an onomatopoeic toddler and individual differences

[imoreno at uma.es]

Hello,
fascinating emails!!!

Bruno mentions variation in the order of acquisition.  Maybe
we could add differences between linguistic domains
(i.e. grammar, lexicon, phonology...)?

This form of variation occurs in delayed language acquisition.
For instance, in deaf children with cochear implants
grammar development seems to go well behind lexical development.

But, does it occur in some typically development children?
How much variation is "normal"? I'd appreciate any
references about this topic.

Thanks in advance!
Ignacio Moreno-Torres
Universidad de Málaga
Spain


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruno Estigarribia" <aananda at stanford.edu>
To: <Info-childes at mail.talkbank.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:56 PM
Subject: an onomatopoeic toddler and individual differences


>
>
> Margaret M. Fleck wrote:
>> Nelson, Katherine wrote:
>>>   ....  However, individual differences and idiosyncratic approaches
>>> to learning to talk are far more prevalent than the current
>>> literature would lead you to believe, and most children settle on
>>> conventional sounds as well as meanings during the third year.
>> On the one hand, I'm not sure anyone really believes stories about the
>> extent of the differences until they
>> actually have personal experience of a kid talking in full sentences
>> at two years and a comparable kid who is nearly mute at the same age.
>> To put this in perspective, however, there's about a 6-month spread in
>> when fairly normal kids learn to walk.  Probably a wider spread in
>> when they learn how to come down a ladder.   And a multi-year spread
>> in potty training
>> and learning standard preschool manual coordination tasks, e.g.
>> holding a pencil effectively, cutting food with a
>> knife and fork.   For the non-language tasks, there seem to be
>> differences in inherent ability and also differences
>> in what the kid feels inclined to put effort into.
> And the difference is not only regarding timing. Paths of acquisition
> vary enormously as well as soon as you get away from simple measures of
> language skill (witness the holistic vs. analytic continuum and its many
> different incarnations, plus my own work on yes/no questions).
>>
>> Perhaps we shouldn't be all that surprised by similar variation in
>> language learning.
> Well, but you would be surprised, (or annoyed maybe ;-)) if you were
> convinced language and cognition are radically different. A lot of
> language acquisition researchers believe that. To me, that is a
> completely open question. We're back to "not every typical human uses
> knives and forks, but every typically developing child speaks", "oh but
> every human uses tools", kind of discussion. Granted, walking is rather
> universal...
>>
>> As a parent, I think there's a disconnect between printed discussions
>> of skill timing and the information that's
>> passed around the mommy and teacher network, with the manuals tending
>> to understate the extent of the variation.
> Which information is clearly anecdotal and elicited in very uncontrolled
> environments, prone to all sorts of biases. Said as a parent of a 2 1/2
> year old who thinks his kid is way ahead of the curve... but what do I
know?
> Bruno Estigarribia
> FPG-NDRC-UNC
>
>