Gisa's space

Children's use of Language

Language is used by all of us to describe, explain, and inquire about the world around us. Language is also an important aspect of child development (Owen 85). Children use language according to their age and to the message they want to convey. This project will analyze language use among children ages one to three.

Twenty children were observed in a Day Care I work at located in Montclair, NJ:

• (Nine) three year-olds

• (Seven) two year-olds

• (Four) one and a half year-olds

These children’s utterances were written in a pad. The information gathered consisted of conversations exchanged through play and interactions with their Teachers.



The following words were recorded:

Nouns:
• Common, concrete and abstract nouns describing were prevalent: (mostly from their interactions with their toys and pictures from books): puzzle, girl, boy, car, baby, truck, book, jungle, submarine, dinosaur, t-rex, swings, slide, coloring book, policeman, house, bed, room, potty, doggie, cat, plane, train, phone, pants, shirt, hands, necklace, pencil, paper, crayon, birthday, shoes, song, idea, love, tree, fire, bird,…

• Numbers from one to ten,

• Primary colors, mostly used are blue, pink and yellow,

• Friends and family names, and the popular “mommy and daddy,”

• All sorts of foods they are used to eating and drinking, such as Mac-and-cheese, water, veggies, carrots, juice, pasta, bottle, plate, banana, apple, rice, chicken, cereal.

• Months and numbers (mostly linked with their birthdays and ages



Adjectives: funny, sad, colors, high, low, good, nice, great, favorite, bad, mean, pretty, ugly, sunny, cloudy, rainy, happy, fast, slow

Verbs:
Auxiliary: am, are, can, should, could, have
Linking and copulative: is (although it was deleted many times) look, taste, feel, sounds, jumps, walk, run, talk, draw, connects, put, find, want, need, wash, write, talk, listen, speak, eat, color, dream, scream, matches, yell, go, come

Pronouns:
Personal: “I” is the most frequent, followed by “mine” and “you.” Also, he, she, her, his, mine, yours, who, what were used. Elaborated pronouns such as theirs, hers and ours were not used. Instead, sentences such as “this is mine, and Mary” replaced “It’s ours”

Demonstrative: “That” was the most frequent, followed by this. Also the words “those” and “these” were used occasionally. it was hard to distinguish the difference in pronunciation between “this and these.”


Adverbs: really, sometimes, never, always, today, now, later

Prepositions: on, in, of, to, for,

Articles: only used occasionally, mostly “the” and “a”

Conjunctions: “and” and because



Children’s grammar based on my observations

One and a half year-olds:

- Frequent use of one word to describe a situation, make requests and for specific purposes. Instances were:
-“Shoe” to say, “Take off your shoes”
-“mama and dada” when missing their parents
-“baba” for “Can I have the bottle”
-“sad” to describe an uncomfortable situation
-“mine” to say, “Give me!”
-“all gone and bye-bye” to end situation
-“doggie” for any four-legged animal
-trouble with phonology. Can’t pronounce /ɛ/ open-mid front unrounded. For instance, instead of saying Danielle, will say, Daniol
-Trouble with short vowels in American phonology:
-Will say watu for water- difficulty pronouncing /ə /
-Can pronounce m, w, b, p sounds, but have difficulty with the rest of the consonants
-Most vocabulary consists of single words or jargon (long strings of sounds 83)
-Can name body parts such as belly (beye) legs (ieis)
-Replaces /l/ for /i/ sound: iego for lego, “pay” for play



Two and a half year- olds

- uses incomplete sentences: “I am doing (-) on top here”
- Able to speak sentences that contain subject, verb and object: “Let’s pWetend baby Jaguar is in trouble”
- Able to use a few adjectives: “That’s a BIG one”, a little bunny
-Deletes /L/ or replaces it with /I/: “seep” for sleep, “paydoh” for play-doh, “iot” for lot, “pieow” for pile
- Frequent deletion of auxiliary verbs and copula: I (-) watching show, and “He (-) a cat”
-Recognition of Present continuous: "I playing, I eating!"
- Rare use of past tense: “I draw picture” for I drew the picture
-Trouble pronouncing /w/: “I “(-to) to put that on” for I want to put that on,
“Siper no saiping” for Swiper no swiping
-Uses /t/ to replace G, QU, K, and C sounds: “Titel” for Giselle, “twit” for quick, “Tate” for cake, “tandle” for candle, “detonations” for decorations, “tate” for take
-Uses /d/ to replace Z and G sounds: “pudles” for puzzles, “bid” for big¸ “Diedo” for Diego, “dween” for green
-Uses /s/ to replace SH and TH sounds: “pus” for push, “bistday” for birthday,
-Uses /s/ to replace TH sound: “fee” for three
-Uses /w/ to replace R sound: “Let’s twy” for Let’s try, “weaie’ for really
-Frequently replaces “that” for “this”: holds a toy and asks, “what’s that” referring to its own hands


Three- year- olds
-add /-ed/" to form the past tense of a verb: I drawed the doggie” “I eated lots of foods”
-add /-s/" to form the plural of a noun: “I have manyS cars” “Lots of peopleS in the house”
-Able to speak long, simple sentences with subject, verb and object: “I want to do this puzzle but nobody can help me”
-Plays with words and sounds: rooaaazzziee for rose, “rainbownish picture” for colorful picture.
-Occasionally deletes copula: “This (-) a funny picture” or He (-) three
-Occasionally misuses preposition: “Can you put this ON my pocket?” instead of in
-Some still have difficulty pronouncing R and TH: “this is my tWuck” for truck, “Heazer” for “Heather,” “Kieoa” for Kiera
-Vocabulary varies depending on child, but most of them can use a wide range of words, including adjectives, prepositions and adverbs.
-Occasionally misuses syntax: “Every time I stay here for lunch” instead of “I stay for lunch every time I am here”
- Exaggerate on verbs: I go higher on the swings instead of “I go high on the swings”
-Occasionally misuses adverbs: “You gotta push VERY down”
-Deletes “have” in I have got: “I got I cat in my house”
-Switches past and present: “I go to the store yesterday with my brother”
-Enjoys talking about the present: “I am making a picture so I can give it to mommy”




Number of words children utter. Source: Language Development. Pearson, 2005.
1 and ½ year olds: has approximately twenty- word vocabulary. Plays question-answer with adults
2 –year-olds: Vocabulary increases rapidly. At age two, the toddler the toddler has an expressive vocabulary of about 150 to 300 words.
3 -year -olds: have 900-1000 word expressive vocabulary, creates three-to four word sentences. Follows two step commands


My observations

Although the children I observed followed certain language characteristics of their age group, they showed visible individual differences in their speech. Owen from Language Development explains that “individual development depends on many factors, including genetic inheritance, nutrition, gender, intelligence, overall emotional and physical health socioeconomic factors, ethnicity and prenatal conditions” (67). One concludes that normative data are meant as a guide, and even though there are predictable stages of child development, the range of normality is broad.

I noticed that children learn an incredible amount of vocabulary from books and are often eager to learn new words when faced with new pictures. Preschoolers are very curious about their surroundings, and seem to learn new words from books incredibly fast. Child Development experts promote the advantages of books as tool to increase language and cognitive abilities: Dr. Manzack from University of Michigan Health Center explains that “Literature is valuable for many reasons: it sparks children's creativity and imagination; introduces them to new people, places, and ideas; builds their vocabulary and strengthens their use of language” (www.med.umich.edu).


It was remarkable to examine how children follow systematic patterns with their language. As a Teacher’s Assistant in a Day Care, I’ve been able to understand them better after I observed their language patterns. For instance, I understand that some two year olds misplace G for T, so if they say “toat” I already understand “goat”! I also noticed the importance to surround preschoolers with a wide range of books in order to increase their vocabulary and cognitive abilities. Moreover, it is important to understand that children’s language varies according to their developmental stage, social factors, gender, and the amount of exposure they have with books and adults.
In sum, language in children evolves, grows, and changes. Children are incredible creatures able to maneuver and pair their language with their environment. Their brilliant minds are capable of creating their own language system and grammar. Incredible!!



Bibliography:
1) Owens, Robert. Language development, An Introduction. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2005.
2) Website (www.med.umich.edu) .University of Michigan Health systems. Copyright © 2003 McKesson Health Solutions LLC.

Tose for closed

Matoloni and cheez for macaroni and cheese

Dween for green diedo for diego tant you for thank you

Replacing c k for t

I drawed the picture