Psychology of Language Development
Language development is the process of learning how to vocalize and associate meaning with speech. Babies begin developing language by exploring the wonders of the vocal cords and the ways that the sounds help foster communication. Children learn relatively quickly that a specific sound or set of sounds is an effective method of obtaining a desired object. As the meaning of language develops, children also begin to learn the rules of speech. Children who have not yet mastered this pragmatics stage are easy to spot due to their uninhibited speech. Blatantly rude but truthful phrases said without consequence often happen, since children learning pragmatics are unaware of the social rules that exist to prevent such occurrences from happening.
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Babbling
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The first stages of language begin in infancy with babbling. Babbling is the baby talk that emerges when an infant begins to experiment with his or her vocal abilities. Although babbling often seems to have meaning to it, researchers are unsure of its exact purpose. A study published in 1989 in First Language notes this fact. It is also widely believed that infants understand more than they can speak.
Mimicry
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After the babbling phase ends, toddlers begin to speak by mimicking the sounds they hear around them. Parents often foster this learning by providing consistent examples of words and sounds they want the child to repeat. Children learn that repeating the word is a method of communicating wants and needs, even if a full understanding of the meaning of the word is lacking. Due to this fact, the first meanings learned are typically labels.
Semantics
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As speech begins to acquire, children start to pick up meanings associated with the sounds they use. Pairing sounds with the appropriate object helps to reinforce the meaning and teach a child that each individual request sounds differently. Reinforcement also works to speed up this stage of development. By receiving praise for correct words and no response for incorrect requests, children will start to pick up meanings at an unbelievable rate.
Pragmatics
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The rules and social uses of speech, or its pragmatics, starts to play an important role after children begin to recognize that meanings exist with language. Conversational skills are an important part of this stage of language development, as all kids must learn how to speak appropriately to another human being. Pragmatics is also the part of language that teaches the purpose or rules of language in a specific situation, such as a request, simple greeting or inquiry.
Grammar
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Learning grammar is the most difficult stage of language development. Proper use of words and sentence structure comes after acquiring the basic rules of language through time and experience. Both informal and formal methods teach grammar, typically extending beyond the basic sentence structures learned at an early age.
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