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Vocabulary development is a process by which individuals acquire language. Several factors contribute to this process of language development. Fast mapping is evident in word learning. Children are able to learn the meaning of words on first exposure, and retain them for a period of time. Infants learn language rapidly from exposure to language in unique ways. Early exposure to spoken or signed language influence individual's ability to learn language. Infants have certain perceptual abilities that help them aquire language. Such abilities involve being able to determine the frequency at which certain items happen in relation to others, which Kuhl refers to as "statistical learning." Therefore, social interactions contribute to language development. Hoff outlines the subcomponents of language; namely, phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax. Phonology consists of the sound systems in language; lexicon involves words and their related knowledge; morphology is the method involved in the combination of units of meaning into words; and syntax involves the combination of words into sentences.

Early word learning
Word-learning, similar to phonology or syntax, is an essential composition of language. Most children produce their first words after they turn one. Hulit and Howard mentioned that infants' first words sometimes differ from adults. Infants' first words are normally used in reference to things that are of greater importance to them, such as objects, people, and relevant actions of interest. In addition, Hulit and Howard mentioned that infants' first words are mostly single-syllabic or repeated single syllables. At 18 to 24 months, children are able to combine two words; three to four-word production appear later when children are able to produce two-word utterances. Typically at age 12 to 26 months, children are able to produce about 50 words. At this stage, words such as "no, gone, and allgone" constitute a child's vocabulary. Children's understanding of names for objects, and people usually preceeds their understanding of words that describe actions and relationships. The results from a study indicates that one and two are the first number words that children learn.

phonological development
In many studies related to children's vocabulary development, it is obvious that language competence depends on ability to hear sounds during infancy. Infants can perceive the phonetic construct at any age. However, their perception of speech is distinct. Hoff mentioned that at six months of age, infants' basic language auditory capacities are almost like adults'. At the age of 10 to 12 months, infants are less able to discreminate all speech sounds. Also, at 16 to 30 weeks, infants are able to combine different sounds into long and complex series, which is termed as vocal play. There are 40 phonemic categories in each language, and infants acquire words based on these phonemic units. Infants'phonological register completes between the ages of 18 months and 7 years.

Here are the highlights of phonological development in children, as outlined by Hoff: 6–8 weeks: Cooing appears

16 week: Laughter and vocal play appear

6–9 month: Reduplicated (canonical) babbling appears

1 year: First words use a limited sound repertoire

18 months: Phonological processes (deformations of target sounds) become systematic

18 months–7 years: Phonological inventory completion

However, factors that may affect children's phonological development include environmental influences, hearing loss as a result of ear infections. Deaf infants and children with hearing problems due to infections are usually delayed in the beginning of canonical babbling. Language input is relevant in the acquisition of language. In order to learn words, and individual should be exposed to a language in some form of interaction. A study conducted on 6-month old infants indicates that seen articulations actually enhances infants’ ability to discriminate sounds, and may also contribute to infants’ ability to learn phoneme boundaries.

Babbling
Babbling occurs between five and seven months, when babies start to play with sounds that are not used to express emotional or physical states; these are like sounds of consonants and vowels. Syllable babbling, and gibberish babbling are the two types of babbling mentioned in Pinker's article. Babies begin to babble in real syllables such as "ba-ba-ba, neh-neh-neh, and dee-dee-dee," between the ages of seven and eight months; this is known as canonical babbling. Gibberish babbling is usually the meaningless language of infants, which sounds like they are speaking a totally different language, that does not make sense to anyone. The sounds, consisting of phonemes and syllable patterns produced by infants at this stage is usually universal across languages. Pinker stated that babbling among deaf children is simpler, and appears later, although their parents babble on schedule with their hands while using sign language. Babbling is a very important aspect of vocabulary development in children, since it serves as a prerequisite to reproducing the speech of their parents. Therefore, inability to make voiced sounds during the usual stage of babbling affects infants language development.

Vocabulary spurt
As children grow older their rate of vocabulary growth increases. By the age of eighteen months, children typically attain a vocabulary of 50 words in production, and between two or three times as many in comprehension. From eighteen months to grade 1, the estimated rate of vocabulary growth is 5.5 words per day. From grade 1 to grade 5 it is estimated to be 20 words per day. After leaving school, vocabulary growth often reaches a plateau. People usually then expand their vocabularies by engaging in activities such as reading, playing word games, and by participating in vocabulary-related programs. According to Steven Pinker, the average six year old's vocabulary is 13,000 words, 60,000 for the average high school graduate, twice as high for superior students. This represents a mere fraction of the lexis of the language. This discrepancy, however, is partly due to relative simplicity of spoken language to written language. Additionally, one may understand more words than one uses, meaning that one's working vocabulary may not be representative of one's total knowledge of a language. A 1987 research on native English speaking university graduates found an average vocabulary size of 17,200 base words. Vocabulary can be improved by exposure to new language information. Exposure through writing is especially effective, for it offers a greater context by which new words may become understood.