Pointing is a gesture specifying a direction from a person's body, usually indicating a location, person, event, thing or idea. It typically is formed by extending the arm, hand, and index finger , although it may be functionally similar to other hand gestures. Types of pointing may be subdivided according to the intention of the person, as well as by the linguistic function it serves.
125-562: Pointing typically develops within the first two years of life in humans, and plays an important role in language development and reading in children. It is central to the use of sign language , with a large number of signs being some variation on pointing. The nature of pointing may differ for children who have autism or who are deaf , and may also vary by gender. It is typically not observed in children who are blind from birth. Pointing may vary substantially across cultures, with some having many distinct types of pointing, both with regard to
250-662: A "few studies" had not found a strong correlation between pointing and the development of language. Research has also shown that the frequency of communicative pointing from ages 9 months to 12.5 months was positively correlated with vocabulary size for children at age two. The relationship between language development and pointing tends to be stronger in studies which examined declarative pointing specifically or pointing generally, rather than imperative pointing. In school age children, finger-pointing-reading (reading while pointing to words or letters as they are spoken) can play an important role in reading development , by helping to emphasize
375-531: A bad haircut), than their male peers. Another study conducted by Goossens and Beyers (1992) using similar measuring instruments found that boys have stronger beliefs that they are unique, invulnerable and sometimes omnipotent, which are typical characteristics of personal fable. Throughout adolescence egocentrism contributes positively to the development of self-identity; in order to achieve self-identity, adolescents go through different pathways of "crisis" and "commitment" stages, and higher self-identity achievement
500-414: A box. Knowing that the first character did not see the switching task, children were asked to predict where the first character would look to find the marble. The results show that children younger than 4 answer that the character would look inside the box, because they have the superior knowledge of where the marble actually is. It shows egocentric thinking in early childhood because they thought that even if
625-399: A certain set of structural rules are innate to humans, independent of sensory experience. This view has dominated linguistic theory for over fifty years and remains highly influential, as witnessed by the number of articles in journals and books. The empiricist theory suggests, contra Chomsky, that there is enough information in the linguistic input children receive and therefore, there
750-494: A child tugging on the shirt of a parent to wait for the attention of the parent who would then notice the infant, which causes the infant to point to something they desire. This would describe the first two criteria. The development of alternative plans may arise if the parent does not acknowledge what the infant wants, the infant may entertain itself to satisfy the previous desire. The way the parent responds to their child in this situation of "needing" and "wanting" will also result in
875-434: A child undergoes initial learning of the written language, they have not yet fully mastered the oral language. It is clear that their written language development is aided by their spoken language; it can also be said that their spoken language development is aided by the development of their written language skills. Kantor and Rubin believe that not all individuals successfully move into the final stage of integration. Perera
1000-407: A complex human language. Several studies have worked with great apes , owing to their close evolutionary relationship to humans. In the documentary Project Nim , for example, researcher Herbert S. Terrace conducted the study to nurture a young chimpanzee with intimate human interaction. The researchers trained the chimp American Sign Language and treated it like a human child. Finally, the chimp
1125-455: A development in children's written language skills is seen, their spoken language skills have also improved. A child's written language in this phase mirrors their spoken language. In the third phase, differentiation, children begin to learn that written language regularly differs in structure and style from spoken language. The growth from consolidation to differentiation can be challenging for some children to grasp. Children can 'struggle with
1250-428: A female advantage was obvious. The females in this age range showed more spontaneous speech production than the males and this finding was not due to mothers speaking more with daughters than sons. In addition, boys between 2 and 6 years as a group did not show higher performance in language development over their girl counterparts on experimental assessments. In studies using adult populations, 18 and over, it seems that
1375-418: A female has experienced a lesion to the left hemisphere , she is better able to compensate for this damage than a male can. If a male has a lesion in the left hemisphere, his verbal abilities are greatly impaired in comparison to a control male of the same age without that damage. However, these results may also be task-dependent as well as time-dependent. Shriberg, Tomblin, and McSweeny (1999) suggest that
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#17327798744441500-422: A fence, using the object choice task in a similar manner to that of a barrier. The authors reported that the barrier produced a decrease of 31% in terms of success for canines. This has also been shown in pointing as well, where barriers that are present for dogs showed lower success rates than when absent, highlighting that this debate may be partially the result of systematic procedural differences. In contrast to
1625-475: A form of communication, and a sign of "something interesting". This is similar to difficulties they may experience with other deictic communication , which depend on an interpretation of the relationship between speaker and listener or on particular spatial references. A lack of declarative or proto-declarative pointing and the inability to follow a point are important diagnostic criteria for children with autism, and have been incorporated into screening tools such as
1750-982: A form of meaningful imitation , where an infant learns they can produce the same effect in adults as adult produce in them, by mimicking the action of pointing, and drawing attention to an object. Pointing generally emerges within the first two years of life, weeks prior to a baby's first spoken word , and plays a central role in language acquisition . The onset of pointing behavior is typically between seven and 15 months of age, with an average of between 11 months and one year. By eight months, parents reported that 33% of babies exhibited pointing behaviors, with pointing to nearby objects usually occurring by 11 months, and pointing to more distant object by 13 months. By one year of age, more than half of children will exhibit pointing behavior. As early as 10 months of age, children have been shown to spend more time being attentive to novel objects when they are pointed to by others, when compared to objects that are merely presented to them. This time
1875-407: A gesture is considered to be pointing, reaching, or otherwise indicative, and reaching may be considered a form of whole-hand pointing. In one review, 11 separate definitions were identified for the related motions of reach, reaching out, reaching, indicating, and indicates. Types of pointing are traditionally further divided by purpose, between imperative and declarative pointing. Imperative pointing
2000-460: A limited research in this area. Chrisite and Derewianke recognize that the survey conducted by Perera (1984) is still one of the most significant research studies in the writing development field and believe Perera's study is similar to theirs. Chrisite and Derewianke (2010) again propose four phases of writing development. The researchers believe that the process of writing development does not stop when an individual leaves formal education, and again,
2125-417: A long duration of time and the caregivers often provide for the children's needs. For example, a child may misattribute the act of their mother reaching to retrieve an object that they point to as a sign that they are the same entity, when in fact they are actually separate individuals. As early as 15 months old, children show a mix of egocentrism and theory of mind when an agent acts inconsistently with how
2250-668: A model truck as her birthday present; "he had carefully wrapped the present and gave it to his mother with an expression that clearly showed he expected her to love it". The three-year-old boy had not chosen the present out of selfishness or greediness, but he simply failed to realize that, from his mother's perspective, she might not enjoy the model car as much as he would. Piaget was concerned with two aspects of egocentricity in children: language and morality . He believed that egocentric children use language primarily for communication with oneself. Piaget observed that children would talk to themselves during play , and this egocentric speech
2375-682: A point using two fingers for use only at someone considered inferior. In those living near the Vaupés River , Dixon noted at least three distinct types of pointing: pointing with the lips for "visible and near" ... pointing with the lips plus a backwards tilt of the head for "visible and not near" ... pointing with the index finger for "not visible" (if the direction in which the object lies is known) Alternatively, among Aboriginal Australian speakers of Arrernte , researchers identified six distinct types of pointing: index finger, open hand palm down, open hand palm vertical, "'horn-hand' pointing (with
2500-602: A similar task. However, it seems, that the default function of pointing is different in dogs and humans, because pointing actions refer to particular locations or directions for dogs in an imperative manner, while these gestures usually indicate specific objects in humans to ask for new information or to comment on an object. There is considerable debate as to whether apes are able to comprehend pointing gestures as well, and it has even been argued that dogs are better able to understand pointing than apes. Some hypothesize that pointing comprehension should be more prevalent in species with
2625-609: A simple plaster mountain range and then asked them to pick from four pictures the view that he, Piaget, would see. The younger children before age seven picked the picture of the view they themselves saw and were therefore found to lack the ability to appreciate a viewpoint different from their own. In other words, their way of reasoning was egocentric. Only when entering the concrete-operational stage of development at age seven to twelve , children became less egocentric and could appreciate viewpoints other than their own. In other words, they were capable of cognitive perspective-taking. However,
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#17327798744442750-416: A stronger tendency to cooperate, which would explain negative results in apes due to the mainly competitive relationship present in most species of apes and monkeys. However, wolves fare poorly in pointing comprehension tests as well, and are a highly cooperative species, countering this hypothesis. More recent studies have refuted the claim that apes are poor at comprehending pointing, and provide evidence that
2875-644: A thing, and declarative interrogative pointing, to seek information about a thing. However, according to Kovacs and colleagues interrogative pointing is clearly different from declarative pointing, since its function is to gain new information about a referent to learn from a knowledgeable addressee. Therefore, unlike declarative pointing, interrogative pointing implies an asymmetric epistemic relation between communicative partners. Types of communicative pointing may be divided by linguistic function into three main groups: Additionally, pointing in children who are deaf may be divided between diectic or "natural" pointing, which
3000-627: A two-word sentence. Another study looked at deaf Japanese infants acquiring language from ages four months to two years, and found that the infants moved from duos (where a point plus an iconic sign referred to the same thing) to two-sign combinations where they referred to two different things. As they grew, the latter grew more frequent and led to the development of two-sign sentences in Japanese Sign Language . Children with autism show marked differences compared to others, and greater difficulty in their ability to interpret pointing as
3125-419: Is also aware that it is hard to assign chronological ages to each phase of writing development, because each child is an individual, and also the phases are 'artificial'. Other than Kroll's theory, there are four principles on early patterns in writing development discussed by Marie Clay in her book What Did I Write? . The four principles are recurring principle, the generative principle, the sign principle, and
3250-484: Is associated with difficulty differentiating between self and other. More specifically, it refers to difficulty accurately assuming or understanding a perspective other than one's own. Although egocentrism and narcissism appear similar, they are not the same. A person who is egocentric believes they are the center of attention but does not necessarily find gratification in others' admiration. Both egotists and narcissists are people whose egos are greatly influenced by
3375-555: Is called an innate language acquisition device (LAD). Theoretically, the LAD is an area of the brain that has a set of universal syntactic rules for all languages. This device provides children with the ability to make sense of knowledge and construct novel sentences with minimal external input and little experience. Chomsky's claim is based upon the view that what children hear—their linguistic input—is insufficient to explain how they come to learn language. He argues that linguistic input from
3500-464: Is considered to begin with a stage of pre-verbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intents known to others. According to a general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions they had already expressed by proverbial means. Children learn syntax through imitation, instruction, and reinforcement. Language development
3625-479: Is crucial that children are allowed to socially interact with other people who can vocalize and respond to questions. For language acquisition to develop successfully, children must be in an environment that allows them to communicate socially in that language. Children who have learnt sound, meaning and grammatical system of language that can produce clear sentence may still not have the ability to use language effectively in various social circumstance. Social interaction
3750-498: Is difficult to ascertain whether they point naturally. However, this debate may result from the fact that there are procedural differences in how non-human primates are tested, making it more difficult to ascertain if non-human primates do point. The experimenter must be safe, as a result of testing non-human primates, thus a barrier is introduced between the participant and experimenter. Dogs and infants do not have this precaution. However, Udell and colleagues tested dogs with and without
3875-448: Is experiencing a resurgence. New studies use this theory now to treat individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Additionally, Relational Frame Theory is growing from the behaviorist theory, which is important for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Some empiricist theory accounts today use behaviorist models. Other relevant theories about language development include Piaget's theory of cognitive development , which considers
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4000-557: Is found across the life span: in infancy , early childhood , adolescence , and adulthood . Although egocentric behaviors are less prominent in adulthood, the existence of some forms of egocentrism in adulthood indicates that overcoming egocentrism may be a lifelong development that never achieves completion. Adults appear to be less egocentric than children because they are faster to correct from an initially egocentric perspective than children, not because they are less likely to initially adopt an egocentric perspective. Egocentrism
4125-404: Is frequently done with the lips in a "kiss shape" directed towards the object of attention. Different cultures may point using a range of variations on index finger pointing. In Japan, pointing is done with the fingers together and the palm facing upwards. Those of Indian heritage may point using the chin, whole hand, or thumb. They may consider index finger pointing rude, but further distinguish
4250-423: Is himself." The adolescent exhibits egocentrism by struggling to distinguish whether or not, others are as fond of them as they might think because their own thoughts are so prevalent. Adolescents consider themselves as "unique, special, and much more socially significant than they actually are." Elkind also created terms for egocentric behaviors exhibited adolescents, such as what he calls an imaginary audience ,
4375-486: Is increased if the object is also labelled verbally. Pointing by children is associated with a high rate of verbal response from adults, specifically labeling the object pointed to. This interaction allows the child to check for words labeling objects they do not yet know, and, when combined with declarative verbal statements on the part of the child, may allow them verify the accuracy of words they have already learned. Infants may begin to point in situations where no one else
4500-401: Is known, with what is in the front, what is seen, and vice versa. There is considerable disagreement as to the nature of pointing behaviors in non-human animals. Miklósi and Soproni described pointing as a "species specific, human communicative gesture" not regularly used by any other species of primates living in the wild. Kita concluded similarly that "on the evidence to date only humans use
4625-405: Is language development occurring antepartum. DeCasper and Spence performed a study in 1986 by having mothers read aloud during the last few weeks of pregnancy. When the infants were born, they were then tested. They were read aloud a story while sucking on a pacifier; the story was either the story read by the mother when the infant was in utero or a new story. The pacifier used was able to determine
4750-649: Is least likely to produce vocalizations when changed, fed, or rocked. The infant is more likely to produce vocalizations in response to a nonverbal behavior such as touching or smiling. Child-directed speech also catches the child's attention, and in situations where words for new objects are being expressed to the child, this form of speech may help the child recognize the speech cues and the new information provided. Data shows that children raised in highly verbal families had higher language scores than those children raised in low verbal families . Continuously hearing complicated sentences throughout language development increases
4875-464: Is needed to determine whether these are examples of imitation of behaviors performed by observed adults, or whether it indicates pointing may be biologically determined . In much of the world, pointing with the index finger is considered rude or disrespectful, especially pointing to a person. Pointing with the left hand is taboo in some cultures. Pointing with an open hand is considered more polite or respectful in some contexts. In Nicaragua , pointing
5000-430: Is no need to assume an innate language acquisition device exists (see above). Rather than a LAD evolved specifically for language, empiricists believe that general brain processes are sufficient for language acquisition. During this process, it is necessary for the child to actively engage with their environment. For a child to learn language, the parent or caregiver adopts a particular way of appropriately communicating with
5125-503: Is pointing to make a request for an object, while declarative pointing is pointing to declare, to comment on an object. As Kovacs and colleagues phrase it, "'Give that to me' vs. 'I like that'". This division is similar to that made by Harris and Butterworth between "giving" and "communicative" pointing. Determining the intention of pointing in infants is done by considering three factors: Declarative pointing may further be divided into declarative expressive pointing, to express feelings about
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5250-532: Is present, as a form of egocentric expression, termed "pointing-for-self". This is differentiated from "pointing-for-others" which is done while looking at a "recipient" of the pointing, and done as a communicative gesture. Kita specifies this variety of pointing in the context of being a deictic gesture , which is done for the benefit of an audience, as distinct from what are deemed "superficially similar behaviors". Demonstrating this, as they mature infants will first point at an object, and then visually verify whether
5375-465: Is shared with hearing children, and symbolic pointing used specifically in sign language, learned by observing and imitating others who sign. Pointing is the first communicative gesture that develops in human infants. It is not clear to what extent the behavior may first emerge as a form of meaningless ritualization , whether some infants may comprehend and visually follow the pointing of others without yet pointing themselves, or whether pointing begins as
5500-457: Is that children learn language by acquiring and experimenting with grammatical patterns, the statistical language acquisition theory. The two most accepted theories in language development are psychological and functional . Egocentric Egocentrism refers to difficulty differentiating between self and other. More specifically, it is difficulty in accurately perceiving and understanding perspectives other than one's own. Egocentrism
5625-457: Is the footing stone of language. There are a few different theories as to why and how children develop language. One popular, yet heavily debated explanation is that language is acquired through imitation. This theory has been challenged by Lester Butler, who argues that children do not use the grammar that an adult would use. Furthermore, "children's language is highly resistant to alteration by adult intervention", meaning that children do not use
5750-519: Is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. Children often begin reproducing the words that they are repetitively exposed to. The method in which we develop language skills is universal; however, the major debate is how the rules of syntax are acquired. There are two quite separate major theories of syntactic development: an empiricist account by which children learn all syntactic rules from
5875-451: Is to indicate a direction, location, event or thing relative to a person. Pointing is typically defined as having either three or four essential elements: Gestures that do not meet these three or four criteria are usually classified as a "reach" or an “indicative gesture”, although there is no clear consensus on how to differentiate between the two. Additionally, there may be little or no behavioral or functional difference depending on whether
6000-514: Is unique to the human species. Non-biologists also tend to believe that our ability to learn spoken language may have been developed through the evolutionary process and that the foundation for language may be passed down genetically. The ability to speak and understand human language requires speech production skills and abilities as well as multisensory integration of sensory processing abilities. Scientists have conducted extensive research to see if other animal species are capable of learning
6125-448: Is unique. The phases of writing development have been highlighted to give the reader a broad outline of what phases a child goes through during writing development; however when studying an individual's development in depth, the phases may be disregarded to an extent. The first of Kroll's phases is the preparation for writing phase. In this phase the child is believed to grasp the technical skills needed for writing, allowing them to create
6250-519: Is usually unable to distinguish between what is subjective and objective . According to Piaget , "an egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does". Jean Piaget (1896–1980) developed a theory about the development of human intelligence , describing the stages of cognitive development . He claimed that early childhood is the time of pre-operational thought, characterized by children's inability to process logical thought. According to Piaget, one of
6375-565: The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers . Pointing is dependent on vision, and is not observed in children who are blind from birth. A number of differences have been observed regarding the onset of pointing behavior and gender, and the tendency to point using the right or left hand, with girls being more likely to point up to 15 degrees into the left visual periphery using their right hand, and being ambidextrous further to
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#17327798744446500-414: The personal fable and the invincibility fable. An egocentric adolescent experiencing an imaginary audience believes there is an audience captivated and constantly present to an extent of being overly interested about the egocentric individual. Personal fable refers to many teenagers ' belief that their thoughts, feelings, and experiences are unique and more extreme than others'. In the invincibility fable,
6625-453: The Congo through these observations: “Noises are heard coming from the vegetation. A young male swings from a branch and leaps into a tree... He emits sharp calls, which are answered by other individuals who are not visible. He points—with his right arm stretched out and his hand half closed except for his index and ring fingers—to the position of the two groups of camouflaged observers who are in
6750-461: The adolescent believes that he or she is immune to misfortune and cannot be harmed by things that might defeat a normal person. Egocentrism in adolescence is often viewed as a negative aspect of their mental state because they become consumed with themselves and function more poorly in society due to their skewed version of reality and cynicism . There are various reasons why adolescents experience egocentrism: Gender differences have been found in
6875-441: The approval of others, while for egocentrists this may or may not be true. When infants and young children begin to show egocentrism they learn that their thoughts , values , and behaviors are different from those of others, also known as the theory of mind . Initially when children begin to have social interactions with others, mainly the caregivers , they misinterpret that they are one entity, because they are together for
7000-575: The association between the spoken and printed word, and encouraging children to be attentive to the meaning of text. Pointing plays an important role in sign language , which as much as 25% of signs being a variation of pointing. Children who are deaf have been shown to begin pointing at a similar age to non-deaf children, but this did not confer any advantage in the acquisition of pronouns in American Sign Language. Initial observations give some indication that deaf children acquiring
7125-490: The character itself did not see the entire scenario, it has the same amount of knowledge as oneself and therefore should look inside the box to find the marble. As children start to acquire ToM, their ability to recognize and process others' beliefs and values overrides the natural tendency to be egocentric. Although most of the research completed on the study of egocentrism is primarily focused on early childhood, it has been found to also occur during adolescence . David Elkind
7250-407: The child believes that others know everything about the topic of discussion and become frustrated when asked to give further detail. Piaget also believed that egocentrism affects the child's sense of morality. Due to egocentrism, the child is only concerned with the final outcome of an event rather than another's intentions. For example, if someone breaks the child's toy, the child would not forgive
7375-436: The child with correct language usage repetitively. Environmental influences on language development are explored in the tradition of social interactionist theory by such researchers as Jerome Bruner , Alison Gopnik , Andrew Meltzoff , Anat Ninio , Roy Pea , Catherine Snow , Ernest Moerk and Michael Tomasello . Jerome Bruner who laid the foundations of this approach in the 1970s, emphasized that adult " scaffolding " of
7500-509: The child's ability to understand these sentences and then to use complicated sentences as they develop. Studies have shown that students enrolled in high language classrooms have two times the growth in complex sentences usage than students in classrooms where teachers do not frequently use complex sentences. Adults use strategies other than child-directed speech like recasting, expanding, and labeling: Some language development experts have characterized child directed speech in stages. Primarily,
7625-451: The child's attempts to master linguistic communication is an important factor in the developmental process. One component of the young child's linguistic environment is child-directed speech (also known as baby talk or motherese), which is language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences. Although the importance of its role in developing language has been debated, many linguists think that it may aid in capturing
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#17327798744447750-427: The child's speaking and writing can be seen in this phase. This means that speaking and writing have 'well-articulated forms and functions'; however, they are also integrated in the sense that they use the same system. As a result of the individual being aware of the audience, context and reason they are communicating, both written and spoken language are able to overlap and take several forms at this stage. Kroll used
7875-581: The child; this is known as child-directed speech (CDS). CDS is used so that children are given the necessary linguistic information needed for their language. Empiricism is a general approach and sometimes goes along with the interactionist approach. Statistical language acquisition , which falls under empiricist theory, suggests that infants acquire language by means of pattern perception. Other researchers embrace an interactionist perspective , consisting of social-interactionist theories of language development. In such approaches, children learn language in
8000-451: The children already know the correct word for. At two years of age, children have been shown to be more likely to point for adults than for children their own age. A meta-analysis by Colonnesi and colleagues found a strong relationship between pointing and language, including between pointing at an early age and language ability in later life, and pointing at an early age as a predictor of two-word vocal combinations. They concluded that only
8125-420: The children expect them to behave. In a 2005 study , the children observed the experimenter place a toy inside one of two boxes but did not see when the experimenter removed the toy from the original box and placed it in the other box, due to obstruction by a screen. When the screen was removed the children watched the experimenter reach to take the toy out of one of the boxes, yet because the children did not see
8250-472: The corrections given to them by an adult. R.L Trask also argues in his book Language: The Basics that deaf children acquire, develop and learn sign language in the same way hearing children do, so if a deaf child's parents are fluent sign speakers, and communicate with the baby through sign language, the baby will learn fluent sign language. And if a child's parents aren't fluent, the child will still learn to speak fluent sign language. Trask's theory therefore
8375-410: The development of language as a continuation of general cognitive development and Vygotsky's social theories that attribute the development of language to an individual's social interactions and growth. Evolutionary biologists are skeptical of the claim that syntactic knowledge is transmitted in the human genome. However, many researchers claim that the ability to acquire such a complicated system
8500-509: The earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and differentiate them from other sounds after birth. Typically, children develop receptive language abilities before their verbal or expressive language develops. Receptive language is the internal processing and understanding of language. As receptive language continues to increase, expressive language begins to slowly develop. Usually, productive/expressive language
8625-547: The early linguistic environment. When speaking to their infants, mothers from middle class "incorporate language goals more frequently in their play with their infants," and in turn, their infants produce twice as many vocalizations as lower class infants. Mothers from higher social classes who are better educated also tend to be more verbal, and have more time to spend engaging with their infants in language. Additionally, lower class infants may receive more language input from their siblings and peers than from their mothers. It
8750-493: The elements of universal grammar, which he believes are prewired in humans to just the principle of recursion, thus voiding most of the nativist endeavor. Researchers who believe that grammar is learned rather than innate, have hypothesized that language learning results from general cognitive abilities and the interaction between learners and their human interactants. Based on studies of the developing visual system by Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel , it has been suggested that
8875-422: The environment guides the development of language networks in the brain by selecting the neurons and their synapses that are most active during the prolonged early development of humans in a socio-linguistic environment. According to this theory, the neural substrate for language results from a combination of the genetically determined complexity of the human brain and the 'functional validation of synapses' during
9000-424: The environment is limited and full of errors. Therefore, nativists assume that it is impossible for children to learn linguistic information solely from their environment. However, because children possess this LAD, they are in fact, able to learn language despite incomplete information from their environment. Their capacity to learn language is also attributed to the theory of universal grammar (UG), which posits that
9125-436: The errors in pointing behavior produced by autistic deaf children and autistic hearing children were similar. Both deaf and hearing children use pointing abundantly while learning language, and initially for the same reason, although that starts to diverge as deaf children acquire signs. Pre-verbal hearing infants use pointing extensively, and use a combination of one word plus one gesture (mostly pointing) before they can produce
9250-649: The female advantage may be task dependent. Depending on the task provided, a female advantage may or may not be present. Similarly, one study found that out of the 5.5% of American children with language impairments, 7.2% are male, and 3.8% are female. There are many different suggested explanations for this gender gap in language impairment prevalence. It is currently believed that in regards to brain lateralization males are left-lateralized, while females are bilateralized. Studies on patients with unilateral lesions have provided evidence that females are in fact more bilateralized with their verbal abilities. It seems that when
9375-598: The fine motor skills necessary for correct speech may develop more slowly in males. This could explain why some of the language impairments in young males seems to spontaneously improve over time. It is also suggested that the gender gap in language impairment prevalence could also be explained by the clinical over diagnosis of males. Males tend to be clinically over diagnosed with a variety of disorders. A late 1990s study found that males were diagnosed with language impairment 1.5 times more than were females. The study by Shriber et al. (1999) further explains that this gap in
9500-448: The four phases to give an explanation and generalise about the development of these two aspects of language. The highest significance is placed on the second and third phase, consolidation and differentiation respectively. It could be concluded that children's written and spoken language, in certain respects, become more similar to age, maturation, and experience; however, they are also increasingly different in other respects. The content of
9625-420: The full hand instead of the typical extended index finger that humans use. However, this may be countered with observations in apes trained to use sign language, which do point with the index finger. Recently, studies have also indicated that chimpanzees in captivity use pointing as a flexible signal, by raising their arms in order to point to objects that are further away. Thus, while apes certainly can point, it
9750-448: The hypothesis that children have innate, language-specific abilities that facilitate and constrain language learning. In particular, he has proposed that humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way, arguing that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD). However, since he developed the minimalist program , his latest version of theory of syntactic structure, Chomsky has reduced
9875-513: The infant's attention and maintaining communication. When children begin to communicate with adults, this motherese speech allows the child the ability to discern the patterns in language and to experiment with language. Throughout existing research, it is concluded that children exposed to extensive vocabulary and complex grammatical structures more quickly develop language and also have a more accurate syntax than children raised in environments without complex grammar exposed to them. With motherese,
10000-408: The infant's understanding of the world in terms of their own motor activity as well as an inability to understand it. In children's social development, the infancy is the period where the individual performs very few social functions due to the conscious and subconscious concern with the fulfilment of physical needs . According to George Butterworth and Margaret Harris, during childhood , one
10125-902: The interactions of mothers in the United States with their infants with mothers in Japan. Mothers in the United States use more questions, are more information-oriented, and use more grammatically correct utterances with their 3-month-olds. Mothers in Japan, on the other hand, use more physical contact with their infants, and more emotion-oriented, nonsense, and environmental sounds, as well as baby talk, with their infants. These differences in interaction techniques reflect differences in "each society's assumptions about infants and adult-to-adult cultural styles of talking." Specifically in North American culture, maternal race, education, and socioeconomic class influence parent-child interactions in
10250-553: The interactive and communicative context, learning language forms for meaningful moves of communication. These theories focus mainly on the caregiver's attitudes and attentiveness to their children in order to promote productive language habits. An older empiricist theory, the behaviorist theory proposed by B. F. Skinner suggested that language is learned through operant conditioning, namely, by imitation of stimuli and by reinforcement of correct responses. This perspective has not been widely accepted at any time, but by some accounts,
10375-583: The inventory principle is the fact that children have the urge to list and name items that they are familiar with, and because of this they can practice their own writing skills. More recent research has also explored writing development. Myhill concentrated on the development of written language skills in adolescents aged 13 to 15. Myhill discovered that the more mature writer was aware of the shaping of text, and used non-finite clauses, which mirrored Perera's results (1984). Other researchers focused on writing development up until late adolescence, as there has been
10500-462: The inventory principle. The recurring principle involves patterns and shapes in English writing that develop throughout writing development. The generative principle incorporates the idea that a writer can create new meanings by organizing units of writing and letters of the alphabet. The sign principle is understanding that the word print also involves paper arrangement and word boundaries. And lastly,
10625-403: The kind of attachment style their child will have. When children reach about 15–18 months of age, language acquisition flourishes. There is a surge in word production resulting from the growth of the cortex. Infants begin to learn the words that form a sentence and within the sentence, the word endings can be interpreted. Elissa Newport and colleagues (1999) found that humans learn first about
10750-402: The last six weeks of pregnancy. Throughout the first year of life, infants are unable to communicate with language. Instead, infants communicate with gestures . This phenomenon is known as prelinguistic gestures, which are nonverbal ways that infants communicate that also had a plan backed with the gesture. Examples of these could be pointing at an object, tugging on the shirt of a parent to get
10875-464: The left, while boys are typically ambidextrous for 15 degrees to the left and right of center. Pointing at remembered targets can be impaired in cognitive impairment due to dementia . The gestures used for pointing and their interpretation vary among different cultures. While studies have observed index finger pointing in infants across a range of cultures, because those studied are also ones where adults frequently use this type of pointing, further study
11000-769: The letters needed to write the words the children say. In this initial phase children experience many opportunities to extend their spoken language skills. Speaking and writing are considered fairly separate processes here, as children's writing is less well developed at this stage, whereas their spoken language is becoming more skilled. Kroll considers the second phase in writing development to be consolidation. Here, children begin to consolidate spoken and written language. In this phase children's writing skills rely heavily on their spoken language skills, and their written and spoken language becoming integrated. Children's written language skills become stronger as they use their spoken language skills to improve their writing. Then in turn, when
11125-452: The linguistic input, and a nativist approach by which some principles of syntax are innate and are transmitted through the human genome. The nativist theory , proposed by Noam Chomsky , argues that language is a unique human accomplishment, and can be attributed to either "millions of years of evolution" or to "principles of neural organization that may be even more deeply grounded in physical law". Chomsky says that all children have what
11250-620: The long period of postnatal maturation that is unique among primates. Similarly, it has recently been suggested that the relatively slow development of the prefrontal cortex in humans may be one reason that humans are able to learn language, whereas other species are not. Further research has indicated the influence of the FOXP2 gene. 0-1 years of age: 1–2 years of age: 2–3 years of age: 3–5 years of age: 5–10 years of age: 10–18 years of age: Language development and processing begins before birth. Evidence has shown that there
11375-417: The looking behavior in response to their pointing gestures. There remain questions as to whether this constitutes "true pointing", and whether non-humans have the social or cognitive abilities to understand the intentional communicative nature of pointing. These questions arise especially due to the nature of these primate pointing gestures. They are only produced for humans and not for other apes, and often use
11500-408: The main obstacles to logic that children possess includes centration, "the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of others". A particular type of centration is egocentrism – literally, "self-centeredness". Piaget claimed that young children are egocentric, capable of contemplating the world only from their personal perspective. For example, a three-year-old presented his mother
11625-418: The middle adult years. Baron and Hanna looked at 152 participants and tested to see how the presence of depression affected egocentrism. They tested adults between the ages of 18 and 25 and found that the participants who suffered from depression showed higher levels of egocentrism than those who did not. Finally, Surtees and Apperly found that when adults were asked to judge the number of dots they see and
11750-526: The mother talks to the child and responds back to the child, whether it be a babble the child made or a short sentence. While doing this, the adult prompts the child to continue communicating, which may help a child develop language sooner than children raised in environments where communication is not fostered. Child-directed speech concentrates on small core vocabulary, here and now topics, exaggerated facial expressions and gestures, frequent questioning, para-linguistic changes, and verbal rituals. An infant
11875-520: The mountains test has been criticized for judging only the child's visuo-spatial awareness, rather than egocentrism. A follow-up study involving police dolls showed that even young children were able to correctly say what the interviewer would see. It is thought that Piaget overestimated the extent of egocentrism in children. Egocentrism is thus the child's inability to see other people's viewpoints, not to be confused with selfishness. The child at this stage of cognitive development assumes that their view of
12000-444: The number of dots an avatar in the computer simulation would see, the presence of the avatar interfered with the participants' judgment-making during trials where the number of dots presented to the participant differed from the number of dots presented to the avatar. Such effect on the participants diminished when the avatar was replaced with a simple yellow or blue line, which suggested that participants projected their own vision onto
12125-423: The other and the child would not be able to understand that the person who broke the toy did not intend to break it. This phenomenon can also be backed by the evidence from the findings of the case study by Nelson, who studied the use of motives and outcomes by young children as aiding to form their moral judgements. Piaget did a test to investigate egocentrism called the mountains study. He put children in front of
12250-403: The parent's attention, etc. Harding, 1983, devised the major criteria that come along with the behavior of prelinguistic gestures and their intent to communicate. There are three major criteria that go along with a prelinguistic gesture: waiting, persistence, and ultimately, development of alternative plans. This process usually occurs around 8 months of age, where an appropriate scenario may be of
12375-585: The parents use repetition and also variation to maintain the infant's attention. Secondly, the parent simplifies speech to help in language learning. Third, any speech modifications maintain the responsiveness of the child. These modifications develop into a conversation that provides context for the development. While most children throughout the world develop language at similar rates and without difficulty, cultural and socioeconomic differences have been shown to influence development. An example of cultural differences in language development can be seen when comparing
12500-412: The person being interacted with, the audience of their gesture, rather than being attentive only to the object pointed at. Moreover, it seems that non-human great apes also take the perspective of the communicative partner in order to produce clear, unambiguous points. Studies have found that apes point with the dual goal of directing attention and requesting food, and additionally that they are sensitive to
12625-450: The physical gestures employed and their interpretation. Pointing, especially at other people, may be considered inappropriate or rude in certain contexts and in many cultures. It is generally regarded as a species-specific human feature that does not normally occur in other primates in the wild. It has been observed in animals in captivity; however, there is disagreement on the nature of this non-human pointing. The primary purpose of pointing
12750-487: The pointing gesture declarative to share attention with conspecifics." Kovács and colleagues state "pointing as a referential communicative act seems to be unique to human behavior." However, the claims that pointing is a unique human gesture have not gone unchallenged. A study in 1998 by Veà and Sabater-Pi described examples of explicit declarative pointing in bonobos in what is now the Democratic Republic of
12875-497: The prevalence of language impairment could be because males tend to be more visible. These researchers reveal that male children tend to act out behaviorally when they have any sort of disorder, while female children tend to turn inward and develop emotional disorders as well. Thus, the high ratio of males with language impairments may be connected with the fact that males are more visible, and thus more often diagnosed. Research in writing development has been limited in psychology. In
13000-412: The production of pointing, some non-human animal species can appropriately respond to pointing gestures, preferring an object or direction, which was previously indicated by the gesture. Cats, elephants, ferrets, horses and seals can follow the pointing gesture of a human above chance, while dogs can rely on different types of human points and their performance is comparable to that of 2-year-old toddlers in
13125-403: The rate of sucking that the infant was performing. When the story that the mother had read before was heard, the sucking of the pacifier was modified. This did not occur during the story that the infant had not heard before. The results for this experiment had shown that the infants were able to recognize what they had heard in utero, providing insight that language development had been occurring in
13250-406: The recipient is being attentive to the object, and by 15 months of age, will first verify that they have the attention of the recipient, and only then point as a means of redirecting that attention. Children are more likely to point for adults who respond positively to the gesture. At 16 months they are less likely to point for adults who are shown to be unreliable, adults who have mislabeled objects
13375-415: The research that has been conducted, focus has generally centred on the development of written and spoken language and their connection. Spoken and written skills could be considered linked. Researchers believe that children's spoken language influences their written language. When a child learns to write they need to master letter formation, spelling, punctuation and they also have to gain an understanding of
13500-453: The researchers highlight that these phases are flexible in their onset. The first phase focuses on spoken language as the main aid for writing development, and the development then takes its course reaching the fourth phase, which continues beyond formal education. The environment a child develops in has influences on language development. The environment provides language input for the child to process. Speech by adults to children help provide
13625-425: The skills are more similar, but the approach used for both writing and speaking are different. When writing and speaking development is looked at more closely it can be seen that certain elements of written and spoken language are differentiating and other elements are integrating, all in the same phase. Perera conducted a survey and her view mirrors that of Kroll to the extent that she used Kroll's four phases. When
13750-466: The sounds of a language, and then move on to how to speak the language. This shows how infants learn the end of a word and know that a new word is being spoken. From this step, infants are then able to determine the structure of a language and word. It appears that during the early years of language development females exhibit an advantage over males of the same age. When infants between the age of 16 to 22 months were observed interacting with their mothers,
13875-427: The structure and the organisational patterns involved in written language. Kroll's theory is one of the most significant on children's writing development. He proposed that children's writing development is split into 4 phases. Kroll explicitly states that these phases are 'artificial' in the sense that the boundaries between the phases are imprecise and he recognises that each child is different, thus their development
14000-492: The switching part, they looked at the experimenter's action much longer when she reached for the box opposite to the one she originally put the toy in. Not only does this show the existence of infants' memory capacity, but it also demonstrates how they have expectations based on their knowledge, as they are surprised when those expectations are not met. Piaget explained that egocentrism during infancy does not mean selfishness , self-centeredness, or egotism because it refers to
14125-451: The tests used to evaluate pointing comprehension are often inaccurate, especially in apes. Thus there is conflicting evidence and debate as to whether apes fully comprehend pointing gestures. Language development Language development in humans is a process which starts early in life. Infants start without knowing a language, yet by 10 months, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling . Some research has shown that
14250-413: The thumb, the index finger and the pinkie extended)", pointing with a protruded lip, and pointing with the eye. When pointing to indicate a position in time, many, but not all cultures tend to point toward the front to indicate events in the future, and toward the back to indicate events in the past. One noted exception is that of speakers of Aymara , who instead tend to associate what is in the past, what
14375-466: The transformation from the basically overt language of speech to the essentially covert activity of writing'. In this phase, the child learns that writing is generally considered more formal than spoken language, which is thought to be casual and conversational. Here, it is believed that children begin to understand that writing serves a purpose. Kroll considers the last phase to be the systematic integration phase. A differentiation and integration between
14500-434: The undergrowth.” This was one of the only observations of pointing in the wild by primates for years, but recently other possible examples have been documented. Researchers claimed to observe imperative pointing gestures produced by bonobos when attempting to initiate genital rubbing, as well as by chimpanzees when reaching towards objects they desired, although even these researchers admitted the rarity of chimpanzee pointing in
14625-502: The use of American Sign Language (ASL) may exhibit self-pointing behavior earlier than hearing children who are acquiring speech. Pointing to a location begins being deictic for deaf children and hearing alike, but becomes lexicalized for more mature signers. There is a distinction between linguistic pointing in ASL and gestural pointing by deaf users, the latter being identical for deaf and hearing people. One small-scale study found that
14750-400: The way egocentrism manifests. Transient Self, as defined by Elkind and Bowen in 1979, refers to an impermanent image of self that is mainly relative to one-time behaviors and temporary appearance. Adolescent females have a greater tendency to view themselves as different from others and tend to be more self-conscious in situations that involve momentary embarrassments (e.g. going to a party with
14875-419: The wild is still up for debate, pointing in captivity is widely established in primates. Leavens and Hopkins note that pointing behavior has been observed in captivity for a range of species. In some, such as apes, the majority of such behavior is spontaneous (meaning without explicit training to do so), but occurs only rarely in others, such as monkeys. When present, this may be accompanied by visual monitoring of
15000-408: The wild. In the wild, both chimpanzees and bonobos have been shown to seemingly signal and gesture to direct each other's attention, through acts like beckoning and “directed scratching.” Thus, while it is clear that other primates use gestures to direct attention, it is still uncertain as to whether this is done overtly as in humans through pointing. Although the question of whether primates point in
15125-423: The world is the same as other people's. In addition, a more well-known experiment by Wimmer and Perner (1983) called the false-belief task demonstrates how children show their acquisition of theory of mind (ToM) as early as 4 years old. In this task, children see a scenario where one character hides a marble in a basket, walks out of the scene, and another character that is present takes out the marble and put it in
15250-575: Was able to learn over 114 signs in order to communicate his wants to the caregivers. Unlike humans, however, Nim was unable to make use of significant grammar or context. Other attempts to teach great apes language have met with varying degrees of success, and whether the communication the apes achieve can be equated to human language is controversial. One hotly debated issue is whether the biological contribution includes capacities specific to language acquisition, often referred to as universal grammar. For fifty years, linguist Noam Chomsky has argued for
15375-429: Was found to be correlated with heightened egocentrism. While decreased egocentrism is found between the ages of 15 and 16, adults also have reactions or behaviors that can be categorized as egocentric. Frankenberger tested adolescents (14–18 years old) and adults (20–89) on their levels of egocentrism and self-consciousness. It was found that egocentric tendencies extended into early adulthood and were still present in
15500-516: Was merely the child's thoughts. He believed that this speech had no special function; it was used as a way of accompanying and reinforcing the child's current activity. He theorized that as the child matures cognitively and socially the amount of egocentric speech used would be reduced. However, Vygotsky felt that egocentric speech has more meaning, as it allows the child's growth in social speech and high mental development. In addition to Piaget's theory, he believed that when communicating with others,
15625-432: Was one of the first to identify the presence of egocentrism in adolescence and late adolescence. He argues, "the young adolescent, because of the physiological metamorphosis he is undergoing, is primarily concerned with himself. Accordingly, since he fails to differentiate between what others are thinking about and his own mental preoccupations, he assumes that other people are as obsessed with his behavior and appearance as he
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