The usefulness of phonological information for the acquisition of grammatical structure in child language development

During the process of language development, one of the most important tasks that children must face is that of identifying the grammatical category to which words in their language belong. This is essential in order to be able to form grammatically correct utterances. How do children proceed in order to classify words in their language and assign them to their corresponding grammatical category? The present study investigates the usefulness of phonological information for the categorization of nouns in English, given the fact that it is phonology the first source of information that might be available to prelinguistic infants who lack access to semantic information or complex morphosyntactic information. We analyse four different corpora containing linguistic samples of English speaking mothers addressing their children in order to explore the reliability with which words are represented in mothers’ speech based on several phonological criteria. The results of the analysis confirm the prediction that most of the words to which English learning infants are exposed during the first two years of life can be accounted for in terms of their phonological resemblance

The role of epilepsy in early language development in a child with a congenital lesion in the right hemisphere

Early epilepsy is known to worsen the developmental prognosis of young children with a congenital focal brain lesion, but its direct role is often very difficult to delineate from the other variables. This requires prolonged periods of follow-up with simultaneous serial electrophysiological and developmental assessments which are rarely obtained. We studied a male infant with a right prenatal infarct in the territory of the right middle cerebral artery resulting in a left spastic hemiparesis, and an epileptic disorder (infantile spasms with transient right hemihypsarrhythmia and focal seizures) from the age of 7 months until the age of 4 years. Pregnancy and delivery were normal. A dissociated delay of early language acquisition affecting mainly comprehension without any autistic features was documented. This delay was much more severe than usually expected in children with early focal lesions, and its evolution, with catch-up to normal, was correlated with the active phase of the epilepsy. We postulate that the epilepsy specifically amplified a pattern of delayed language emergence, mainly affecting lexical comprehension, reported in children with early right hemisphere damage.

Digital manipulatives as scaffolds for preschoolers’ language development

The study reported here aims at contributing to a deeper understanding of the educational possibilities offered by digital manipulatives in preschool contexts. It presents a study carried with a digital manipulative to enhance the development of lexical knowledge and language awareness, which are relevant language abilities for formal literacy learning. The study took place in a Portuguese preschool, with a class of 20 five-year-olds in collaboration with the teacher. The digital manipulative supported the construction of multiple fictional worlds, motivating children's verbal interactions, and the playing of words and sound games, thus contextualizing the learning of an extensive collection of vocabulary and language awareness abilities. The degree of engagement and involvement that the manipulative provided in supporting children’s imaginative play as well as the imitation, in their own play, of the playful pedagogical interventions that the teacher had designed, shows the importance of well- designed materials that support a child-centered learning model. As such, it sustains a discussion on the potential of digital manipulatives to enhance fundamental language development in the preschool years. Further, the study highlights the importance of multidisciplinary teams in the creation of innovative pedagogical materials.

Promoting mother–infant book sharing and infant attention and language development in an impoverished South African population: a pilot study

The low rates of child literacy in South Africa are cause for considerable concern. Research from the developed world shows that parental sharing of picture books with infants and young children is beneficial for child language and cognitive development, as well as literacy skills. We conducted a pilot study to examine whether such benefits might extend to an impoverished community in South Africa, by evaluating the impact of training mothers in book sharing with their 14–18 month old infants. Seventeen mothers received book sharing training; and 13 mothers did not, but instead received a comparison training in toy play. We assessed the mothers’ behavior during both book sharing and toy play before and after training, and we also assessed infant attention and language. Mothers receiving book sharing training engaged well with it, and they also benefited from it; thus, compared to the comparison group mothers, they became more sensitive, more facilitating, and more elaborative with their infants during book sharing, and they also became more sensitive to their infants during toy play. In addition, infants whose mothers received the book sharing training showed greater benefits than the comparison group infants in both their attention and language. Training in book sharing for families living in conditions of marked socio-economic adversity in South Africa has the potential to be of considerable benefit to child developmental progress. A large scale controlled trial is required to confirm this.

Questionnaire for monitoring auditory and language development in the first year of life

Purpose: To validate a monitoring questionnaire about hearing and language development applied by community health agents in the first year of life. Methods: Seventy six community health agents, previously trained on infant hearing health, administered a questionnaire to the families of 304 children with ages from 0 to 1 year. The questionnaire contains questions regarding hearing and language development and, for all age groups, the question “Does your child hear well?” was presented. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by analyzing false positive and false negative rates of the identified children. A double-blind study was conducted so that all children assessed by the questionnaire were submitted to hearing evaluation performed by audiologists. Results: Four children (1.32%) were diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss (two unilateral), and 69 (22.7%) with conductive hearing loss. The monitoring questionnaire showed specificity of 96% and sensitivity of 67%, with a false-negative rate of 33% for not identifying the unilateral hearing loss, and a false-positive rate of 4%. Conclusion: The questionnaire used has shown to be feasible and relevant to actions of the community health agents of the Family Health Strategy program, with high specificity and moderate sensitivity. The use of the validated instrument should be considered to complement Newborn Hearing Screening Programs, in order to identify late onset or acquired hearing loss.

The (mis) use of telegraphic input in child language intervention. 'El (mal) uso del input telegráfico en la intervención sobre el lenguaje en niños'.

Resumen en español

Child language.

Se describen las principales áreas de análisis lingüístico que participan en el estudio del lenguaje de los niños: desarrollo del vocabulario, palabras y estructuras de oraciones, habilidades de conversación y pronunciación. Contiene, además de la teoría, ejercicios y resúmenes al final de cada unidad y un corpus de palabras infantiles al final del libro.

The handbook of child language.

Primero, se hace una aproximación a distintas teorías y métodos lingüísticos de los últimos treinta años, en los que los investigadores estudian las implicaciones de nuevos modelos, técnicas y de varias disciplinas, psicología, neurociencia cognitiva, inteligencia artificial, filosofía y teoría de la socialización. Después,se ofrece un completo panorama sobre el desarrollo del lenguaje infantil, que abarca todos los aspectos: fonética, fonología, gramática y desarrollo del léxico.

Collaborative learning activities in the classroom : designing inclusive materials for learning and language development.

Este cuadernillo quiere ser un catalizador que motive a los estudiantes a pensar y hablar sobre un tema relevante. Hablar les ofrece la oportunidad de reflexionar, pensar, y expresar con palabras, una nueva forma de aprendizaje y de probar su comprensión de una situación, o en otras palabras 'pensar en voz alta'. Este proceso de reflexión en voz alta permite a los alumnos explorar nuevos conceptos de información y construir su comprensión de ellos, al responder a las preguntas de otros estudiantes y, obtener una respuesta, a su vez, a sus propias ideas.

Sociocultural theory and genesis of second language development.

La teoría sociocultural es una teoría de la evolución de las funciones mentales superiores que tiene sus raíces en la filosofía alemana de los siglos dieciocho y diecinueve. Esta publicación integra la teoría, la investigación y la práctica en el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas extranjeras, desde una perspectiva sociocultural. También describe e ilustra el uso de la teoría como apoyo a las innovaciones conceptuales y prácticas en la educación de segunda lengua.

The Cambridge handbook of child language.

Este manual tiene como objetivo proporcionar una visión general de los actuales enfoques teóricos y de investigación en una amplia gama de temas relacionados con el lenguaje infantil. El campo es multidimensional, como lo demuestran los numerosos cursos sobre el lenguaje infantil o la adquisición del lenguaje que se enseñan en los departamentos de lingüística, psicología, ciencia cognitiva, logopedia, educación y antropología. Está organizado por temas agrupados en cinco bloques temáticos que abarcan tanto las teorías como los métodos en la investigación del lenguaje infantil y siguiendo el desarrollo del lenguaje desde la pre-lingüística de la infancia hasta la adolescencia.