TC Developmental
Psychology
Chapter 09 – Language & Communication
A) Language
1)
Language … a small number of
individually meaningless symbols (sounds,
letters, gestures) that can be combined according to agreed upon rules to produce an infinite
number of messages.
2)
Five Components of Language:
a)
Phonology
= the basic units of sounds.
Example:
“t” sound, “h” sound, and then “th”
sound.
b)
Morphology
= the rules governing the formation of meaningful words from sounds.
Example:
“ed” changes to past tense (walk/walked)
c)
Semantics
= the meanings expressed in words and sentences.
Example: adding “s” changes to plural (pen/pens)
d)
Syntax
= the rules that specify how words are to be combined to form meaningful
phrases and sentences.
Example: Bill Sam killed (ok in French, not English)
Sam killed Bill
Bill killed Sam
e)
Pragmatics
= the principles that underlie the effective and appropriate use of language in
social contexts.
Example: “Gimme a cookie” vs. “May I have a cookie”
f)
The
task of becoming an effective communicator includes not only being
knowledgeable of these 5 components of language, but also an ability to
properly interpret and use para-verbal (rate of speech, tonal
inflection, etc) and non-verbal (facial expressions, gestures, etc)
communication patterns.
1)
Theories
of Language Development
a)
The Learning
Perspective (Empiricist): imitation and reinforcement (or correction) leads to
language development in children.
b)
The Nativist
Perspective (Biological): humans are biologically programmed to acquire
language.
1-
Some
suggest a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
2-
Others,
a Language-Making Capacity (LMC)
c)
The Interactionist
Perspective:
language development results from a complex interplay among biological
maturation, cognitive development, and an ever changing linguistic environment
that is heavily influenced by the child’s attempts to communicate with his/her
companions.
1-
Have
students line up in birth order (no speech or writing allowed).
2-
Read
the “Focus on Research box, P. 336.
2)
Stages
of Language Development
a)
The
Pre-Linguistic Period (first 10-13 months)
1-
Newborns
seem programmed to “tune in” to human speech – open eyes, gaze at speaker, make
sounds.
2-
Crying
is communication (different types).
3-
At
2 months: cooing (vowels: ahhhh, ooooooh).
4-
At
4-6 months: babbling (consonants added: mama).
b)
The
Holophrase Period = one word at a time.
c)
The
Telegraphic Period = one word > simple sentences.
d)
The
Preschool Period (2.5-5 years) = complex sentences.
e)
The
Middle Childhood & Adolescence Period
1-
Syntactic
development and refinement.
2-
Semantic
integrations (understands inference).
3-
Awareness
that language is arbitrary and rule bound.
4-
Vocabulary
grows: age 6 = approx. 10,000 words; age 10 = approx. 40,000 words.
3)
Bilingualism
a)
Most
American children speak only English.
b)
In
most other countries children tend to be bilingual.
c)
Approx.
11 million American school children speak a language other than English at
home.
d)
Children
exposed to two languages before age 3 had little difficulty in becoming
proficient in both.
6) Show Video: The Human Spark: Brain Matters (on blog).
TC Developmental
Psychology
Chapter 10 – Emotional Development
A) Emotions
1)
Do babies have feelings? Do they experience the spectrum of human emotions?
2)
Sequences of emotions in infant development (Table 10:1), P.373
3)
Each society has a set of emotional display
rules.
a)
Thus children learn emotional
self-regulation (this continues through adolescence).
4)
Social Referencing = the infants
ability to recognize and interpret particular emotional expressions (becomes
more obvious between 7-10 months).
a)
Conversations about emotions and what is making one feel a certain way (ages 18-24 months)
helps contribute to empathy.
b)
Emotional competence is crucial to
children’s social competence. It has three
components:
1-
competent emotional expressivity (more pos, less neg emotions are expressed)
2-
competent emotional knowledge (the ability to correctly identify other people’s feelings
and the factors responsible for those emotions).
3-
competent emotional regulation (the ability to adjust ones
experience and expression of emotional arousal).
c)
Discuss Borderline Personality & Autism Spectrum herein.
5)
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) … involves perceiving emotions, facilitating thinking, understanding
emotions, and managing emotions.
6)
Temperament = a person’s characteristic modes of responding emotionally and behaviorally to environmental
events.
a)
Concept goes back to the Greeks (Show humorous Temperaments video clip)
b)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
c)
The six dimensions of infant temperament, P.382
d)
Heredity, environmental, and cultural (shy in USA vs. Asia) influences apply.
B) Attachment
1)
Defined: Attachment is the strong affectional ties that we feel with the
people that are special in our lives (Bowlby, 1969).
a)
Bowlby stressed that parent-infant attachments are reciprocal relationships. Infants become
attached to parent and parent becomes attached to infant.
2)
Animals attach via imprinting (immediately after birth and it’s irreversible).
a)
Movie: Fly Away Home (1996)
b)
Book: Are You My Mother (Dr. Seuss)
c)
Golden retriever adopts abandoned tiger cubs at zoo
3)
Humans don’t imprint, but do attach. Human attachment:
a)
There appears to certain attributes that contribute to them maintaining contact with others and elicit
care giving.
1-
Kewpie doll effect: cute round faces
2-
Inborn reflex responses (rooting, sucking, grasping) are
endearing – makes us think they want us.
3-
Smiling
and cooing is a strong reinforcer.
b) Human attachment
is not automatic and immediate.
c)
Attachment-related fears:
1-
Stranger Anxiety
2-
Separation Anxiety
4)
Assessing attachment security … P.396
a)
Secure Attachment (65% of 1 year olds)
b)
Resistant Attachment (10% of 1 year olds)
c)
Avoidant Attachment (20% of 1 year olds)
d)
Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment (5% of 1 year olds)
5)
Characteristics that leads to secure attachment (Table 10.3), P.400
6)
Show Attachment Video Clip
