Tag: development
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Word of the Week: Phonemic Narrowing
Phonemic narrowing is the process by which infants gather information about the sounds of the language they are exposed to. Every language has unique sounds and patterns of sounds. At about six months, infants begin learning these sounds and patterns, as well as the rules for these sounds. This knowledge is a very important step…
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Read: Raising Bilingual Children
There are many reasons to raise a child to be bilingual or multilingual. Some parents do so because their native language, or that of their family, is not the mainstream language spoken where they live. Other parents want their children to be connected to their culture. Others still simply want their child to have more…
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Word of the Week: The Gavagai Problem
The Gavagai problem describes the enormous task of word learning. To learn a word’s meaning, we begin by matching words to referents, or the thing to which a word refers. The word “gavagai” originates from a thought experiment proposed by the philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine in 1960. It goes along the lines of this:…
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Read: What Is Speech Therapy?
Navigating the world of speech therapy can be overwhelming at first for parents and families. This article from Parents is a comprehensive guide to speech therapy. It begins by outlining the basics of what speech therapy is and how it works. It then discusses common reasons one might need it and signs that it may…
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Word of the Week: Crib Talk
Crib talk is when young children talk to themselves before sleep. Starting at around age one-and-a-half, and ending around two-and-a-half, toddlers commonly narrate events, repeat things they have heard, or create imaginary situations. These monologues include elements of conversation and turn-taking. Crib talk is also common in Deaf children, who speak to themselves in signs…
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Read: How to Tell if Your Child is a Late Talker
What exactly is a late talker? How can you tell if your child’s language development is on track? What should you do if it’s not, and will they catch up? Some might encourage a “wait-and-see” approach, but this article from the Hanen Centre debunks this and other miscommunications about delayed language development. Based in research,…
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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: 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…
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