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Development in
the Young Child
Kelly Simmons
June 10, 2013
CFS 235
Introduction
Newborns know more than most give them
credit for. They have the ability to recognize
faces, smells, and voices within a few days of
being born. Scientists, like Alison Gopnik, learn
as much about the development of a child by
looking in the crib and the nursery as by
looking in the petri dish or the telescope.
(Gopnik, 2001) Alison Gopnik and her colleagues
discovered new theories about speech
development among other ground breaking
ideas in the development of the young child.
Definition of Speech
Speech Development
3 months
cooing
6-12 months
babbling, organized
sounds
12 months
sounds to words
18-24 months putting words together
(Robinson, 2008)
Historical Background
Vygotsky believed language was the most significant
cognitive tool passed down through the generations
and without language a child can not develop selfawareness. (Miller, 2013)
Chomsky described how we combine words to make
sentences, known as modern linguistics, as an implicit
set of rules that allows us to transform the sequence of
sounds we hear into sequences of ideas. (Gopnik,
2001)
Gopnik said understanding language is like cracking a
deeply encrypted code. We crack this code effortlessly,
at an age we cant even remember, and we use it
effortlessly as adults.(Gopnik, 2001)
Alison Gopnik
(Gopnik, n.d.)
Alison Gopnik is a
Professor of Psychology
and an affiliate Professor of
Philosophy at the
University of California
Berkley. Alison received her
BA from McGill University
and her PhD from Oxford
University. She has
authored over 100 journal
articles and several books.
Alison has three sons and
lives with her husband in
Berkley, California.
(Gopnik, n.d.
(clipart)
(Narang, 2007)
Discriminating Sounds
Very young babies are able to discriminate
the sounds of every language. This includes
languages they had never heard before. The
gender or tone of the voice doesnt matter,
they did just as well. By one year of age this
changes. The babies speech categories
begin to resemble those of the adults in
their culture. (Gopnik, 2001)
(Liautaud, 2013)
(Baby Club,
n.d.)
First Words
A babies first words are produced from the
consonant-vowel combinations when a baby
babbles, mama and dada. It isnt clear if
babies are saying this referring to their mom
or dad or if this is just a natural progression
from babbling. Researchers watching video
tapes of babies talking discovered they said
many words their parents hadnt noticed, like
gone, there, uh-oh, more, and
whats that?. (Gopnik, 2001)
(Playin
g
Chang with a Baby
e a Dia
a
per, 20 nd not Havin
09)
g to
Motherese
Motherese refers to the manner in which a
person talks to babies. It is also called
Infant Directed Speech. People talk to
babies in a higher pitch, use exaggerated
vowels, and short repetitious phrases.
Babies love Motherese and prefer to listen
to it over a normal adult speaking, even if
they are talking in a different language than
their own. (Robinson, 2008)
Recommendations from
Study
Gopniks studies brought to light how
infants know more than ever thought
before. Research with newborn infants can
help scientist learn more about the
developing child and how the brain adapts
to sounds it hears. Gopniks studies show a
need for more research with infants in other
areas of development.
(Gopnik, n.d.)
Conclusion
Speech development begins at birth. Infants
learn how to make sounds by watching the
faces and mouths of adults and listening to
them speak. Speech development is an
amazing process which begins before most
parents and scientists realized. Alison
Gopnik has made significant contributions in
her studies of cognitive development in the
infant and young child.
Bibliography
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