more growth than any other organ in the body. During the first two years of a child’s life the brain is very plastic and malleable. In order for children to continue down a path of success and learning there are certain experiences a child must have in order to develop normally. The First Two years of a child life is responsible for the foundation that is layed.
Phonological awareness (PA) involves a broad range of skills; This includes being able to identify and manipulate units of language, breaking (separating) words down into syllables and phonemes and being aware of rhymes and onset and rime units. An individual with knowledge of the phonological structure of words is considered phonologically aware. A relationship has been formed between Phonological awareness and literacy which has subsequently resulted in Phonological awareness tasks and interventions.This relationship in particular is seen to develop during early childhood and onwards (Lundberg, Olofsson & Wall 1980). The link between PA and reading is seen to be stronger during these years also (Engen & Holen 2002). As a result Phonological awareness assessments are currently viewed as both a weighted and trusted predictor of a child's reading and spelling and ability.
Schnitzspahn, K.M., Stahl, C., Zeintl, M., Kaller, C. P., & Kliegel, M. (2013). The role of shifting, updating, and inhibition in prospective memory performance in young and older adults. Developmental Psychology, 49(8), 1544-1553. doi: 10.1037/a0030579
In their source article, it indicated that infants could perceive different types of sound, so infants would be able to memorize the sound they hear after they born. The study used quantifying response – heart rate – to further confirm this behavior as their heart rate increases when they hear the vocal cue. In their empirical study, they tested how infants
Soderstrom, M. (2007). Beyond baby talk: Re-evaluating the nature and content of speech input to preverbal infants. Developmental Review, 27(4), 501-532.
Shaffer, D., Kipp, K., Wood, E., & Willoughby, T. (2010). Developmental psychology childhood and adolescence. (3rd ed.). USA: Thomson Wadsworth
There are three main theories of child language acquisition; Cognitive Theory, Imitation and Positive Reinforcement, and Innateness of Certain Linguistic Features (Linguistics 201). All three theories offer a substantial amount of proof and experiments, but none of them have been proven entirely correct. The search for how children acquire their native language in such a short period of time has been studied for many centuries. In a changing world, it is difficult to pinpoint any definite specifics of language because of the diversity and modification throughout thousands of millions of years.
Babies begin to develop language skills long before they embark on speaking. The foundation for learning language begins before birth by the baby listening and recognizing his/her mother’s heartbeat and voice in the womb. “In a study, researchers played a 2-minute recording of a popular Chinese poem to 60 pregnant women and their unborn babies while monitoring total heart rates. Heart rates rose while the babies listened to their own mother's voice, but they fell and stayed lower while the stranger recited. Obviously, the babies were paying close attention, leading the researchers to suspect they were not only recognizing morn, but beginning to learn the ins and outs of language” (Dawidowska and Harrar (2003))....
Children’s acquisition of language has long been considered one of the uniquely defining characteristics of human behaviour.