Learn About Language with the MACAW Lab!
At the MACAW Lab, we love learning about language, and we want to spread the love to parents and families! Stay tuned for fun, educational articles, findings from current research, and a new Word of the Week every Wednesday. We look forward to learning with you!
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Word of the Week: Word Spurt
After toddlers learn about 50 words, often around 18 months of age, their vocabularies explode. This is called the word spurt or the vocabulary spurt. Toddlers learn words at double the rate that they were previously, or even faster. On average, children start off by learning 8-11 words per month. After about 50 words, this
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Read: Learning Verbs
Verb learning happens after noun learning. One explanation for this is that actions are harder to picture or point out and pair with a word than objects are. When toddlers begin to use verbs, they tend to make some mistakes, like saying “runned” instead of “ran” or “eated” instead of “ate,” for example. These mistakes
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Word of the Week: Dialect
A dialect is a variation of a language shared by members of a region, social class, or ethnicity. Dialects can vary from each other in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Some also have unique conversational rules. They are often considered to be mutually intelligible: generally, speakers of one dialect can be understood by speakers of another
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Word of the Week: Motherese or Parentese
Also known as “baby-talk” and “child directed speech,” motherese or parentese is talk that is directed to an infant or young child. It has a more melodic or sing-song-like intonation than speech directed toward adults. It sounds higher pitched and slower paced, and words are often shortened or simplified. Oftentimes, it includes made-up words or
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Read: How Do Children Learn Language?
We use language every day, often without considering how complex it is. Although language is nuanced and adult speech is often imperfect, language learning begins very early in life, even before birth. So how is it that babies and children manage to accomplish such an enormous task? This article from Verywell Family describes the process
accessibility bilingualism communication culture development events feeding language late talker linguistics literacy phonetics speech therapy theory verbs
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