English Language (9093) | The main stages of early development in child language acquisition

Study Notes for Paper 3: Child Language Acquisition (CLA)

The Main Stages of Early Development (Ages 0–8)

Welcome! This chapter is crucial for Paper 3, Section B, where you will analyze transcripts of children's speech. Understanding these developmental stages allows you to accurately label the language features you find and link them directly to established linguistic concepts (AO4 and AO5).

Don't worry if the terminology seems heavy; we will break down the journey from 'goo-goo' to complex sentences into four simple, manageable stages.

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1. The Pre-Verbal Stages (Before the First Word)

Before a child speaks their first meaningful word, they go through essential stages focused on practicing sounds and intonation. These stages typically occur from 0 to 12 months.

1.1 Cooing (0–4 months)

This involves simple, comfortable, vowel-like sounds, usually made in response to interaction.
Example: /u:/ or /a:/.

1.2 Babbling (4–12 months)

This is the syllabus's first key stage. The baby begins producing consonant-vowel combinations. This demonstrates they are learning to control their vocal apparatus.

• Reduplicated Babbling (around 6–9 months): Repeating the same C-V pair.
  Example: "mama-mama," "dada-dada."
• Variegated Babbling (around 9–12 months): Using different C-V combinations in sequence.
  Example: "gaba-daga," "tami-puna."

Did you know? Even deaf babies babble with their hands if they are exposed to sign language, suggesting babbling is an innate drive to practice communicative patterns!

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2. The Main Stages of Lexical and Grammatical Development

These stages describe how children move from single words to constructing complex sentences, typically spanning 12 months up to the age of 5.

2.1 The Holophrastic Stage (Around 12–18 months)

The second key stage required by the syllabus. A child uses a single word (a holophrase) to express a complex idea that would require a full sentence from an adult.

• Key Feature: High reliance on context and prosodic features (like tone and intonation).
• Example: A child points to a toy and says "Bear" (with upward intonation ¹) - the meaning is "Is that my bear?"
• Example: A child stamps their foot and says "Juice" (with downward intonation \(\searrow\)) - the meaning is "I demand juice now."

Memory Aid: A hologram is one complete picture. A holophrase is one complete idea packed into one word.

2.2 The Telegraphic Stage (Around 24–36 months / Age 2–3)

The third key stage. The child begins combining three or more words, but they systematically omit function words or grammatical morphemes. They keep only the essential content words, like a telegram (which historically charged per word).

• Content Words Kept: Nouns, verbs, main adjectives. (e.g., Daddy, eat, fast, big).
• Function Words Omitted: Determiners (the, a), auxiliary verbs (is, are), prepositions (in, on), and inflections (-ing, -ed, plural -s).
• Example: "Daddy chair park" (Daddy is sitting on the chair in the park).
• Example of Omitted Inflection: "I walk home now" (missing the -ing or auxiliary am).

2.3 The Post-Telegraphic Stage (Around 36+ months / Age 3+)

The final syllabus stage. Language structure becomes more complex and grammatically complete. The child masters function words, inflections, and starts using complex sentence structures.

• They use subordination (combining clauses using conjunctions like because, when, if).
  Example: "I can’t go outside because it is raining."
• They master plurals (cats), past tenses (walked), and auxiliary verbs (is going).

Key Linguistic Features in the Telegraphic/Post-Telegraphic Stages

2.4 Lexical Errors: Overextension and Underextension

These errors show the child is actively sorting and hypothesizing about categories of words.

• Overextension: A child uses one word to refer to a wider range of objects than an adult would. This is very common.
  Analogy: Imagine putting one big label, "FRUIT," on the whole grocery store, instead of separating apples, oranges, and bananas.
  Example: Using the word "dog" for all four-legged animals (dogs, cats, horses).
• Underextension: A child uses a word to refer to only one specific object, limiting its meaning. This is less common.
  Example: Using the word "bottle" only for their own specific baby bottle, but not for milk bottles in the fridge or a water bottle.

2.5 Grammatical Errors: Virtuous Errors

A virtuous error is a mistake that shows the child is learning the rules of grammar and applying them logically, even when they result in an incorrect word.

• Example: Applying the regular past tense rule (add -ed) to an irregular verb: "I runned fast" instead of I ran fast.
• Example: Applying the regular plural rule (add -s) to an irregular noun: "Lots of mans" instead of men.

This provides strong evidence for theories suggesting that grammar is innate, as the child couldn't possibly have imitated "runned" from an adult.

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3. The Functions of Child Language (Halliday’s Categories)

Understanding *why* a child speaks is as important as understanding *how* they structure their speech. Linguist Michael Halliday identified seven functions (or purposes) that motivate children's early language use.

Memory Aid (I RIPE HI): Use this simple list to remember all seven functions.

• Instrumental
• Regulatory
• Interactional
• Personal
• Representational
• Heuristic
• Imaginative

Detailed Breakdown of Halliday’s Functions

1. Instrumental: Language used to fulfill a need or achieve a goal (getting something).
   Example: "I want milk." or "Give toy."
2. Regulatory: Language used to influence the behavior of others (giving instructions or commands).
   Example: "Go away." or "Do that now, Mummy."
3. Interactional: Language used to develop relationships and social interaction.
   Example: "Hello, Daddy." or "Love you."
4. Personal: Language used to express feelings, opinions, or a sense of self.
   Example: "I am happy." or "Me good boy."
5. Representational (Informative): Language used to convey facts, information, or communicate an event (reporting).
   Example: "The bear is big." or "Granny came yesterday."
6. Heuristic: Language used to explore the world and learn, usually by asking questions.
   Example: "Why that dog running?" or "What is that called?"
7. Imaginative: Language used to create an imaginary environment, role-play, or tell stories.
   Example: Using voices while playing with dolls or saying, "Let’s pretend I'm the princess."