Transcript General Psychology: Child Dev (I)

Child Development
Chapter 9
Part II
William G. Huitt
Last revised: May 2005
Language Development
• Sequence of language development
– Babbling
• Vocalization of the basic speech sounds
(phonemes), which begins between 4 and 6
months
– Sounds of first language
• By about 1 year of age
– Begin to use words to communicate
• By the second year
• Sometimes these single words function as whole
sentences
Language Development
• Sequence of language development
– Once children know about 50 words, they stop using
holophrases and start combining words into two-word
sentences
– Overextension
• The act of using a word, on the basis of some shared feature,
to apply to a broader range of objects than appropriate
– Underextension
• Restricting the use of a word to only a few, rather than to all,
members of a class of objects
Language Development
• Sequence of language development
– Children’s language advances considerably
between 2 and 3 years of age as they begin to use
sentences of three or more words, which linguists
call telegraphic speech
– Telegraphic speech
• Short sentences that follow a strict word order and contain
only essential content words
– Telegraphic speech reflects the child’s
understanding of syntax
Language Development
• Sequence of language development
– After age 3, children experience a phase linguists
refer to as the grammar explosion
– Overregularization
• The act of inappropriately applying the grammatical rules
for forming plurals and past tenses to irregular nouns and
verbs
Language Development
• Theories of language development
– Learning theory
• B. F. Skinner
– Asserted that language is shaped through
reinforcement
• Some believe that children acquire vocabulary and
sentence construction mainly through imitation
• Imitation cannot account for patterns of speech such as
telegraphic speech or for systematic errors such as
overregularization
• There are also problems with reinforcement as an
explanation for language acquisition
Language Development
• Theories of language development
– Nativist position
• For the nativist, the only environmental factor that is
required for language development is the presence of
language
• Noam Chomsky
– Maintains that the brain contains a language
acquisition device (LAD), which enables children to
sort the stream of speech they hear in the environment
in ways that allow them to discover grammar rules
– Also suggests that the LAD determines the sequence
of language development
Language Development
• Theories of language development
– Nature and nurture: an interactionist perspective
• The interactionist perspective acknowledges the
importance of both learning and an inborn capacity for
acquiring language
• Reading to children and with them also supports language
development
Language Development
• Learning to read
– Phonological awareness
• Knowledge about a language’s sounds and how they are
represented as letters
• Children who have good phonological awareness skills in
their first language learn to read more easily even if
reading instruction takes place in an entirely new language
• Children seem to learn phonological awareness skills
through word play
• Once children have mastered the basic symbol-sound
decoding process, they become better readers by learning
about root words, suffixes, and prefixes
Socialization of the Child
• Socialization
– The process of learning socially acceptable
behaviors, attitudes, and values
• Culture and child development
– Urie Bronfenbrenner
• Proposes that we think of the environment in which a child
grows up as a system of interactive, layered contexts of
development
• Contexts of development
– Bronfenbrenner’s term for the interrelated settings in
which a child grows up
• At the core of the system are what he calls microsystems,
which include settings in which the child has personal
experience
• The macrosystem includes the larger culture
Socialization of the Child
• Parents’ role in the socialization process
– To be effective, socialization must ultimately
result in children coming to regulate their
own behavior
– Three parenting styles
• Authoritarian
• Authoritative
• Permissive
Socialization of the Child
• Authoritarian parents
– Parents who make arbitrary rules, expect
unquestioned obedience from their children, punish
transgressions, and value obedience to authority
– Preschool children disciplined in this manner to be
withdrawn, anxious, and unhappy
– Parents’ failure to provide a rationale for rules
makes it hard for children to see any reason for
following them
Socialization of the Child
• Authoritative parents
– Parents who set high but realistic standards, reason
with the child, enforce limits, and encourage open
communication and independence
– Knowing why the rules are necessary makes it
easier for children to internalize and follow rules,
whether in the presence of their parents or not
Socialization of the Child
• Permissive parents
– Parents who make few rules or demands and allow
children to make their own decisions and control
their own behavior
– Children raised in this manner are the most
immature and seem to be the least self-controlled
and self-reliant
Socialization of the Child
• Neglecting parents
– Parents who make few rules or demands because
they are not involved in their children’s lives
– Infants of neglecting parents are more likely than
others to be insecurely attached and continue to
experience difficulties in social relationships
throughout childhood and into their adult years
Socialization of the Child
• Peer relationships
– Infants begin to show an interest in each other at a
very young age
– Friendships begin to develop by 3 or 4 years, and
relationships with peers become increasingly
important
– By middle childhood, friendships tend to be based
on mutual trust, and membership in a peer group is
central to a child’s happiness
– The peer group serves a socializing function by
providing models of behavior, dress, and language
Socialization of the Child
• Peer relationships
– Physical attractiveness is a major factor in peer
acceptance even in children as young as 3 to 5
years, although it seems to be more important for
girls than for boys
– Low acceptance by peers is an important predictor
of later mental health problems
– Most often excluded from the peer group are
neglected children, who are shy and withdrawn, and
rejected children, who typically exhibit aggressive
and inappropriate behavior and who are likely to
start fights
Socialization of the Child
• Television as a socializing agent
– Surveys indicate that parents are keenly aware of
the potentially damaging effects of television,
especially violent programs, on their children’s
development
– Literally thousands of studies suggest that TV
violence leads to aggressive behavior in children
and teenagers
– Other studies show that excessive TV viewing is
linked to childhood obesity
Socialization of the Child
• Television as a socializing agent
– The socializing effect of television begins before that
of schools, religious institutions, and peers
– Singer and Singer
• Suggest that such programming can lead to a shortened
attention span
– Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood has been found to
increase prosocial behavior, imaginative play, and
task persistency in preschoolers