Deck 6: Language Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Question 1

A mother who spoke both English and Spanish while her baby is just a newborn can expect which of the following?

A) Her baby will only pay attention to one language.
B) The baby will prefer listening to unfamiliar words in a third language.
C) The baby will not yet attend to either language, given newborns' limited alertness.
D) Her baby will show equal preference for both languages.
E) Babies between 0-3 months can learn more if there is only one language spoken.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The channeling of language preference and perception to one's native tongue is an example of

A) language bias.
B) perceptual narrowing.
C) habituation.
D) phonological awareness.
E) auditory channeling.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which will impact how phonemes combine into words?

A) Alphabet
B) Child age
C) Syntactic cues
D) Language
E) Semantics

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In the real-life example of the word apple, _______ can describe why infants are able to detect the likelihood of ap being paired with ple?

A) phonotactics
B) perceptions
C) statistical learning
D) combinations
E) continuous speech stream

Question 5

Infants begin to babble and vocalize when parents interact with them. About what age will infants begin to produce canonical syllables or babbles?

A) As young as 12 months
B) Generally between 10-18 months of age
C) As young as 6 months
D) Cooing depends mostly on quality of parenting
E) Even 3 year olds struggle with producing a range of syllables

Question 6

According to the reading, infants who have hearing disabilities tend to display what amount of canonical babbling relative to hearing infants?

A) Less frequent
B) About the same mount
C) More frequent
D) A complete absence of
E) The same amount at first, but a decline of babbling over time

Question 7

Semantic development refers to

A) receptive language.
B) the process of expanding babbling sounds
C) the speech sounds an infant produces.
D) the rules for combining words.
E) the meaning of words and word combinations.

Question 8

Which represents the order in which infants typically learn different types of words?

A) Verbs, then nouns
B) Nouns, then verbs
C) Both nouns and verbs at the same time Nouns, then verbs
D) In varying order depending on the inputs of caregivers
E) In varying order depending on the talkativeness of the child

Question 9

When might a child experience a "vocabulary growth spurt"?

A) Usually when formal education begins
B) When parents begin reading regularly to their child(ren)
C) At the onset of first words, which occurs around 12 months
D) After a few months of growth in vocabulary, around 18 months of age
E) Upon enrollment in nursery school where talk with peers becomes essential.

Question 10

When will children typically begin experimenting with different sounds?

A) Infants begin making simple sounds and by 12 months of age can say a handful of words.
B) This occurs by 8-9 months of age.
C) This occurs by 6 months in the form of coos.
D) Usually sound play comes after age 2, entering toddlerhood.
E) Sound experimenting is mostly dependent on a child's personality and temperament.

Question 11

Which is the set of rules that govern the ordering of parts of speech for children that form meaningful sentences?

A) Word mapping
B) Speech laws
C) Symphonic morphs
D) Syntax
E) Extended word queues

Question 12

Tanya (18 months old) is presented with sentence, "The dog is blinking the cat." Tanya knows the words fly and cow, and through her understanding of the grammatical structure points to a picture of a dog that is licking a cat. This illustrates how _______ aids young children in the learning of new words.

A) telegraphic speech.
B) syntactic bootstrapping
C) referent mapping
D) underextension
E) fast mapping

Question 13

A toddler wants to leave the house and go somewhere by saying "go car?" repeatedly to his mom. This kind of speech is known as

A) turn taking.
B) pragmatic speech.
C) gaze and gestures.
D) telegraphic speech.
E) short-worded sentence briefs.

Question 14

Why do children begin using prepositions, conjunctions, and articles at a later age of 2-3?

A) They require children to have a foundation of nouns.
B) They require children to have a foundation of prefixes and suffixes.
C) They require children to have a foundation of verbs.
D) They require children to have a foundation of both nouns and verbs.
E) They require children to have a foundation of morphemes.

Question 15

Which development reveals a child's growing skills in pragmatics?

A) Producing sounds
B) Learning social conventions and norms around language use
C) Learning how to combine words into sentences
D) Growth in productive vocabulary
E) Growth in understanding the meaning of complex sentences

Question 16

Which behaviors are a part of infants' turn-taking during communication with others?

A) Words and sounds
B) Gestures
C) Coos
D) Smiles
E) All of the above

Question 17

Infants can use nonverbal methods-their own and those of others-to

A) make requests, such as for food.
B) learn new words.
C) draw attention to something.
D) interpret the intentions of others.
E) All of the above.

Question 18

At what age does infant gaze start?

A) At birth
B) By 18 months
C) As eyesight improves after a few weeks from birth
D) When infants are able to understand pointing gestures
E) When infants have acquired their first words

Question 19

Chomsky suggested that children are innately endowed with the ability to learn language, which he attributed to

A) language development.
B) the innate desire to interact with caregivers.
C) language acquisition device.
D) telegraphic speech.
E) behaviorism.

Question 20

Chomsky believed that children are innately endowed to learn language. From the options, which provides support to back Chomsky's claim?

A) Infants show the ability to learn from language from caregivers with scaffolding and support.
B) Children automatically memorize word meanings without having to practice.
C) Children show creative uses of language and an ability to generate an infinite number of sentences they never heard.
D) Language skills are inherited dispositions shown to relate to a person's genetic makeup.
E) Children achieve adult-like grammar understanding and usage by 2 years.

Question 21

An infant knows the word for an animal (doggie!) and rejects a new name for the same animal (puppy). This behavior suggests a bias of

A) mutual exclusivity.
B) whole-object assumption.
C) familiar naming.
D) language acquisition device.
E) cognitive bias.

Question 22

Malik is playing with a red triangular toy. He hears an adult use the novel word block. Malik is likely to think this new word refers to the toy, rather than its shape, it's color, or some other characteristic of it. This illustrates the concept of

A) cognitive bias.
B) universal language.
C) bootstrapping.
D) mutual exclusivity.
E) whole object assumption.

Question 23

What percentage of deaf children in the U.S. are born to hearing parents who do not know American Sign Language?

A) 5 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 75 percent
E) Over 90 percent

Question 24

According to the chapter, in order to encourage _______, parents were at one point recommended to _______ rather than _______to their deaf children.

A) homesigning, talk, sign
B) oral language, sign, talk
C) sign language, sign, talk
D) sign language, talk, sign
E) oral language, talk, sign

Question 25

Who was Genie ?

A) A teenage girl who was among the first diagnosed with language disabilities
B) A child who survived years of abuse and neglect as a child and never fully developed language skills
C) A young teenager with a walking disability that limited her independence
D) A mother who emotionally abused her child due to behavior and socio-economic challenges
E) A child who suffered a brain injury that limited her ability to produce speech sounds

Question 26

Which is the most accurate summary of the case of Genie and what it taught scientists about critical period theory?

A) It presented strong evidence in support of critical period theory.
B) It decisively disproved critical period theory.
C) It provided evidence that might support the theory, but several confounding factors rendered the evidence inconclusive.
D) It determined that the critical period was much longer than originally theorized.
E) It established firmly that the critical period exists but can be shortened by abuse and neglect.

Question 27

Which theory attempts to explain how children develop the ability to draw meaningful associations among various related words and concepts?

A) Universal grammar theory (Chomsky)
B) Information-processing theory
C) Programming language theory
D) Connectionist theory
E) Nativist theory

Question 28

Which statement best explains the semantics of language as an interconnected system of words?

A) Spelling and grammar lessons improves language, allowing a person to understand more words.
B) Learning a word like "ball" relates to other words such as "bounce" "round" or "kick."
C) Having novel words leads to hands-on learning about other words that are similar in their sounds.
D) Memorization allows children to create meaningful word connections.
E) Abilities to pronounce words fosters greater connections to a wider range of word usage.

Question 29

Which statement best reflects a dynamic systems theory perspective?

A) Most children's language development is enhanced through caregiver scaffolding.
B) Children can improve language skills with interactive games and apps.
C) Shorter sentences and slow-talking improves language comprehension.
D) Children's active participation in their environment creates ways to connect words and meanings.
E) Children have multiple, innate abilities that interact to explain language development.

Question 30

A child lacks the mental capacity to solve a two-digit by two-digit multiplication problem. Which example below serves as a representation of scaffolding?

A) A teacher tries to motivate students to think harder and pressures them in class.
B) Peers work together to solve the problem by skipping steps.
C) Resourceful children will find a calculator to aid them in problem solving.
D) A child asks for help from a teacher who then offers additional problems for the child to practice and develop skills for homework.
E) A teacher helps the child learn the first step in the multiplication problem, which allows the child to then solve the next step.

Question 31

Which is not a scaffolding strategy?

A) Modeling and using gestures
B) Sitting near a child and not talking
C) Providing verbal hints and queues
D) Connecting to background knowledge
E) Using visuals

Question 32

A parent has placed two young children in front of an computer to watch videos in hopes of educating them. According to research what limitations may there be?

A) There should be none, as long as the videos are educational.
B) The lack of social interactions and contingency in videos and other screens hinders growth and learning.
C) Videos are the best way to teach a high volume of words in a short time frame if the videos are age appropriate
D) Children tend to learn less from videos when distracting each other.
E) Social interactions can be recorded to ensure word learning in young children who feel they know the familiar individual who is speaking on the video.

Question 33

According to research which is the best method to help infants and toddlers learn word?

A) Prerecorded video of an adult teaching about words
B) Colorful videos or programming with a lot of sound effects and fast-moving characters
C) Live interactions with an adult
D) Songs that spell out words
E) Read-a-loud electronic books created for toddlers

Question 34

Which feature has not been studied as an example of infant-directed speech?

A) High pitched, exaggerated speech
B) Changes in the amplitude (loudness) of speech
C) Shorter utterances
D) Concrete talk
E) Whispers

Question 35

Which statement best reflects what researchers have learned about infant-directed speech?

A) Infant-directed speech is harder to learn than adult-directed speech.
B) Infant-directed speech is easier to listen to but does not help infants discriminate among other speech sounds.
C) Infant-directed speech benefits infants if presented in quick, short messages.
D) Babies prefer to listen to infant-directed speech relative to adult-directed speech.
E) Infant-directed speech is something adults use, but siblings and other children would not use this with infants.

Question 36

Young children raised in homes with professional parents may show more language development and larger vocabularies compared to children raised at or near poverty levels. What do researchers Hart and Risley suggest is a possible explanation for these differences?

A) The researchers estimate that young children in poverty have heard 30 million fewer words in their first years of life than peers in homes with more resources.
B) The researchers found that children with more resources have richer play environments, with a greater variety of toys.
C) The researchers attribute the difference to greater exposure to environmental hazards, such as lead, that may impair language development.
D) The researchers found that children in lower-income homes had fewer siblings on average.
E) The researchers discovered that children in higher-income homes had greater access to more educational television and other media.

Question 37

What aspect of Early Head Start is provided to families that may specifically promote infants' and toddlers' language development?

A) Sufficient nutritional meals
B) High-quality care
C) Interactive games and puzzles
D) Playtime with peers
E) All of the above

Question 38

Which is true about the language development of children who hear two languages from infancy?

A) Learning two languages tends to slow overall language development.
B) Young children who learn two languages from birth generally show vocabulary growth in each language equal to language growth of a child who learns a single language.
C) Children learning two languages use the same strategies to acquire language as a single-language learner.
D) Their course of development in each language mirrors the course of monolingual children.
E) Children can readily acquire two languages even if they are first exposed to a second language after age 3.

Question 39

Which is not an example of communicative accommodation?

A) Talking in a higher pitched voice when talking to an infant
B) Adjusting vocabulary when talking to an infant
C) Satisfying an infant's emotional needs when talking to the infant
D) Talking to other adults in the presence of an infant
E) Using gestures accordingly when speaking to an infant

Question 40

Explain how infants first learn to communicate and what are the types of sounds made.

Question 41

Discuss the roles of gestures and gaze in infant communication.

Question 42

How does homesign support the claim that language is prewired?

Question 43

Explain how experience with language adds to a complex neural network with words (connectionist theory).

Question 44

What is one way caregivers can use scaffolding to better support a child's language development?

Question 45

Why do infants have problems learning language from television?

Question 46

How does infant-directed speech from caregivers influence language development?

Question 47

Describe how poverty and parent education may affect infant language exposure and vocabulary development (according to Hart and Risley), and offer a counterargument.

Question 48

How does childcare influence language development?

Question 49

When considering developmental cascades with language, in what ways does language influence cognition?