Pace of early language development

[Keith Nelson]

Hi all.   Have been on beach vacation and 
watching toddlers and older siblings and parents 
a little.

	To the questions of has pace changed and 
does it vary by SES, a few thoughts:

	1.  40 or 50 years ago there may have 
been on average some advantages for language 
learning in the first 3 years of life created by 
larger families and more older siblings fairly 
close in age to the learner's age (say 2 years 
ahead) and also more direct conversational time 
between the learner and an available total pool 
of parents, grandparents, siblings, and neighbors

	2.  "Controlled" comparisons are 
difficult between now and then, but to the extent 
possible it would be excellent to have some 
comparisons where first language, SES, 
neighborhood, number and spacing of siblings, 
number of extended family members like 
grandparents and cousins and so on are highly 
similar

	3.   There are many clues that John 
Bercow's observation holds even when the 
comparisons between lower and higher SES hold 
constant the first 
language/ethnic/immigrant-or-not status of the 
families--lower language levels, including 
clinical levels of language delay, are more 
probable for lower SES children

	4.  High variability in acquisition rates 
have been observed again and again, even when 
many of the factors in #2 have been documented as 
similar across the children being compared, in 
modern studies.   Biological differences in what 
different children bring to the language learning 
"table" are no doubt contributing, but are poorly 
understood.   Patterns of interaction have been 
shown to matter greatly, and when the same 
biological child encounters newly favorable 
interaction patterns the pace of acquisition 
accelerates.   So, 50 or 100 years ago were the 
interaction patterns typically better or worse to 
support language acquisition ?   On that, I can 
see both sides--as noted in #1, earlier days 
could have been better in some respects, but 
modern times may pair the child language learner 
with adults and older siblings who have broader 
world knowledge, more influence of literacy on 
oral language sophistication and flexibility, and 
possibly more awareness of (and use of ) 
strategies that are helpful when conversing with 
the child learner.

	Keith





At 11:28 AM +0100 8/3/09, Matthew Saxton wrote:
>I think Brian¹s suggestion is ingenious. 
>However, to my knowledge, language change is 
>especially driven by young people in the teenage 
>years ­ with the introduction of new meanings, 
>terms and phrases ­ rather than by toddlers.
>
>The perception of a linguistic decline over 
>successive generations is sometimes driven by 
>political considerations. A recent U.K. example 
>is the Bercow Review (by the same John Bercow 
>who is now Speaker of the House of Commons). 
>Without citing any specific sources, his report 
>suggests that:
>
>Approximately 50% of children in some 
>socio-economically disadvantaged populations 
>have speech and language skills that are 
>significantly lower than those of other children 
>of the same age.
>
>The implication is that a steep decline is in 
>train within the U.K., ascribable to 
>socioeconomic factors. One such factor is 
>whether or not English is the child¹s first 
>language. It has become increasingly common for 
>very young children, who have had little 
>exposure to English, to be placed in 
>English-language Nursery settings. Such children 
>will naturally depress average scores on 
>standardised language tests, especially in the 
>early stages of their exposure to English. But 
>one could not argue from such data that the 
>language learning capacities of children had 
>declined in any way.
>
>Regards,
>
>Matthew Saxton.
>
>
>
>*********************************************************************************************************
>
>Department of Psychology and Human Development,
>Institute of Education,
>University of London,
>25 Woburn Square,
>London,
>WC1H 0AA.
>
>Tel: 020-7612-6509
>Fax: 020-7612-6304
>
><http://www.ioe.ac.uk/>http://www.ioe.ac.uk
>
>
>
>

-- 



Keith Nelson
Professor of Psychology
Penn State University
423 Moore Building
University Park, PA   16802


keithnelsonart at psu.edu

814 863 1747



And what is mind
and how is it recognized ?
It is clearly drawn
in Sumi  ink, the
sound of breezes drifting through pine.

--Ikkyu Sojun
Japanese Zen Master    1394-1481

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