Help: let them speak or sign their language

[Denis Donovan]

Actually, 3 years may be VERY VERY late. Consider:

> Our findings indicate that native-language learning in the second half of the first year goes beyond the acquisition of sound structure. The fact that even 6- to 7-mo-olds learn words suggests that conceptual and linguistic categories may influence one an- other in development from the beginning (36) and that aspects of meaning are available to guide other linguistic inferences cur- rently thought to depend only on distributional analysis of pho- nological regularities (37, 38). Understanding word meaning could also support the acquisition of syntax by guiding infants’ inferences about how nouns and words from other word classes are placed in sentences. Precocious word learning also helps explain why hearing-impaired infants identified for fitting with cochlear implants before 6 mo reveal better language skills at 2 y than children identified just a few months later: 6-mo-olds who can hear are already learning words (39). 
> 


Bergelson, Elika & Swingley, Daniel (2013). At 6–9 months, human infants know the meanings of many common nouns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. PNAS Early Edition, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1113380109 and  http://www.pnas.org/content/109/9/3253 (120913).

Best,

Denis


- - -
Denis M. Donovan, M.D., M.Ed., F.A.P.S.
Director, EOCT Institute

Medical Director, 1983 - 2006
The Children's Center for Developmental Psychiatry
St. Petersburg, Florida

P.O Box 47576
St. Petersburg, FL 33743-7576
Phone:	727-641-8905
DenisDonovan at EOCT-Institute.org
dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/info-childes/2FBF5CE9-8937-495D-A027-755ED5C3A501%40gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/info-childes/attachments/20131209/6d756830/attachment.htm>