Definitions

• Behaviorists


  Language is developed through imitating others' language by gaining positive and negative feedback from adults
• Social interactionists


  Children's early language is influenced and improved by adult / carer adjusting their own speech patterns
• Nativists


  Language is innate; believe humans are "programmed" to acquire it
• Cognitive theorist


  Language will grow when child's idea of the world will develop
• Proximal development


  Area between what child can already do and that which is beyond their reach
• Object permanence 


  Ability to understand that an object still exists although it is no longer in sight
• Lexical development


  A child's acquisition of words
• Semantic acquisition


  Child's acquisition of meanings associated with words