CLD Theorists

Behaviourism:

Skinner;  believes environment influence is a major impact on CLD- believes language is a LEARNED BEHAVIOUR

• Child learns language via association of words with meanings- semantic association through experience within environment
• OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Positive reinforcement for correct utterances- child rewarded via praise, or getting the intended response from adult, i.e. food or drink: causes child to make a SEMANTIC CONNECTION
• Negative reinforcement= being told off, not gaining the reward or intended response
• Grice's Maxims
• Politeness Theory 
• Imitation, routine, role play:
• Imitation of caregiver's language- copying utterances = language is a learned behaviour
• Routine establishes set patterns in language- repetition allows child to make semantic connection between words and real-life circumstances/objects, learn word for desired response
• Role play- integrate new lexis into speech; imitation of different people, exposure to different situations and contexts- learn to associaite appropaite langage according to context.

Innatism:
Chomsky; theory that humans have an innate Langauge Acquisition Device (L.A.D),
-biology programmed to learn language.   

• Children are not systematically instructed on how to use grammar; they acquire and apply rules by themselves- P.T. children automatically apply Subject Verb Order syntax without instruction 
• VIRTUOUS ERRORS- 'I runned'
• UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR- children have the innate ability to apply grammatical rules without instruction to unknown words, use integral logic and initiative
• Children can differentiate between what is GRAMMATICALLY correct and what is not - exposed to linguistic errors by adults
• False starts, incomplete sentences- DO NOT COPY

• Children know more about language than what they are exposed to in conversations

FOXP2 Gene: scientific evidence that humans have the innate ability to acquire language AND use it CREATIVELY- 

• Children can create spontaneous utterances which they have never heard beofre, INDEPENDENTLY (no support from Caregiver)
• Imitation alone is INSUFFICIENT

Jean Berko-Gleason is further evidence of this: Wug Test- children applied grammatical rules to unknown objects- modified noun 'Wug' to different tenses, purposes

• Argue: JBG scaffolded the correct response from children

The balance between Nature vs Nurture:

• Lunenburg- stated there was a Critical Acquisition Period in which children could learn language
• Humans can learn language (for proficiency) before puberty begins, BUT INTERACTION is fundamental in order to learn. 
• Genie= feral child grewq up without human interaction, once discovered; too old to learn  how to speak proficiently- limited to telegraphic stage of speech
• Tomasello- argued a USE-BASED MODEL for language acquisition
• Use it or lose it!
• Argue against LAD, social interaction fundamental for using language
• If it can't be used to communicate with others, it is of no use

Interactionism:
Bruner- Importance of a Language Acquisition Support System (L.A.S.S.):

Child-Directed Speech (CDS) - familiarise child with conventions of spoken discourse

• Diminutives
• Scaffolding interogatives, using auxillairy verbs, tag questions
• Convergence
• Repetition (relate to positive reinforcement)
• Melodic pitch and delivery 
• Exaggereted paralinguism- facilitate semantic association (e.g. emotion)
• *Halliday's Function's* - Interactional: promotes phatic dimension of talk
• Deixis: context-bound language unique to caregiver and child = promote CDS

Deb Roy; 'SpeecHome' Project- the importance of interactionism in early development of child

• Convergence in caregiver's language to the child's linguistic ability. 
• Semantic ability of a child outstrips their phonological ability; through positive reinforcement, child assoc. meaning with words; unable to pronounce

Lev Vygotsky- zone of proximal development

• Caregiver acts as a 'More Knowledgeable Other' from which child learns from via interaction

Cognitive Theory:

Piaget; based  CLD on the rationale of the human mind; believes CLD is directly related to cognitive development. He believes children must understand concepts before they can verbalise them

• i.e. 'that car is bigger than the other' requires a pre-existing understanding of size
• Comparative adjectives = comparison
• Indefinite/definite determines = quantity
• Correct pronouns = gender, plurality, 
• Tense= time, past, present, future
• Adjectives = qualities
• Therefore, Piaget beliefs CLD is reflective of a child's thought process

Egocentricity- young children unable to differntiate their own perspective form that of others; language focussed on their world- minimises with age

• Stage theory: cognitive thinking differs at various stages in life
• Sensorimotor: birth to 2 years. -Egocentricity
• Preoperational: 2 - 7 years
• Think in concrete terms
• Egocentric approach- self-perspective 
• Concrete operational. Ages 7 to 12.
• Formal operational. Adolescence through adulthood.

Halliday's Function of Child Language (support interactionism, behaviourism, innatism)

• Regulatory- imperative (others) --> influence
• Instrumental- imperative (personal)
• Personal- egocentricity
• Interactional - phatic dimension of conversation --> build relationhsip with Caregiver
• Imaginaitive - stories, roleplay --> imitation and creativity (Skinner vs FOXP2)
• Heuristic- learning (--> Piaget)
• Representational- information exchange 

Child Phonology:

• Consonant cluster reductions- ease of articulation, restricted phonological ability
• 'Fink' 'think'- [th] fronting
• Also, imitation of regional dialect from caregivers
• Grunwell: Phenoeme Substitution- early phonology- cannot pronounce complex sounds, therefore subsitute an easier alternative: 'crawns', 'prawns'
• 
  
• Final consonant deletion- deletion of unstressed syllables at end of

Key terminology:

• Overextension- hypernyms when hyponym
• Underextension- hyponym over hypernym