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Development Across the Life Span Tenth Edition Chapter 5 Cognitive Development in Infancy Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Learning Objectives (1 of 2) 5.1 Summarize the fundamental features of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. 5.2 Describe Piaget’s s...
Development Across the Life Span Tenth Edition Chapter 5 Cognitive Development in Infancy Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Learning Objectives (1 of 2) 5.1 Summarize the fundamental features of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. 5.2 Describe Piaget’s sensorimotor stage of cognitive development. 5.3 Summarize the arguments both in support of and critical of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. 5.4 Describe how infants process information according to information processing approaches to cognitive development. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Learning Objectives (2 of 2) 5.5 Describe the memory capabilities of infants during their first two years of life. 5.6 Describe how infant intelligence is measured using information processing approaches. 5.7 Outline the processes by which children learn to use language. 5.8 Outline the major theories of language development. 5.9 Describe how children influence adults’ language. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Cognitive Development in Infancy By interacting with their children, parents influence cognitive development during infancy. Source: Tetatet/Fotolia Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Piaget’s Approach to Cognitive Development Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory The Sensorimotor Period: The Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth Appraising Piaget: Support and Challenges Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory (1 of 2) LO 5.1 Summarize the fundamental features of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Jean Piaget’s theory assumes that all children pass through four universal stages in a fixed order: – Sensorimotor – Preoperational – Concrete operational – Formal operational Some approaches to cognition focus on content. Piaget argued that it was critical to also consider quality. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory (2 of 2) Schema are organized patterns of functioning that adapt and change with mental development. Assimilation is the process by which people understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and way of thinking. Accommodation refers to changes in existing ways of thinking that occur in response to encounters with new stimuli or events. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Sensorimotor Period: The Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth (1 of 4) LO 5.2 Describe Piaget’s sensorimotor stage of cognitive development. Sensorimotor stage: Piaget’s initial major stage of cognitive development, which can be broken down into six substages – The timing of each stage can vary among children. – Development is a gradual and steady shifting. – Infants pass through periods of transition, in which some aspects of their behavior reflect the next stage and others indicate their current stage. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Sensorimotor Period: The Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth (2 of 4) Substage 1: Simple Reflexes Substage 2: First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions Substage 6: Beginnings of Thought Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-1: Cognitive Transitions Infants do not suddenly shift from one stage of cognitive development to the next. Instead, Piaget argued that there is a period of transition in which some behavior reflects one stage, whereas other behavior reflects the more advanced stage. Does this gradualism argue against Piaget’s interpretation of stages? Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 5-1: Piaget’s Six Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage (1 of 3) Substage Substage 1: Simple reflexes Age First month of life Substage 2: First habits and primary circular reactions From 1 to 4 months Description During this period, the various reflexes that determine the infant’s interactions with the world are at the center of their cognitive life. At this age, infants begin to coordinate what were separate actions into single integrated activities. Example The sucking reflex causes the infant to suck at anything placed against their lips. An infant might combine grasping an object with sucking on it or staring at something with touching it. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 5-1: Piaget’s Six Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage (2 of 3) Substage Substage 3: Secondary circular reactions Age From 4 to 8 months Description During this period, infants take major strides in shifting their cognitive horizons beyond themselves and begin to act on the outside world. Substage 4: Coordination of secondary circular reactions From 8 to 12 months In this stage, infants begin to use more calculated approaches to producing events, coordinating several schemas to generate a single act. They achieve object permanence during this stage. Example A child who repeatedly picks up a rattle and shakes it in different ways to see how the sound changes is demonstrating their ability to modify their cognitive scheme about shaking rattles. An infant will push one toy out of the way to reach another toy that is lying, partially exposed, under it. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Sensorimotor Period: The Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth (3 of 4) Object permanence: the realization that people and objects exist even when they cannot be seen – This developmental achievement emerges in Substage 4. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-2: Object Permanence Before an infant has understood the idea of object permanence, they will not search for an object that has been hidden right before their eyes. But several months later, they will search for it, illustrating that they have attained object permanence. Why is the concept of object permanence important? Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 5-1: Piaget’s Six Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage (3 of 3) Substage Substage 5: Tertiary circular reactions Age From 12 to 18 months Substage 6: Beginnings of thought From 18 months to 2 years Description At this age, infants develop what Piaget regards as the deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences. Rather than just repeating enjoyable activities, infants appear to carry out miniature experiments to observe the consequences. The major achievement of Substage 6 is the capacity for mental representation, or symbolic thought. Piaget argued that only at this stage can infants imagine where objects that they cannot see might be. Example A child will drop a toy repeatedly, varying the position from which they drop it, carefully observing each time to see where it falls. Children can plot in their heads unseen trajectories of objects, so that if a ball rolls under a piece of furniture, they can figure out where it is likely to emerge on the other side. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Sensorimotor Period: The Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth (4 of 4) Some developments in Substage 6 include mental representation and deferred imitation. Mental representation: an internal image of a past event or object. Deferred imitation: an act in which a person who is no longer present is imitated by children who have witnessed a similar act. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Appraising Piaget: Support and Challenges (1 of 2) LO 5.3 Summarize the arguments both in support of and critical of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Support for Piaget’s theory includes: – His descriptions of child cognitive development are accurate in many ways. – Thousands of studies support the view that children learn by acting on objects in their environment. – The broad outlines of a sequence of cognitive development and increasing cognitive accomplishments are generally accurate. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Appraising Piaget: Support and Challenges (2 of 2) Challenges to Piaget’s theory include: – Development proceeds in a much more continuous fashion than in stages. – Piaget’s connection between motor development and cognitive development is exaggerated. – Object permanence can occur much earlier under certain conditions. – The age of imitation can be much younger. – Variations for children in non-Western cultures are not considered. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Information Processing Approaches to Cognitive Development The Foundations of Information Processing Memory During Infancy: They Must Remember This... Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter than Another? Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Foundations of Information Processing (1 of 3) LO 5.4 Describe how infants process information according to information processing approaches to cognitive development. Information processing approaches: the model that seeks to identify the way that individuals take in, use, and store information. – The quantitative changes in infants’ abilities to organize and manipulate information represent the hallmarks of cognitive development. – Cognitive growth is characterized by increasing sophistication, speed, and capacity in processing information. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Foundations of Information Processing (2 of 3) Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval Encoding is the process by which information is initially recorded in a form usable to memory. Storage is the placement of information into memory. Retrieval is the process by which material in memory storage is located, brought into awareness, and used. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-3: Information Processing The process by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Foundations of Information Processing (3 of 3) Automatization Automatization is the degree to which an activity requires attention. – It aids children in processing information in their initial encounters with the world. Some things learned automatically are unexpectedly complex. – Infants have the ability to learn subtle statistical patterns and relationships. – Mathematical skills of infants are surprisingly good. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory During Infancy: They Must Remember This... (1 of 4) LO 5.5 Describe the memory capabilities of infants during their first two years of life. Memory Capabilities in Infancy Memory is the process by which information is initially recorded, stored, and retrieved. – Kicking research demonstrates increase in memory capacities with age. – Infants who learned the association between a moving mobile and kicking showed surprising recall ability when they were exposed to a reminder. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory During Infancy: They Must Remember This... (2 of 4) The Duration of Memories Researchers disagree on the age from which memories can be retrieved. Infantile amnesia: the lack of memory for experiences that occurred prior to 3 years of age The physical trace of a memory in the brain appears to be relatively permanent. Language plays a key role in determining the way in which memories from early in life can be recalled. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory During Infancy: They Must Remember This... (3 of 4) The Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Two separate systems are involved with long-term memory: – Explicit memory is conscious and can be recalled intentionally. – Implicit memory consists of memories of which we are not consciously aware but that affect performance and behavior. Explicit and implicit memories emerge at different rates and involve different parts of the brain. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory During Infancy: They Must Remember This... (4 of 4) The Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory (continued) The earliest memories seem to be implicit, and they involve the cerebellum and brain stem. The forerunner of explicit memory involves the hippocampus, but true explicit memory does not emerge until the second half of the first year. When explicit memory does emerge, it involves an increasing number of areas of the cortex of the brain. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter than Another? (1 of 5) LO 5.6 Describe how infant intelligence is measured using information processing approaches. What Is Infant Intelligence? Experts on development have yet to agree on a general definition of intelligent behavior. It is even more difficult to define and measure intelligence in infants than it is in adults. Developmental specialists have devised several approaches to study this question. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 5-2: Approaches Used to Detect Differences in Intelligence During Infancy Developmental quotient Formulated by Arnold Gesell, the developmental quotient is an overall development score that relates to performance in four domains: motor skills (balance and sitting), language use, adaptive behavior (alertness and exploration), and personal–social behavior. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Developed by Nancy Bayley, the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development evaluate an infant’s development from 2 to 42 months. The Bayley Scales focus on two areas: mental abilities (senses, perception, memory, learning, problem solving, and language) and motor abilities (fine and gross motor skills). Visual-recognition memory measurement Measures of visual-recognition memory, the memory and recognition of a stimulus that has been previously seen, also relate to intelligence. The more quickly an infant can retrieve a representation of a stimulus from memory, the more efficient, presumably, is that infant’s information processing. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter than Another? (2 of 5) Developmental Scales Developmental quotient: an overall developmental score that relates to performance in four domains: motor skills, language use, adaptive behavior, and personalsocial behavior Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development: a measure that evaluates an infant’s development from 2 to 42 months in two areas: mental abilities and motor abilities Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 5-3: Sample Items from the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Age 2 months 6 months 12 months 17–19 months 23–25 months 38–42 months Mental Turns head to locate origin of scale Picks up cup by handle; notices illustrations in a book Constructs tower of two cubes; can turn pages in a book Mimics crayon stroke; labels objects in photo Pairs up pictures; repeats a twoword sentence Can identify four colors; past tense evident in speech; distinguishes males from females Can hold head steady and erect for 15 seconds; sits with assistance Sits up without aid for 30 seconds; grasps foot with hands Walks when holding onto someone’s hand or furniture; holds pencil in fist Stands on right foot without help; remains upright climbing stairs with assistance Strings three beads; jumps length of four inches Can reproduce drawing of a circle; hops two times on one foot; descends stairs, alternating feet sound; visibly responds to disappearance of face Motor scale Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter than Another? (3 of 5) Information Processing Approaches to Individual Differences in Intelligence Habituation tests are used to measure how quickly an infant processes information. Measures of visual-recognition memory, attention, and representational competence also relate to IQ. Research clearly suggests a relationship between information processing efficiency and cognitive abilities. Abilities related to the multimodal approach to perception may offer clues about later intelligence. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter than Another? (4 of 5) Information Processing Approaches to Individual Differences in Intelligence (continued) Cross-modal transference is the ability to identify a stimulus previously experienced through only one sense by using another sense. The correlation between early information processing capabilities and later IQ measures is only moderately strong. Predicting that a child may do well on IQ tests later in life is not the same as predicting that a child will be successful. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Development in Your Life What Can You Do to Promote Infants’ Cognitive Development? Provide infants the opportunity to explore the world. Be responsive to infants on both a verbal and a nonverbal level. Talk to infants. Read to infants. Keep in mind that you don’t have to be with an infant 24 hours a day. Don’t push infants, and don’t expect too much too soon. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter than Another? (5 of 5) Assessing Information Processing Approaches They look at quantitative changes rather than qualitative changes, as Piaget’s theory does. They see more gradual growth rather than spurts. They can often use more precise measures of ability. They don’t give an overall sense of development like Piaget’s theory does. They focus on individual pieces of the puzzle of cognitive development; Piagetian approaches focus on the whole puzzle. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Roots of Language The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols The Origins of Language Development Speaking to Children: The Language of InfantDirected and Gender-Related Speech Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols (1 of 6) LO 5.7 Outline the processes by which children learn to use language. Language is the systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols that provides the basis for communication. – Phonology: the basic sounds of language (phonemes) that can be combined to produce words and sentences – Morpheme: the smallest language unit that has meaning – Semantics: the rules that govern the meaning of words and sentences Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols (2 of 6) Linguistic comprehension is the understanding of speech. Linguistic production is the use of language to communicate. Comprehension precedes production. Throughout infancy, comprehension also outpaces production. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-4: Comprehension Precedes Production Throughout infancy, the comprehension of speech precedes the production of speech. Choose one vocalization/ speech skill and compare it to a corresponding language comprehension skill. Which skills emerge first and what is the length of time between the emergence of both skills? How might one skill rely on the other? (Source: Based on Bornstein & Lamb, 1992.) Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Video: Crash Course Psychology: Infant Language Click on the screenshot to view this video. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols (3 of 6) Early Sounds and Communication Prelinguistic communication is communication through sounds, facial expressions, gestures, imitation, and other nonlinguistic means. Babbling: making speech-like but meaningless sounds Infants who cannot hear have their own form of babbling. Exposure to sounds of a particular language initially does not influence babbling but later makes a difference. Combinations of sounds and gestures are used to communicate. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-5: Broca’s Area Areas of the brain that are activated during speech, left, are similar to areas activated during the production of hand gestures, right. Source: SPL/Science Source Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols (4 of 6) First Words Once an infant starts to produce words, vocabulary increases at a rapid rate. – 9 to 14 months: first words – 15 months: 10 words – 18 months: one-word stage ends – 16 to 24 months: language explosion, vocabulary increases from 50 to 400 words Holophrases: one-word utterances that stand for a whole phrase, whose meaning depends on the particular context in which they are used Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-6: The Top 50: The First Words Children Understand and Speak (Source: Based on Benedict, 1979.) Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Developmental Diversity and Your Life 1 First Words Across the World The culture and language to which infants are exposed affect their first words. There are both commonalities and differences. In one study, the first 10 words of English-speaking infants included 3 people-related and 4 animal related terms; infants who spoke Cantonese and Putonghua used 8 and 9 people-related terms and no animal terms. North American English-speaking infants are more apt to use nouns initially; Chinese Mandarin-speaking infants use more verbs than nouns. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols (5 of 6) First Sentences Two-word phrases are typically created around 8 to 12 months after a child’s first word. These phrases indicate understanding of labels and the relationships between labels. They are often observations rather than demands. They tend to use a word order similar to adult speech but with words missing. – Telegraphic speech: speech in which words not critical to the message are left out Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 5-4: Children’s Imitation of Sentences Showing Decline of Telegraphic Speech Sample Sentences I put on my shoes I put on my shoes I will not go to bed I will not go to bed I want to ride the pony I want to ride the pony Speaker 26 months 29 months 32 months 35 months Kim Shoes My shoes I put on shoes Accurate Darden Shoes on My shoes on Put on shoes Put on my shoes Kim No bed Not go bed I not go bed I not go to bed Darden Not go bed I not go bed I not go to bed Kim Pony, pony Darden Want pony Want ride pony I want pony I want ride pony I want the pony I will not go bed I want to ride pony Accurate Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols (6 of 6) First Sentences (continued) Underextension: the overly restrictive use of words, common among children just mastering spoken language Overextension: the overly broad use of words, overgeneralizing their meaning Referential style: language is used primarily to label objects Expressive style: language is used primarily to express feelings and needs about oneself and others Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Origins of Language Development (1 of 4) LO 5.8 Outline the major theories of language development. Learning Theory Approaches: Language As a Learned Skill Learning theory approach to language: the theory that language acquisition follows the basic laws of reinforcement and conditioning – Through the process of shaping, language becomes more and more similar to adult speech. This approach does not adequately explain how children readily learn the rules of language, how they produce novel language, or how they apply linguistic rules to nonsense words. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Shaping Speaking Abilities In what ways do parents shape their children’s speaking abilities? Source: Jin Yong/Shutterstock Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Origins of Language Development (2 of 4) Nativist Approaches: Language As an Innate Skill Nativist approach to language: the theory that a genetically determined, innate mechanism directs language development; championed by Noam Chomsky Universal grammar: Chomsky’s theory that all the world’s languages share a similar underlying structure Language-acquisition device (LAD): a neural system of the brain hypothesized to permit understanding of language Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Origins of Language Development (3 of 4) Nativist Approaches: Language As an Innate Skill (continued) Some research supports the nativist approach. – A specific gene related to speech production has been identified. – Language processing in infants involves brain structures similar to those in adult speech processing, suggesting an evolutionary basis. The approach also has critics. – The uniqueness of speech to humans has been countered by primate research. – Even with genetic priming, language use requires significant social experience to be used effectively. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Origins of Language Development (4 of 4) The Interactionist Approach The interactionist approach to language suggests that language development is produced through a combination of genetically determined predispositions and environmental circumstances that help teach language. The specific course of language development is determined by the language to which children are exposed and the reinforcement they receive for using language in particular ways. Social factors are key to development. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Speaking to Children: The Language of InfantDirected and Gender-Related Speech (1 of 3) LO 5.9 Describe how children influence adults’ language. Infant-Directed Speech Infant-directed speech: a type of speech directed toward infants, characterized by short, simple sentences Pitch is higher, range is increased, and intonation varies. Words are repeated and topics are restricted. It may include amusing sounds that are not even words. It has little formal structure and is similar to telegraphic speech. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Infant-Directed Speech Infant-directed speech includes the use of short, simple sentences and is spoken in a pitch that is higher than that used with older children and adults, and it is similar across cultures. Sources: Zurijeta/Shutterstock (left); Earl & Nazima Kowall/Getty Images (right) Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Developmental Diversity and Your Life 2 Is Infant-Directed Speech Similar in All Cultures? There are basic similarities across cultures. Some similarities between speakers of English and Spanish include exaggerated intonation, high pitch, lengthened vowels, repetition, lower volume, and heavy stress on certain words. Parents with hearing loss use sign language at a slower tempo. Similarities may exist because characteristics of infantdirected speech may activate an infant’s innate responses or facilitate language development. There are some differences in the quantity of speech. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Speaking to Children: The Language of InfantDirected and Gender-Related Speech (2 of 3) Infant-Directed Speech (continued) Around the end of the first year, infant-directed speech takes on more adult qualities. – Sentences become longer and more complex. – Pitch is used to focus attention on important words. It plays an important role in the acquisition of language. – Newborns prefer it and learn more from it. – Babies who are exposed to infant-directed speech early in life seem to begin to use words and exhibit other forms of linguistic competence earlier. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Speaking to Children: The Language of InfantDirected and Gender-Related Speech (3 of 3) Gender Differences Research shows that parents use different language depending on the child’s sex. By the age of 32 months, female children hear twice as many diminutives as males hear. Female children hear more diversionary responses and warm phrases. Male children hear more firm, clear, and direct responses. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5-7: Diminishing Diminutives Although the use of diminutives toward both male and female infants declines with age, they are consistently used more often in speech directed at females. What do you think is the cultural significance of this difference? (Source: Gleason et al., 1991.) Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. From Research to Practice Can Infants Learn Language from Overheard Speech? In cultures where babies are exposed to a lot of infantdirected speech, it has been shown to facilitate language learning. In cultures where babies are exposed to more overheard speech than infant-directed speech, language milestones are still met within typical age ranges. Research concludes that babies are indeed capable of learning language from overheard speech. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright This work is protected by United States copyright laws and is provided solely for the use of instructors in teaching their courses and assessing student learning. Dissemination or sale of any part of this work (including on the World Wide Web) will destroy the integrity of the work and is not permitted. The work and materials from it should never be made available to students except by instructors using the accompanying text in their classes. All recipients of this work are expected to abide by these restrictions and to honor the intended pedagogical purposes and the needs of other instructors who rely on these materials. Copyright © 2023, 2020, 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
