CLA Speech Theories

Pre-verbal - (crying  - cooing - babbling)

Holophrastic 

Two Word 

Telegraphic 

Post-telegraphic 

• "All behaviour is a result of the conditioning we have experienced rather than freedom of choice"
• Children learn through imitation
• Operant conditioning - if the child gets positive reinforcement, for example, they will want to speak like that again
• Found through studies on rats and pigeons 

Against

• Negative reinforcement could cause problems as children are more likley to be corrected on the truth value of their utterances rather than the linguistic accuracy, eg restating the whole sentence rather than correcting the one word 
• Imitation - children do not automatically start making SE sentences successfully thorugh imitation; it happens gradually 

• 'LAD' - Language acquisition device -  AGAINST the human brain may be like a blank slate ('tabula rasa', as described as by Greek philosopher Aristotle)
• The human brain has a natural capaility to learn language
• 'Universal grammar' - describes global capacity of children learning languages at a similar rate, in similar ways
• Virtous errors - a child makes errrors in their grammar, inflections and syntax because they are attempting to apply the rules that they recognise from the language around them

Against

• LAD doesn't place importance on the caregivers role in their development of language acquisition

• From 0-13, Genie, a young girl, was locked up by her father and wasn't exposed to any social interaction
• When she was discovered in 1970, she was found to have no speech, and couldn't aquire it despite numerous interventions 
• This is because she had past the critical period (coined by Lenneburg) and so couldn't ever acquire language to a good level

• Language acquisition is part of a child's wider development
• Language comes with understanding - children cannot use a concept they don't understand 

Against

• Some children with cognitive problems still manage to use language successfully beyond their understanding 
• Some children with advanced cognition skills struggle with language learning

• Language has two seperate roles - one for thought, one for communication 
• Language for thought is a helpful tool for developing understanding 
• Language and thought because more related over time 
• Children's developing language might help them grasp concepts as it helps them divide up and categorise in the worlsd around them
• Interaction with caregiver is therefore important (scaffolding) - a 'more knowlagable other' (MKO)

Against 

• Children with cognitive problems still use language beyond their understanding