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CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION By BF CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IS… How children learn and acquire language. THERE ARE 5 STAGES OF CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION The stages are: Pre-verbal, Babbling, Holophrastic, Telegraphic and Multi-word stage. Pre-verbal (0-7 months) Child communicates using body language and being able respond to their mother’s voice. Child is also able to tell the difference between speech sounds and other sounds. Example of what a child might say- Child could turn their head towards their mother when they hear their mother’s voice. Babbling (7-11) Child starts making speech sounds (even speech sounds that do not resemble the language around them). This is a practice period whereby the child experiments with a wide variety of different language sounds, which could be sounds used in languages other than English. These sounds are usually repeated in sequences (ba-ba-ba). Example of what a child might say- ba-ba, dada. Holophrastic (11-18 months) Child starts making a small number of basic one word utterances that are always closed class words (nouns, verbs and adjectives). These single words take the place of a whole phrase or sentence. They use gestures and intonation (different tones of speech) however to communicate the right meaning with the worde.g. “mama” could mean where is mum? or there is mum e.t.c, so the child uses gestures and intonation to intend a particular meaning to the one word. Example of what a child might say- mama, dada, juice, doggie. Telegraphic (18 months-2 ½ years) Child starts making two word utterances usually two nouns or a noun and a verb). These two word utterances lack small grammatical words and endings- e.g. not using “s” at the end of the word for a plural or not using the word “the”. Child’s vocabulary also increases to around 50 words. Example of what a child might say- Mummy juice, Daddy eat. Multi-word stage (2 ½ years onwards) Child forms longer utterances that are meaningful and lack closed class words and correct grammar. The word order of these utterances is correct. These utterances are more similar to sentences in structure than utterances produced in other stages. Child’s vocabulary also increases to 10-12 words a day. Example of what a child might say- “Dirty hand wash it” or “Daddy car coming.” Frequently Asked Questions Q: My son is a year and 8 months old and seems to only be able to talk using single words, is this normal? A: Of course it is normal. Technically your son falls into the Holophrastic stage, when his age suggests the Telegraphic stage but the stages aren’t exact and they aren’t the same for everyone. There has to be some exceptions. You should allow for some give or take, and seeing as your son is only 2 months off, it’s fine. Q: My child is 1 year old and is learning around 10 words a day, is this abnormal? A: Your child is very advanced at learning vocabulary. In fact your child is in the Multi-word stage when they are expected to be in the Holophrastic stage. They are about a year and a half ahead of most children at that age. Your child could be considered abnormal by some people but to me it sounds like a great achievement. You should be proud. Q: My daughter is 2 years old and has only just started babbling, is something wrong? A: There could be something wrong. According to the stages your daughter is expected to be in the Telegraphic stage and as you’ve told me, your daughter has just reached the Babbling stage. So at the moment your daughter is roughly 15 months behind her age. Your daughter might have a language disorder. This could also be just a minor thing and your daughter could catch up but I suggest you take your daughter to a GP to get her checked. For further reading on child language acquisition… Visit: http://www.unikassel.de/fb8/misc/lfb/h tml/text/5-1-2frame.html and http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fal l_2005/ling001/acquisition.html which have further information on the stages of child language acquisition. OR visit www.linguistlist.org/askling/lang-acq.cfm for more frequently asked questions. Bibliography Doherty, J, de Laps, D, Sinclair, R, Taunt, L, Waddell, S, Heinemann English Language, Reed International, Port Melbourne, 2000. Burridge, K, Mulder, J, Thomas, C, Macmillan English Language, Macmillan, South Yarra, 2001. “Child Language Acquisition”, Penn Linguistics. Available from : http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_1998/ling001/acq.html. [last accessed 23/05/09] “Language acquisition and disorders (5.1.2 Stages)", Kassel University. Available from: http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb8/misc/lfb/html/text/5-1-2frame.html . [last accessed 24/05/09] “Stages of language acquisition in children” , Penn Linguistics. Available from : http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2005/ling001/acquisition.html. [last accessed 24/05/09]