Developmental LD

Terminology

• psycholinguists distinguish between five kinds of linguistic knowledge 
• > phonology
• > morphology
• > semantics
• > syntax
• > pragmatics

So:

• children need to:
• > learn to discriminate and produce language sounds
• > combine these appropriately
• > understand that words convey meaning
• > use rules for combining words into meaningful phrases
• > figure out how to communicate effectively

Stages of language development 

• pre linguisttic stage: 0-12 months
• one word stage: 12-18 months
• telegraphic speech: 18-24 months
• nursery/preschool developments: 24 months-5 years
• school age developments: 5 years+

Prelinguistic period

• 3 days old: prefer mothers' voice
• first month: prefer native language
• in 2 months: recognise some phonemes if spoken by different people
• early: discriminate non-native phonemes, this disappears with exposure to one language
• infants respond to/repeat intonational cues

Prelinguistic vocalisations

• cooing at 2 months
• babbling at 4-6 months
• canonical babbling at 6-10 months
• modulated babbling at 10-12 months
• up to 6 months: deaf and hearing infants sound alike

End of year one

• turn taking when vocalising: approx. 8 months
• 8-10 months: manual and facial gestures
• > imperative (demands) and declarative (showing)
• > these persist after starting to talk
• comprehension (receptive language) develops before speech (productive language)
• > this also persists, 12-17 months can understand many words that they can't yet produce

One word stage

• babies use single words (holophrases), where adults use sentences
• …