PATLAL

• Milestones of first language development


  • Birth to 5 months
  • 6 to 11 months
  • 12 to 17 months
  • 18 to 23 months
  • 2 to 3 years
  • 3 to 4 years
  • 4 to 5 years
• Birth to 5 months


  1. Coos

  2. Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds differently (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)

  3. Makes noise when talked to
• 6 to 11 months


  1. Understands "no-no"

  2. Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba")

  3. Says "ma-ma" or "da-da" without meaning

  4. Tries to communicate by actions or gestures

  5. Tries to repeat your sounds

  6. Says first word

  7. Imitate your gestures when you sing songs and respond when their name is called
• 12 to 17 months


  1. Answers simple questions nonverbally

  2. Says 2 to 3 words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)

  3. Tries to imitate simple words

  4. Vocabulary of 4 to 6 words
• One year olds who are showing the 8-12 month pre-speech communication behaviors above but not talking yet may simply be "late talkers" who are typical in every other way
• 18 to 23 months


  1. Vocabulary of 50 words, pronunciation is often unclear

  2. Asks for common foods by name

  3. Makes animal sounds, such as "moo"

  4. Starting to combine words, such as "more milk"

  5. Begins to use pronouns, such as "mine"

  6. Uses 2-word phrases
• 2 to 3 years


  1. Knows some spatial concepts, such as "in" or "on"

  2. Knows pronouns, such as "you," "me" or "her"

  3. Knows descriptive words, such as "big" or "happy"

  4. Uses 3-word sentences

  5. Speech is becoming more accurate, but may still leave off ending sound

  6. Strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said
• 2 to 3 years


  • Phonological progress, pronunciation differences occur
  • Syntax progress, sentence structure changes
  • Morphology progress, children learn word classes and different word form
• 2 to 3 years


  1. Answers simple questions

  2. Begins to use more pronouns, such as "you" or "I"

  3. Uses question inflection to ask for something, such as "my ball?"

  4. Begins to use plurals, such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs, such as "jumped"

  5. Use mostly full sentences, use language for both conversation and play, and can be understood most of the time by family members and others
• 3 to 4 years


  1. Groups objects, such as foods or clothes

  2. Identifies colors

  3. Uses most speech sounds, but may distort some of the more difficult sounds, such as I, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th. These sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8

  4. Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words. Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them

  5. Strangers are able to understand much of what is said
• 3 to 4 years


  1. Able to describe the use of objects, such as "fork" or "car"

  2. Has fun with language; enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities, such as, "Is that an elephant on your head?"

  3. Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her

  4. Uses verbs that end in "ing," such as "walking" or "talking"

  5. Answers simple questions, such as "What do you do when you are hungry?"

  6. Repeats sentences
• 4 to 5 years

  1. Understands spatial concepts, such as "behind" or "next to"

  2. Understands complex questions

  3. Speech is understandable, but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult or complex words, such as "hippopotamus"

  4. Uses some irregular past tense verbs, such as "ran" or "fell"

  5. Describes how to do things, such as painting a picture

  6. Lists items that belong in a category, such as animals or vehicles

  7. Answers "why" questions
• 4 to 5 years


  • Make a few speech errors but are understood almost all the time by almost everyone
  • They produce full sentences most of the time with few errors or missing words
  • They can tell stories, carry on a conversation over several turns with an adult, use language to set up play with peers and enjoy using language to pretend
• 5 years


  1. Understands time sequences

  2. Carries out a series of 3 directions

  3. Understands rhyming

  4. Engages in conversation

  5. Sentences can be 8 or more words in length

  6. Uses compound and complex sentences

  7. Describes objects

  8. Uses imagination to create stories
• Morphology


  The branch of grammar devoted to the study of the structure or forms of words, primarily through the use of the morpheme construct
• Syntax


  The study the rules governing the combination of words to form sentences
• Morpheme


  A unit of meaning. It does not necessarily relate to the "word count" or "syllable count" of an utterance
• Stage I Sentence


  1. Operations of Reference

  2. Nomination

  3. Recurrence

  4. Communicative Intent

  5. Negation-denial

  6. Negation - rejection

  7. Negation - non-existence

  8. Semantic Relations Examples
• Roger Brown was an eminent social psychologist, best known for his studies in early linguistic development of children
• In his stages he describes five stages of child language acquisition, based on the mean length in utterances (MLU), which is the number of morphemes (smallest unit of meaning) toddlers can produce
• Stage 1


  1. From 12 months of age to 26 months, children will be able to connect a subject with a verb and a action with an object, for example, 'dad walk or give juice'

  2. At this age the child is also able to name a series of objects with out connectors

  3. From 22 months of age to 26 months, children can complete subject-verb-object sentences, they are also able to use the present progressive -ing to say 'mam cooking'

  4. Prepositions in and on can also appear in the child's speech
• Stage 2


  1. Between 27 and 30 months of age, children learn how to use gonna, wanna and other embedding

  2. Words such as don't and can't start appearing in negative sentences

  3. Children would have fully learned how to use in and on in sentences, while during this stage they will start learning how to use regular plurals, as well as irregular past, such as fell and ran
• Stage 3


  1. Between the age of 31 and 34 months, children will start using the auxiliary verbs both in declarative and interrogative questions

  2. Children will start using conjunctions such as if, so, or and but

  3. Possessives, articles and regular past should have been used regularly by this stage
• Language development stages


  1. Stage 1 (22-26 months): Connect subject-verb-object, use present progressive, learn prepositions in/on

  2. Stage 2 (27-30 months): Learn gonna/wanna, use negatives, learn regular plurals and irregular past

  3. Stage 3 (31-34 months): Use auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, possessives, articles, regular past

  4. Stage 4 (35-40 months): Use double auxiliary verbs, negative sentences, yes/no questions

  5. Stage 5 (41-46 months): Use indirect object, tag questions, relative clauses, regular/irregular third person
• Specialization of the brain for language


  • Specific areas of the brain involved in language processing
  • Allows communication and understanding of spoken/written words
  • Main regions are Broca's area and Wernicke's area in the left hemisphere
• Broca's area


  Located in the frontal lobe, involved in language production and speech
• Wernicke's area


  Located in the temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension
• Broca's area and Wernicke's area

  Work together with other brain areas to support various aspects of language
• Arcuate fasciculus


  Neural pathway connecting Broca's area and Wernicke's area
• Auditory cortex


  • Processes and analyzes sound, helps with sound perception, localization, and auditory memory
• Motor cortex


  • Primary motor cortex executes voluntary movements, supplementary motor area plans and coordinates complex movements
• The FOXP2 gene is crucial for language development, and mutations can lead to language disorders
• Genetics and environment both influence language acquisition and specialization
• Cognitive functions supported by language specialization

  • Reading and writing, problem-solving, memory and learning
• Aphasia


  Impairment of language caused by brain damage
• Types of aphasia


  • Broca's aphasia (difficulty speaking fluently)
  • Wernicke's aphasia (difficulty understanding spoken language)
  • Anomic aphasia (difficulty naming things)
• The ability to use two languages.

  Bilingualism
• The application of using two languages.

  Code-switching
• Using the borrowed language in a context.

  Borrowing of Folk etymology
• Types of Language Borrowing

  Established and Nonces Borrowing