Child Directed Speech

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Child Directed Speech

What is Child Directed Speech? It is the theory of language

development of young children aged between 1 year old and 4 years old.

There are three key features in the development of child speech:

Phonological:

· Speak slower, clearer pronunciation

· More pauses, especially between phrases and sentences

· Higher pitch

· Exaggerated intonation and stress

Lexis:

· Simpler, more restricted vocabulary

· Diminutive forms (e.g. 'doggie')

· Concrete language, referring to objects in the child's immediate

environment

Grammar:

· Simpler constructions

· Frequent use of imperatives

· High degree of repetition

· Frequent questions

· Use of personal names instead of pronouns (e.g. 'Mummy' not 'I').

The effects of child speech; phonological development is used as a way

to progressively build up a child speech development, simple

constructions and vocabulary gradually increase a child's need to

speak. Slow speech and exaggerated tones of voice become less

demanding and more interesting for a child to hear. When a child

speaks, a parent should always be ready to expand on a child's speech;

For example:

''All gone'' à ''that's right you've eaten all up…''

Introduction of new words encourages familiar sentence frames and a

development in language acquisition of new vocabulary.

Bruner, J.K. (1983) - puts language acquisition into a social context:

L.A.S.S. (Language Acquisition Support System) - parental guidance.

Bruner said: ''Children learn to use language initially to get what

they want, to play games, to stay connected with those upon ...

... middle of paper ...

...issing? - The functional words which bind these

contemporary linguistic features together.

One word Stage - (1 yr - 18mths) Holophrases,> Conveys a more complex

message, accompanied by intonation and gesture.

Two Word Stage - (18mths - 24 mths)>

''Mummy Read!'' Subj Verb

''Draw Doggie'' Verd Obj

''Suzy juice '' Subj Obj

''Daddy busy'' Subj Comp.

All of the above sentences contain some sequence of grammatical

structure. Also these words are all assembled in the correct

grammatical order. However function words are usually ommited.

Use of intonation/gesture needed to know how the sentences are to be

expressed, whether they are commands, visual observation etc. Research

in 1973 by Bloom observed that sentences can be used to express more

than one meaning. Caused by missing inflectional affixes.

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