Language+development

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**Focus Question:**

** To what extent are combined intervention programs more effective than purely behavioural or purely developmental based interventions in targeting spontaneous speech production in children on the autistic spectrum? **

=** Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) **=

**Overview**

 * Also known as **Pervasive Developmental Disorders** (PDDs).
 * ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities which are characterized by deficits in three core areas: **social skills**, **communication**, and **behaviours/interests**.
 * These deficits are caused by an inability of the different areas of the brain to work together.
 * The term "**spectrum**" is important to understanding ASDs because the disorder affects each person differently and severity varies.
 * Types of ASDs/PDDs include:
 * **Asperger Syndrome**
 * Considered the **mildest form** of autism.
 * Because of this, it is referred to as "**high-functioning autism**".
 * Affects boys 3 times more often than girls.
 * Children with Asperger's syndrome become **obsessively interested in a single object or topic**.
 * Their **social skills are impaired** and they are often awkward and uncoordinated physically.
 * **Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified** (PDD-NOS)
 * **Majority of ASD patients** are classified under this category.
 * Autism is more severe than Asperger's but not as severe as autistic disorder.
 * **Symptoms vary widely**, making it difficult to generalize, however overall, compared to children with other ASDs, children with PDD-NOS are characterized by:
 * impaired social interaction
 * better language skills than children with autistic disorder, but not as good as those with Asperger's syndrome
 * fewer repetitive behaviours than children with Asperger's syndrome or autistic disorder
 * later age of onset
 * Diagnosis of PDD-NOS is given when a child seems autistic to professional evaluators but does not meet all the criteria for autistic disorder.
 * **Autistic Disorder**
 * More **severe** impairments involving social and language functioning
 * **Repetitive behaviours**
 * Often also have **mental retardation** and **seizures**
 * **Rett's Syndrome**
 * Almost exclusively affects **girls**
 * **Very rare**; 1 in every 10,000 to 15,000 girls develop Rett's syndrome
 * Between 6 and 18 months of age, the little girl **stops responding socially**, **wrings her hands habitually**, and **loses language skills**.
 * **Coordination problems** appear and can become severe.
 * Usually caused by a **genetic mutation** which occurs **randomly**.
 * Treatment focuses on physical therapy and speech therapy.
 * **Childhood Disintegrative Disorder**
 * **Most severe ASD**, least common
 * After a period of normal development, usually between the ages of 2 and 4, a child with CDD **rapidly loses social** and **language skills** as well as **intellectual abilities**.
 * Often, the child develops a **seizure disorder**.
 * Lost function is never recovered and patients are severely impaired.
 * Fewer than 2 children per 100,000 with an ASD meet criteria for CDD.
 * Boys are affected by CDD more often than girls.
 * Approximately 1 in every 150 children is autistic.
 * Boys have a significantly higher incidence of autism than girls; 4 of every 5 autistic people are male.
 * Symptoms almost always present before the age of 3.
 * There is thought to be a **genetic factor** involved in ASD.

http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/autism-spectrum-disorders http://www.firstsigns.org/delays_disorders/asd.htm http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html http://www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/facts.php
 * Sources**:

Symptoms

 * **Social Interactions and Relationships**
 * Significant problems developing nonverbal communication skills (e.g. eye contact, facial expressions, body posture).
 * Failure to establish friendships with children of the same age.
 * Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.
 * Lack of empathy and difficulties understanding another person's feelings (e.g. pain, sadness).
 * **Verbal and Nonverbal Communication**
 * Delay in, or lack of, learning to talk. As many as 40% of people with autism never speak.
 * Problems taking steps to start a conversations or difficulties continuing a conversation after it has begun.
 * Repetitive use of language (echolalia: repeating phrases heart previously).
 * Difficulty understanding their listener's perspective (e.g. humour). They are very literal.
 * **Limited Interests**
 * Unusual focus on pieces (e.g. focus on part of toys such as the wheel on a car).
 * Preoccupation with certain topics.
 * A need for sameness and routines.
 * Stereotyped behaviours (e.g. body rocking hand hand flapping).

http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/autism-symptoms
 * Sources**:


 * Check Web References

=** Treatments and Interventions **=

**Biologically Based**

 * **Medication**
 * There is currently **no medical treatment** for the core features of autism, although **attempts have been made to use medications to treat symptoms and co-morbid disorders of autism** such as anxiety and ADHD, as well as **to increase the likelihood that children will benefit from cnocurrent interventions**.
 * Drugs used include neuroleptics/antipsychotics, risperidone, SSRIs, antidepressants, stimulants, anticonvulsants.
 * Drugs which have been shown to be ineffective and/or harmful include naltrexone, secretin, and adrenocorticotrophin hormone (ACTH).
 * **Complimentary and Alternative Interventions**
 * Diets (casein and gluten-free)
 * Anti-yeast therapies
 * Chelation
 * There is **minimal evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of these interventions**.

**Psychodynamic Interventions**

 * Based on the assumption that autism is the result of **emotional damage** to the child, usually because of failure to develop a close bond (attachment) to parents.
 * These therapies are **seldom used** today as there is strong evidence to support the perspective that **autism is a developmental and cognitive disorder**, rather than emotional.
 * There is **little empirical evidence** demonstrating the effectiveness of psychodynamic interventions.

Behavioural Interventions

 * Uses **operant learning techniques** based on **learning theory**.
 * **Applied behaviour analysis** (ABA): operant learning techniques are applied in a systematic and measurable manner to increase, reduce, maintain, and/or generalize target behaviours.
 * **Discrete Trial Training** (DDT): an instructional methodology frequently used in ABA-based programs and involves breaking down specific skills into small discrete components or steps which are then taught in a graduated fashion.
 * **The Lovaas Program**
 * Also known as the **Young Autism Project**.
 * Is an example of **intensive behavioural intervention** (IBI) and **early intensive behavioural intervention** (EIBI).
 * IBI and EIBI are intensive and comprehensive behavioural intervensions. Intensity relates to the number of hours of treatment the child receivers per week as well as the intensity of training, curriculum, evaluation, planning, and coordination.
 * The Lovaas program is characterized by focus on intensive and extensive use of **discrete trail training** in the early stages of the program.
 * **Contemporary Applied Behaviour Analysis**
 * Contemporary ABA programs are **behavioural interventions which have evolved over time** as more research and information became available.
 * Programs include **Pivotal Response Training** (PRT), **Natural Language Paradigm** (NLP), and **Incidental Teaching**.
 * **Evaluation**
 * There is universal agreement that behavioural interventions have produced **positive outcomes** for children with autism, a claim supported by research.
 * However, there continues to be **controversy** about particular behavioural interventions and programs, concerns about **methodological issues**, and differences in the **interpretation of research findings**.
 * The controversy revolves around (a) claims that behavioural programs can lead to "recovery" of children with autism, (b) recommendations by some service providers that ABA and DTT approaches should be sued to the exclusion of all other methods, and (c) concerns that the intensity of treatment may not be appropriate for all children and families.

Developmental Interventions

 * Also known as **normalized interventions**.
 * Developmental or **relationship based interventions** focus on the **child's ability to form positive, meaningful relationships** with other people.
 * These programs aim to promote **attention**, **relating to and interacting with others**, **experience of a range of feelings**, and **organized logical thought**.
 * **The Developmental Social-Pragmatic Model**
 * Emphasizes the importance of **initiation** and **spontaneity** in communication.
 * Focuses on the child's focus of attention and motivations
 * Builds on child's current communicative repertoire, even if it is unconventional.
 * **Uses natural activities and events** as contexts to support the development of the child's communicative abilities.
 * Differs from contemporary ABA in that it emphasizes sequences of language development and reduces emphasis on eliciting and measuring discrete trial behavioural responses.
 * Success is measured in terms of **successful participation in extended interactions** within meaningful events and routines.
 * **Floor Time** (DIR)
 * **Developmental Individual-Difference Relationship-Based Model** (DIR)
 * Developmental approach for **early intervention** with infants and children with a disability.
 * Programs include **interactive experiences** which are child directed, in a low stimulus environment.
 * **Interactive play** (adult follows the child's lead) encourages the child to "want" to relate to the outside world.
 * **Responsive Teaching** (RT)
 * **Parent-mediated program** grounded in **contemporary child development theory**.
 * Aims to help parents to interact more responsively with their children.
 * **Relationship Development Intervention** (RDI)
 * Series of techniques and strategies built upon the typical developmental processes of social competence.
 * Goal of RDI is to **increase motivation and interest in social relating** and provide activities and coaching to assist autistic individuals to enjoy and become competent in social relationships.
 * **Evaluation**
 * There is **little research evidence** to support the effectiveness of developmental interventions for children with autism; studies have been pre-experimental, lacked independence, or been limited by methodological flaws.
 * Studies have, however, been done on discrete components of many of the programs (e.g. social, communication, cognitive, parenting outcomes) which show positive results.

Communication Focused Interventions

 * Communication focused interventions are commonly used with children with autism, either in isolation or integrated into a more comprehensive program.
 * **Visual Strategies and Visually Cued Instruction**
 * Commonly used to facilitate children's **expressive** and **receptive** communication.
 * Also used to support their **learning**, **information processing**, and **ability to navigate both the physical and social environment**.
 * **Manual Signing**
 * **Further research is required** to evaluate the functional outcomes for children who are taught to use manual signing and to identify which children are most likely to benefit from the use of manual signing.
 * Apart from a few case studies, manual signing has **not** been shown to reliably lead to verbal language development.
 * **The Picture Exchange Communication System** (PECS)
 * Teaches children to interact with others by exchanging pictures, symbols, photographs, or real objects for desired items.
 * Goals include **identification of objects** that may serve as stimuli for each child's actions and **learning of responses to simple questions** with multi-picture systems.
 * **Highly structured program** that uses behavioural principles of **stimulus**, **response**, and **reward** to achieve functional communication.
 * **Social Stories**
 * Developed by **Carol Gray** to help explain social situations to children with autism and help them actively learn appropriate responses to social cues.
 * **Speech Generating Devices** (SGDs)
 * Used to support **expressive** and **receptive** communication of children with autism.
 * Support comprehension
 * Promote symbol learning
 * Increase interactions with adults and peers
 * Support the expression of wants and needs
 * **Facilitated Communication** (FC)
 * Based on the claim that autism is primarily a **motor disorder** involving difficulty producing voluntary movement (**apraxia**) which precludes the production of speech.
 * Intervention involves teaching communication by physically prompting to form a pointing finger, supporting the hand as a point is made, and assisting withdrawal from the point.
 * There is **no** evidence that FC results in consistent, useful, or spontaneous communication in children with autism.
 * **Functional Communication Training** (FCT)
 * Behavioural strategy for teaching people with autism to use **Augmentative and Alternative Communication** (AAC) as substitutes for the "messages" underlying their challenging behaviour.
 * Teach the individual to communicate one or more functional messages, while providing a positive alternative to challenging behaviours.
 * Considered the **treatment of choice** in management of challenging behaviours in children with autism.
 * **Evaluation**
 * Some research has examined the effectiveness of communication focused interventions with **mixed results**.
 * There is a lack of **large**, **comprehensive**, and **well controlled** studies regarding the efficacy of these programs.

Sensory-Motor Interventions

 * There is growing awareness of the **sensory issues** characteristic of autism and interest in interventions designed to manage the environment to lessen the impact of sensory issues.
 * Research on the type and extent of these sensory characteristics of autism is necessary to design interventions to manage these.
 * **Auditory Integration Training** (AIT)
 * Aims to address the hypothesized hearing distortions, hyperacute hearing, and sensory processing anomalies which may cause discomfort/confusion in people with autism.
 * Auditory based therapies should be considered **experimental** in nature, as there is little supporting research evidence.
 * **Sensory Integration Therapy**
 * Aims to improve the sensory processing capabilities of the brain through the provision of vestibular, tactile, and/or proprioceptive stimulation.
 * Current research does **not** support SI as an effective treatment.

Combined Interventions

 * **The SCERTS Model**
 * Focuses on **S**ocial **C**ommunication, **E**motional **R**egulation, and **T**ransactional **S**upport as the principal dimensions for intervention planning.
 * Goal of program is to directly address the core deficits observed in children with autism using a **highly individualized** approach specific to each child.
 * The SCERTS is a model of service provision rather than a program and has not been independently validated.
 * **Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children** (TEACCH)
 * "**Whole life**" **approach** aimed at supporting children, adolescents, and adults with autism through the provision of visual information, structure, and predictability.
 * A small number of studies have **indicated positive outcomes** for children who access the TEACCH program.
 * Larger, systematic, and controlled studies are still needed.
 * **Learning Experiences - An Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Parents** (LEAP)
 * LEAP is for **both** autistic children and typically developing children.
 * Integrated preschool program and behaviour skills training program for parents.
 * Contains aspects of behavioural analysis, but is **primarily developmentally based**.

Family Based Interventions

 * Programs developed to **provide support for families** of children with autism.
 * Support may include:
 * Helping parents understand the nature of autism and their child's learning style
 * Provide parents with teaching and strategies to help support their child's learning
 * Helping family members to establish their own support networks
 * Providing information about other services and support programs that are availabe
 * Small number of studies involving family support programs have yielded **positive outcomes** for both children with autism and their families.
 * Further research of large controlled studies are needed.
 * **Family-Centered Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) Programs**
 * Aims to address a child's **challenging behaviour**.
 * Includes:
 * Strategies for teaching and increasing skills that are intended to replace the problem behaviours
 * Strategies for preventing the problems before they occur
 * Strategies for dealing with the problems if/when they do occur
 * Strategies for monitoring progress
 * **The Hanen Program** (More than Words)
 * Intensive training program for parents of preschool children with autism.
 * Derives theoretical framework from a **developmental social-pragmatic** perspective and emphasizes the blending of aspects of both **behavioural** and **naturalistic** child-centered programs.
 * Breaking down of activities into structured, small steps (like ABA)
 * Provision of opportunities to use language for functional purposes (naturalistic)
 * Preliminary evaluation of treatment outcomes has indicated **some positive outcomes** for children and families.

Other Interventions
Other interventions include; Higashi/Daily Life Therapy, The Option Method, Music Intervention Therapy, Spell, Campbell, Miller Method. There is little, if any, research evidence evaluating outcomes for these programs.

Characteristics of Effective Programs

 * Provide an **autism specific curriculum** content focusing on attention, compliance, imitation, language, and social skills.
 * Address children's need for highly supportive teaching environments.
 * Include specific strategies to **promote generalization** of new skills.
 * Address children’s need for **predictability** and **routine**.
 * Adopt a **functional communication approach** in addressing challenging behaviours.
 * Support children in their transition from the preschool classroom.
 * Ensure that **family members** are supported and engaged in a collaborative partnership with professionals involved in the delivery of treatments.
 * It is important to note that there is **no single program** that will suit all children with autism and their families.
 * However, there is evidence to suggest that there are substantial short and long term benefits from **early**, **intensive**, **family**-**based treatment** programs, whatever their theoretical basis, so long as these are appropriately **adapted** to the child’s pattern of strengths and weaknesses and take account of family circumstances.

Roberts, J. M. A., & Prior, M. (2006). //A review of the research to identify the most effective models of practice in early intervention of children with autism spectrum disorders//. Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Australia.
 * Source**:

= Joint Attention =

Overview

 * Joint attention is an early-developing social-communicative skill in which two people (usually a young child and an adult) use gestures and gaze to share attention with respect to interesting objects or events.
 * This skill plays a critical role in social and language development.
 * Impaired development of joint attention is a cardinal feature of children with autism, and thus it is important to develop this skill in early intervention efforts.
 * Example of joint attention: Sam and his mother were playing in the park when an airplane flew overhead. Sam looked up excitedly, then looked back at his mother, and finally pointed to the airplane, as if to say, "Hey, Mom, look at that!" Sam's mother looked at where her son was pointing and responded, "Yes, Sam, it's an airplane!"
 * In this scenario, the child directed the mother's attention to the airplane merely to share his experience of the airplane with her in a purely social exchange. This can be referred to as an episode of joint attention.
 * This type of behaviour generally emerges around 9 months of age in typically developing children.
 * Joint attention is defined by specific forms; gaze alternation and conventional gestures.
 * Its function is social interaction concerning objects and events in the surrounding world.

Joint Attention in Typically Developing Children
Joint attention involves two people actively sharing attention with respect to an object/event and monitoring each other's attention to that object/event. Within the first year and a half of life, typically developing children master the forms of joint attention and demonstrate motivation to seek the social consequences of joint attention. In contrast, joint attention is absent in children with autism, who characteristically are not interested in such social interactions.

Forms

 * Develops between 9 and 18 months of age in the form of dyadic interactions which include reference to objects and events in the surrounding environment.
 * Two ways in which a child engages in joint attention:
 * Responds to another person's attention directive
 * Late into the first year of life, infants consistently respond to adults' bids for joint attention, which typically takes the form of a shift in gaze and a turn of the head towards an object paired with a conventional gesture (e.g. pointing), by following the adult's gaze and point and looking at the target object. Adults also often comment on the object of joint attention.
 * Between 12 and 14 months, after following the direction of an adult's gaze or point, infants begin to check back with the adult by alternating their own faze from the object to the adult and back to the object.
 * This gaze alternation helps to ensure that the infant and adult are focused on the same thing.
 * The result of this response is a brief social interaction about, and continued shared attention to, the object of joint attention.
 * Initiates joint attention with another person
 * Towards the end of the first year of life, infants also being to initiate joint attention in response to the presence of an interesting object/event and a person to share it with.
 * They use gestures such as pointing and showing as well as gaze alternation.
 * At first, initiating are nonverbal (e.g. through gaze alternation and gesture).
 * As development continues, these nonverbal behaviours are combined with vocalizations in the form of simple sounds in order to direct their adult partner's attention.
 * This results in a social interaction about a particular object/event initiated by the child, and often results in comments (e.g. labeling) by the adult on the object/event.
 * By the middle of their second year of life, infants have developed well coordinated joint attention skills that take the form of gaze alternation and conventional gestures, providing the infant with the means to interact with adults about the surrounding world.

Functions

 * Bates et al. (1975) described joint attention ("proto-declaratives") as involving the "use of an object (through pointing, showing, giving) as the means for obtaining adult attention" (p. 209).
 * From this it can be said that the function of joint attention is social and reflects the infant's growing understanding of the world and motivation to interact with adults about interesting objects.
 * Compared to another early-developing communication skill, requesting, the specifically social nature of joint attention can be seen:
 * Both the initiation of joint attention and requesting take the same form (gaze alternation and conventional gesture use in order to coordinate attention between self, object, and other).
 * However, they each serve a different communicative function.
 * Initiating joint attention serves a declarative/indicating function: to show something to someone else.
 * Requesting serves an imperative function: to obtain an object or assistance.
 * The reward in the case of requesting is non social whereas the reward in the case of initiating joint attention is social.

Joint Attention in Children with Autism
A deficit in the development of joint attention is one of the earliest signs of autism, evident before one year of age and often before any diagnosis has been made, and is considered a marker in some infant screening and diagnostic instruments for autism (e.g. Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Pre-Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule). Only children with autism show deficits in joint attention, children with mental retardation or specific language delay (matched for developmental level) do not. A deficit in joint attention discriminated 80% to 90% of children with autism from those with other developmental disabilities.

Forms

 * Preschool children with autism show consistent deficits in both responding to and initiating joint attention bids.
 * Studies indicate that the impairment in joint attention changes over the course of development:
 * Impairment of skills in initiating joint attention remains
 * Some children who show more advanced cognitive development begin to demonstrate the ability to respond to others' joint attention bids.

Functions

 * A cardinal symptom of autism is a lack of social interest and understanding, for which deficit in joint attention is an early marker.
 * Diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV-TR include "a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)". (p. 75)
 * Developmental changes in the nature of this deficit suggests that responding to and initiating joint attention bids involve somewhat different functions; only initiating requires true social motivation.
 * Corkum and Moore (1995, 1998)
 * Proposed that responding to others' bids for joint attention may not necessarily require social motivation. The child may simply be looking where someone else is looking because there might be an interesting object or event present.
 * Demonstrated that responding to others' bids for joint attention could be taught to infants who had not yet developed joint attention using a simple conditioning paradigm in which responding to another person's joint attention bid was reinforced by the presence of interesting stimuli at the site where the other person was looking.
 * Children with autism are relatively unimpaired in using gestures and gaze alternation to obtain objects and assistance (to request), however they do not use these forms for the social purpose (sharing interest about an object/event with another person) of joint attention.

Developmental Significance
Joint attention is theoretically related to two core areas of disturbance in autism: language development and social development. These developmental connections require that the child displays both the forms and function of joint attention, otherwise the child will likely have great difficulties following and understanding social interactions and associating language labels with objects. A child who is not motivated to share the world around him/her with others (impaired function) is not likely to even engage in joint attention.

Language Development

 * Bruner (1983) suggested that joint attention provides a basis of shared experience that is necessary for language acquisition.
 * When an adult directs a child's attention, the adult often labels the object of joint attention, which the child then learns.
 * Joint attention is both concurrently and predicatively related to language ability in both typically developing children and those with autism.
 * Mundy and Gomes demonstrated that responding to others' bids for joint attention predicted receptive language ability and initiating joint attention predicted expressive language ability.
 * Gaze alternation enhances accurate vocabulary acquisition.
 * Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) examined discrepant labeling situations and found that typically developing children used gaze alternation to correctly ascertain the object to which the adult's label referred to. In contrast, children with autism did not engage in joint attention and did not use gaze alternation, therefore they incorrectly associated the object label with the object of their own focus, as opposed to that of the adult's focus.

Social Development

 * Social motivation is thought to underlie joint attention.
 * Joint attention is believed to indicate the beginnings of social understanding.
 * Mundy et al. (1994) found that more frequent joint attention behaviours were associated with parental perception of more positive social behaviours (e.g. eye contact, affect, imitation) on the Autism Behaviour Checklist in both typically developing children and those with autism.
 * Travis, Sigman, and Ruskin (2001) found that initiating joint attention was related to measures of social competence and prosocial behaviours in a laboratory task for individuals with autism.
 * Joint attention is also theoretically related to pretend play and theory of mind, two social-cognitive abilites that develop later and are also specifically impaired in individuals with autism.
 * Pretend Play
 * Not seen until the second year of life
 * Consists of acting as if something were the case when it is not
 * Children with autism are specifically impaired in spontaneous pretend play
 * Theory of Mind
 * Begins to emerge in the preschool years
 * The ability to take the perspective of another person and “knowing that other people know, want, feel, or believe things” (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985, p. 38).
 * Children with autism show specific impairments on theory-of-mind tasks.
 * In principle, joint attention reflects theory of mind in that the child possesses a basic understanding of what is in other people's minds as reflected by what they are attending to and what they are interested in.
 * Charman et al. (2001) found a relationships between early joint attention and later developing theory of mind in typically developing children.

Overview

 * It has been suggested that joint attention should be a priority for early intervention as it reflects a cardinal feature of autism and it facilitates other areas of development also impaired in autism.
 * Pivotal Skill: Skill which, when strengthened, results in positive changes in other areas of functioning and improvements in subsequent learning.
 * Pivotal areas identified in the literature (L. Koegel et al. 1999):
 * Responsivity to multiple cues
 * Self-management
 * Motivation
 * Motivation refers to an individuals responsiveness to social and environmental stimuli.
 * Children with autism characteristically lack motivation to respond to environmental stimuli, especially in engaging in social interaction with others.
 * Enhancing motivation in intervention programs results in collateral decreases in problem behaviour, more rapid skill acquisition, and greater generalization of acquired skills.
 * Intervening on pivotal skills produces a more efficient and cost-effective intervention than focusing on each and every deficient skill.

Overview

 * Landry and Loveland (1989)
 * Examined how three different social contexts, varying in the amount and type of adult control and direction, influenced joint attention in children with autism between the ages of 5 and 13.
 * Three contexts:
 * Adult-Directed: The adult controlled the interaction and required specific responses by the child to the adult's joint attention bids.
 * Request: The adult withheld a motivating object from the child, and the child was required to make a request using language or gesture.
 * Spontaneous: The interaction was not adult controlled. The child played freely and determined the course of all interactions.
 * Observations of joint attention behaviours indicated that compared with developmentally matched typically developing children and children with language delay, the children with autism continued to show fewer joint attention behaviours regardless of social context.
 * Lewy and Dawson (1992)
 * Compared joint attention in different play contexts:
 * Adult-Centered: Adult performed novel actions on the toys that the child had previously been playing with and attempted to direct the child's attention to a different object from the one with which the child was playing.
 * Child-Centered: Adult imitated the child's verbalizations, hand/body movements, and toy play and directed the child's attention to the identical toy with which the child was playing.
 * 20 participants with autism were all under 6 years of age and matched for developmental level (receptive language abilities) with one group made up of 20 children, slightly younger in age, who had mental retardation and another group of 20 typically developing children who were, on average, 18 months of age.
 * More time was spent engaging in joint attention behaviour in the child-centered play condition than in the adult-centered play condition.
 * However the children with autism continued to show significantly fewer joint attention behaviours than both comparison groups.
 * These studies suggest that joint attention is likely to be only modestly improved by relatively simple manipulations of social and play contexts.
 * Several general interventions, although they do not focus specifically on joint attention, include procedures that could strengthen that skill. These include comprehensive behavioural approaches and general social skills training.

Jones, E. A., & Carr, E. G. (2004). Joint attention in children with autism: theory and intervention. //Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities//, //19//(1), 13-26.
 * Source**:

=** Developmental Social-Pragmatic Model **=

**Overview**

 * **Naturalistic developmental behavioural intervention** used to teach **social-communication skills** to young at-risk children and children with disabilities.
 * Based on the study of interactions between typically developing infants and their mothers which indicates a relationship between **caregivers' responsivity** and their child's level of social communication development.
 * The DSP model is based on the theory that language develops with strong, affect-laden interactions between the child and the adult.
 * DSP interventions share several common characteristics:
 * Teaching follows the child's lead or interest (**child-initiated interactions**).
 * The adult **arranges the environment to encourage initiations** from the child. E.g. playful obstruction, sabotage, violating familiar routines, in sight-out of reach, etc.
 * **All communicative attempts** are responded to as if they were **purposeful**. Includes unconventional communication (e.g. jargon, echolalia, hand leading, nonverbal protests) and preintentional communication (e.g. reaching and grabbing, eye gaze, crying, facial expressions, body postures).
 * Emotional expressions and affect sharing are emphasized by the adult by **exaggerating** his/her affective gestures and facial expressions and **labelling** the child's emotional response.
 * **Language and social input are adjusted** (simplified) to facilitate communicative growth. Indirect language stimulation strategies such as vocal imitation, descriptive modeling, parallel talk, and expansion are used.
 * DSP approaches are similar to naturalistic behavioural interventions (e.g. milieu teaching, incidental teaching, and pivotal response training) in that they emphasize teaching to the child's interests, manipulating the environment to create opportunities for communication, and providing natural consequences for communication.
 * DSP approaches differ from naturalistic behavioural interventions in that...
 * Many DSP approaches focus on increasing social interactions and general communication ability **without** distinction or focus on specific forms.
 * DSP approaches **do not directly elicit the child's production of a response** (does not prompt child for an elaborated response following an initial communicative attempt), instead the adult will respond to any communicative attempt by providing what is desired and modelling a more complex response.
 * Research into the effects of DSP interventions on language are limited whereas there has been abundant research into the effects of naturalistic behavioural interventions.
 * There has been renewed interest in the DSP approach because it specifically targets **spontaneous functional communication**, which is an aspect of communication that highly structured, behaviourally based programs may inhibit.
 * It has been suggested that this type of intervention may be **least effective** for children who exhibit **unresponsive** or **passive** interaction styles, which are commonly seen in children with autism.
 * Also referred to as the **interactive model** or the **child-oriented approach**.
 * Specific interventions based on this model include the Hanen approach, the SCERTS model, the ECO model, the floor time/DIR model, responsive interaction, and responsive teaching.
 * Many DSP approaches currently advocated for use with children with autism were designed to be used by parents to increase **social-emotional functioning** and **communication skills**.


 * Sources**:

Ingersoll, B., Dvortcsak, A., Whalen, C., & Sikora, D. (2005). The Effects of a developmental, social–pragmatic language intervention on rate of expressive language production in young children with autistic spectrum disorders. //Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities//, //20//(4), 213-222.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_Social-Pragmatic_model

Overview

 * Developmental approaches begin with the assumption that "all strategies of intervention, regardless of the target group or desired outcome, can be derived from normative theories of development. That is to say, the general principles of development apply to all children independent of their biological variability or the range of environments in which they live." (National research Council, 2000)
 * This approach is based on the assumption that the universal and unique features of the language acquisition process of children with autism can best be understood, explained, and responded to with a keen awareness of the forms and functions of typical language acquisition.
 * For children with autism, developments that typically occur before the child's first words at about 12 months are particularly challenging for young autistic children.
 * It is the challenges in affective, social, and cognitive domains that account for the difficulties they experience with language.
 * Many contemporary interventions (e.g. auditory integration training, Fastforward, the Picture Exchange System, ABA, the Developmental Individual Different Relationship-based approach) are designed to enhance language and communication development (and can be quite successful) but overlook these earlier developmental deficits which underlie the children's difficulties with language.
 * In the DSP approach, the step of language assessment and intervention are:
 * Identification of where the child is functioning on the "map" of language acquisition
 * Assessing where the child's strengths and challenges lie in the components of language (phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics)
 * Determining where the child's next step in the language acquisition process needs to be taken
 * Considering how his/her unique patterns and strengths can be used to his/her advantage
 * Developmentalists focus on developmental stages rather than diagnostic categories.
 * "Preintentional" or "prelinguistic" versus "autistic"
 * "Sensorimotor stage of development" versus "cognitively challenged"

The Form-Content-Use Model of Language Acquisition

 * Models - Research Cited
 * Bloom and Lahey (1978)
 * Lahey (1988)
 * Bloom and Tinker (2001)
 * Language acquisition assumptions derived from these models:
 * Language is the convergence of...
 * Form: Conventional system of symbols governed by phonologic, morphologic, and syntactic rules.
 * Content: Meanings of language based on the speaker's ideas about the world; semantic component of language includes the rules governing word meanings and the meaning of word combinations.
 * Use: Interpersonal aspects of communication; pragmatic component of language includes functions, contexts, and conversational rules.
 * All aspects of the child's development (cognitive, social, affective, and linguistic) contribute to the language acquisition process
 * A language will never be acquired without the child's engagement in a world of persons, objects, and events
 * Language acquisition requires effort as the young child's cognitive resources compete for many aspects of development in which he or she is engaged (learning a language, learning about the world of objects, learning about the world of people, learning about his/her emotional life)
 * Principles of relevance, discrepancy, and elaboration explain the language acquisition process (Bloom, 1993)
 * Some children with developmental delays have primary difficulties in the area of form (e.g. connecting sound with meaning).
 * They may have ideas/knowledge but cannot produce the units of speech with which to talk about them.
 * May be due to retrieval issues or symbolic deficits that restrict the induction of form and content.

Gerber, S. (2003). A Developmental perspective on language assessment and intervention for children on the autistic spectrum. //Top Language Disorders//, //23//(2), 74-94.
 * Source**:

**Ingersoll et al. 2005**

 * **Aim**: To examine whether a DSP approach increases the rate of expressive language with a therapist in young children with ASD and whether these skills generalize to interactions with the children's parents.
 * **Procedure**:
 * Three boys with ASD (two with autistic disorder and one with PDD-NOS) attended a treatment center 2 days per week for 50-minute sessions throughout baseline and treatment. Baseline lengths of 2, 4, and 6 weeks were randomly assigned to the participants, after which all participants received 10 weeks of language therapy using a DSP approach.
 * Baseline sessions consisted of free play with a therapist. Every 30 seconds, the therapist made a verbal or nonverbal initiation to the child. The child was not required to respond and the therapist complied with requests and acknowledge comments made by the child, but did not attempt to engage the child in additional interactions.
 * The DSP intervention used was adapted from other DSP approaches, including floor time/DIR, the SCERTS model, and responsive teaching. Main treatment components included (a) following the child’s lead, (b) setting up the environment to evoke initiations from the child, (c) treating all of the child’s communicative attempts as purposeful, (d) emphasizing appropriate affect, and (e) using indirect language stimulation techniques. If the children engaged in challenging behavior such as throwing toys, the therapist acknowledged their emotion (e.g., “I see you are mad”) and redirected the child to another activity. Very few challenging behaviors occurred during baseline or treatment, and all children responded to redirection.
 * Once a week throughout baseline and treatment, generalization was assessed by observing each child during a 10 minute free play session with his parent. Follow-up visits were conducted 1 month after the conclusion of treatment.
 * Fidelity of Implementation was collected on five intervention strategies using a 5-point rating scale. Overall fidelity was determined by averaging the scores obtained on each intervention strategy. Fidelity of implementation was considered to have been achieved if the average rating was at least 4 out of 5 across all observations. This was collected on 10% of the treatment sessions and all of the structured observations. The therapist met fidelity on all sessions and the parents did not meet fidelity at any point in treatment and did not improve in their implementation of the intervention over the course of the treatment.
 * **Findings**:
 * **Conclusions**:
 * **Strengths**:
 * **Limitations**:
 * **Citation:** Ingersoll, B., Dvortcsak, A., Whalen, C., & Sikora, D. (2005). The Effects of a developmental, social–pragmatic language intervention on rate of expressive language production in young children with autistic spectrum disorders. //Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities//, //20//(4), 213-222.

=Language Development=


 * Awesome Media Stuff!**

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2010-B-74345&semesterid=2010-B
 * Psych 140 Developmental Psychology Lecture @ UCBerkeley - Spring 2010**
 * Lecture 14: Language Acquisition - Chapter 7**

**Background Info!**

 * What is language?**
 * **Sapir (1967)**: Language is primarily an auditory system of symbols.
 * **Problems** with this definition:
 * Language **does not have to be auditory**: Sign language is non-auditory language.
 * Language is used to **communicate**.

(Source: Lecture - "Language Acquisition - From Sounds to Syntax" by Sarah Wilson - http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2010-B-74345&semesterid=2010-B)

The **Innateness Hypothesis** (Pinker, 1994) states that humans are hard-wired to acquire language in a way that other mammals cannot. It is hypothesized that this could be due to human brain or general cognitive faculties.
 * Pinker calls it "**the language instinct**".
 * **Def'n**: biologically-controlled/innate behaviour
 * **Eric Lenneberg** developed 6 criteria for determining whether something is a biologically determined behaviour:
 * **T****he behaviour emerges before it seems necessary.** Language emerges before it is necessary; children learn to speak before they need to use it to fend for themselves, as they are still being cared for by primary caregivers.
 * **Its appearance is not the result of a conscious decision.** Children do not decide to start acquiring language, it simply happens.
 * **Its emergence is not triggered by extrenal events** (though the surrounding environment must be sufficiently rich for it to develop adequately). Language does not develop because of a special training environment like "language school", etc. Kids live in a world of language, therefore it develops. Useful analogy: We're born ready to sing, and simply need to be exposed to the song.
 * **Direct teaching and extensive practice have relatively little effect.** Drilling children on grammar won't make them learn language any faster.
 * **There is a regular sequence of "milestones" as the behaviour develops, and these can usually be correlated with age and other aspects of development.** Kids acquire language systematically and cross the same basic milestones at roughly the same time, regardless of the language being acquired.
 * **There is likely to be a critical period.** This means that there is likely to be a period during which language acquisition is possible, and after which language acquisition becomes highly unlikely, if not impossible. It is like a window of opportunity for language acquisition, which is thought to exist (more on this later!)

The **Critical Period** of language development is "a span of time in one's life within which one must acquire a first language" otherwise full proficiency can never be acquired. >>> "native" mastery of a language.
 * Studied with regards to **two stages** (each one can be considered one critical period):
 * **Period One**:
 * Birth to 2 years old
 * It is hypothesized that if a child is not exposed to language at all during this time period, the child will never be able to gain
 * During the first couple years of life, the language acquisition process has particular consequences for brain development. If this period is missed, the brain will never develop the same structures later. (Related to Brain Plasticity - Rosenzweig and Bennett)
 * **Period Two**:
 * Up until puberty.
 * More relevant to **second language acquisition**.
 * After puberty, it is nearly impossible to learn a second language with "native" mastery.
 * Definitive evidence for the critical period hypothesis is hard to come by due to **ethical limitations** in research. (Researchers cannot isolate babies from language at birth for a certain amount of time in order to test to what extent language development will be hindered.)
 * **Case studies** are therefore used to research this particular hypothesis:
 * **Genie** - Isolated until she was 14. She was never able to acquire language with anything even resembling the fluency of native speakers. (There is a book about her by Russ Rymer.)
 * **Isabelle** - Isolated from spoken language until she was around 6. May have been exposed to sign language. She caught up to her peers within about two years.
 * These cases suggest that there is a critical period.
 * Chelsea? **<< NEED FURTHER RESEARCH**
 * Although Isabelle's case may seem to go against the idea that there is a first critical period, if she was exposed to **sign language**, then it is assumed that her brain underwent the same type of development that is hypothesized to occur at that age.
 * Support for the second critical period include how young children do not have real difficulties acquiring multiple languages if they are raised in a bilingual or even trilingual environment, whereas adults do have difficulties acquiring a new language, even when they are immersed in the language.

(Source: UNC - http://www.unc.edu/~gerfen/Ling30Sp2002/acquisition.html)

**Theories of Language Acquisition**

 * **Imitation Theory** - Children hear speech around them and copy it.
 * **Reinforcement Theory** - Adults correct children when they speak, which helps establish guidelines (grammar rules!), etc.
 * **The Active Construction of a Grammar Theory** - As children listen to others speak, they hypothesize patterns regarding rules of language, grammar, and sentence structure, and they alter their own use of language to mimic that of adults. This is one of the more widely accepted hypothesis regarding language acquisition in children.

(Source: UMich - http://sitemaker.umich.edu/nicolesling/home)


 * Imitation Theory**
 * Children learn grammar by **memorizing** the words and sentences of their language.
 * Memorization is a large part of language acquisition: Children must commit the vocabulary (or signs) heard (or seen) to their mental dictionaries before they can use them to communicate.
 * **Limitations** of Imitation Theory include:
 * **Children produce many things not in the adult grammar.** E.g. baby babble ("nana" for banana). Some attribute this to the difficulty of learning how to physically speak. Since speech is a complex activity requiring muscular coordination, young children may have simply not mastered the motor coordination required.
 * **Children make consistent errors that cannot be attributed to mispronunciation and which still are not ever heard in the adult grammar.** E.g. "Goed" instead of went or "drawed" instead of drew. This shows that children are not simply memorizing all of the words in their language, because adults don't make these errors. One explanation is that children are building a grammar, not simply memorizing, as these errors indicate that children are applying a past tense "rule" to irregular verbs that they have not yet memorized as exceptions to the normal pattern. This hypothesis, however, disagrees with imitation theory, which is based purely off of memorization.
 * **Children can produce and understand novel sentences.** Imitation theory suggest that children can only produce sentences that they've already heard, since they merely imitate input from other speakers. However, children can produce sentences they've never heard before. This, again, suggests that children are constructing grammar and organizing language based on rules which they can apply.


 * Reinforcement Theory**
 * Children learn to speak like adults because they are **taught** to do so. Reinforcement refers to **praise** and **reward** for doing things right.
 * Adults also **correct** them when they make mistakes, which helps them learn proper grammar.
 * **Limitations** of Reinforcement Theory:
 * **Parents don't actually correct children's grammar as much as we might think, and most do not praise children for using proper adult grammatical constructions.** What is more common is for adults to correct the accuracy of a child's statement. For example if a child says, "The dog wants to eat." an adult may respond, "No, the dog does not want to eat." whereas if a child says, "Nancy goed to school yesterday." the adult may respond, "Yes, she did." and not bother to correct "goed" which is improper grammar.
 * Also, **even when parents do correct their child's grammar, oftentimes the child will still continue to produce incorrect grammatical forms**. There is little evidence that this correction has any great effect on the language development of the child.


 * The Active Construction of a Grammar Theory**
 * Children "invent" or **predict the rules of grammar** for themselves **based on the language around them**.
 * Explains one particular phenomenon in which **children learn irregular past tense forms and use them early on, then "lose" these irregularities and uses words like "goed", then, after a while, begin to use the correct form again**. What could be happening is that child will memorize the correct form ("went") by hearing it and committing it to memory. After a certain period of time of exposure to language, the child will find a regular "rule" of past tense formation (add an -ed to the present tense). At this point, the child will overgeneralize, and apply the rule to "go" and say "goed" since that is what the pattern dictates. Eventually, the child will realize that "went" is an exception to the past tense rule and begin to use "went" instead of "goed" as the past tense form of "go".
 * This also explains the **creolization of languages**.
 * **Pidgin**: a simplified form of speech that is usually a mixture of two or more languages, has a rudimentary grammar and vocabulary, is used for communication between groups speaking different languages, and is not spoken as a first or native language.
 * **Creolized Language**: a language derived from a pidgin but more complex in grammar and vocabulary than the ancestral pidgin.
 * When children grow up with speakers of a pidgin language as their primary caretakers (which makes them their primary source of linguistic input), if the Active Construction of a Grammar Theory is applied, the children will be natural grammar builders who will develop a grammar out of the linguistic input around them. This will result in the natural creolization of the pidgin language. Based on imitation theory, this phenomenon would never occur since the children would simply acquire the pidgin by memorizing and imitating the linguistic inputs they are exposed to. This phenomenon does, however, occur, which makes the Active Construction Theory more likely.

(Source: UNC - http://www.unc.edu/~gerfen/Ling30Sp2002/acquisition.html)

__**Stages of Language Development**__

 * Newborns and Language**
 * Newborns recognize and prefer their mother's voice and language. They prefer the language of their mother to their mother's voice. (E.g. They prefer a woman speaking the language their mother usually speaks to them over their mother's voice speaking a foreign language. The languages were Italian and Russian respectively.)
 * Study Details: The pace at which newborns suck on a pacifier lets us know that they recognize the change from Italian and Russian and vice versa. They suck the hardest when hearing new words and when recognizing the change from the unfamiliar language to the familiar language. Which study was this? Researcher? Etc?


 * 2 - 5 Months and Language**
 * When a child is between 2-5 months they vocalize mostly when lying down and they begin to develop vocal "games". They explore manipulations with pitch, practice consonantal features such as friction noises, bilabials and nasal murmurings.
 * The child's first vowels begin to appear and they play with their articulators, clicking tounge and opening and shutting mouth. Deaf babies also play these games.


 * 6 - 8 Months and Language: Babbling**
 * "Gagagagagag" - Single consonant-vowel syllable repeated.
 * "Mamamma-gagagaga" - Combinations of repeated consonant-vowel syllable.
 * Early in this stage deaf babies also babble but hearing babies can model pitch of vocalization (high with a woman and low with a man).
 * Babies can still recognize language sounds that are not apart of their language.


 * 8 - 12 Months and Language: Sophisticated Babbling**
 * Babies begin to babble using sounds from only their language. They begin to lose the ability to distinguish sounds not in their own language.
 * In English most words begin with consonants so in this stage babies of English speaking parents babble mostly C-V-C.
 * From this babbling babies develop their first words.
 * Deaf Children cease vocal babbling.


 * 1 year old: One-Word Stage**
 * Mostly concrete words such as "car" and "eat" emerge.
 * Naming precedes asking during the one-word stage. Example: Pointing and saying "ball" but meaning "can I have the ball?"
 * Can obey simple verbal commands. Example: "no" ideas such as "don't do that".


 * Approx. 18 Months: Two-Word Stage**
 * Children at this stage can associate things that belong to them and to others (possessor followed by possessed). E.g. "Mommy's sock".
 * Children can express who is doing what (actor followed by action). E.g. "Cat sleeping".
 * They can vocalize two-word expressions, typically with subject-verb, verb-object, adjective-noun relationship.


 * Approx. 3 years**
 * Overgeneralization of grammar rules. E.g. "foots" instead of feet. This may occur even if the child has used the plural form correctly in the past. Even though the plural rule is being broken, this overgeneralization is a sign of progress in language acquisition.
 * Word order is often confused.
 * //Syntactic function of a noun phrase is most often determined by its position. (?)//
 * The child ignores tense and prepositions and only considers the world order.
 * Active versus passive sentence constructions are acquired. E.g. "The baby bounced the ball." (active) versus "The ball was bounced by the baby." (passive).


 * Age 6**
 * By age 6 children have about 14,000 words.
 * If this child began to acquire words at 18 months of age they learn 9 words per day which equals about 14,000 words at 6.
 * This is about one word every waking hour.

(Source: UMich - http://sitemaker.umich.edu/nicolesling/home)

__**Studies Involving Acquisition of Language**__

 * Phonology**
 * **Sound units** in language
 * A **phoneme** is a sound unit that has no meaning in and of itself, but **contributes to meaning**.
 * If you change to another phoneme, you change the meaning:
 * E.g. cat, bat, rat...
 * If you change it to another **allophone**, you don't change the meaning.
 * pat vs. impact vs. tap (aspirated/non-aspirated p's)
 * There are **200 sounds** used as phonemes world-wide
 * Most languages have about 40 (standard North American English uses 45)
 * Infants need to learn which are used in their language
 * Constraints on **combinations**
 * E.g. //sberba// and //schruck// are not possible English words because //sb// and //schr// are not possible combinations of sounds.
 * Placement: //psalo// is not possible but //alops// is. //ps// is possible, just not at the beginning of a word.
 * **Why is it so hard to learn phonology?**
 * **Sound** **bands** - sometimes words fall right after sound bands, within sound bands, or outside sound bands, there is **no definitive rule**.
 * **Lack of invariance** - there is **no consistency**
 * **Eimas et al. (1971)**
 * **High Amplitude Sucking** (HAS) Measurement (sucking rate)
 * 1 and 4 months
 * "ba" vs. "pa"
 * **Voice Onset Time** (VOT)
 * The sounds are essentially the same, what differentiates them is how soon your vocal chords start vibrating after you close your lips
 * This is called the "**voice onset delay**"
 * There is delay in "ba", but not in "pa"
 * **Findings**: even at 1 month, infants perceived the difference categorically, at same location as adults.
 * **Experience dependent changes in speech perception**
 * As infants age, they begin to tune the sounds they understand to their **native language**.
 * English "speaking" babies were tested at 6-8 months, 8-10 months, and 10-12 months
 * Could differentiate between ba and da at all ages (meaningful change in phoneme)
 * Could differentiate between ta(r) and ta(d) initially however could not by 10-12 months (the changes in the "a" sound are not meaningful)
 * Could differentiate between k'i and q'i (Hindi) initially however could not by 10-12 months (since it is a different language, these sounds are not significant in English)
 * Hindi infants, however, could discriminate at 10-12 months since the sounds are relevant to their language.
 * **How does this learning happen?**
 * Need **minimal pairs** (words different based on one sound - bat, pat, rat) to understand what sound units of language are.
 * **Distributional learning**
 * **Mechanism** used by infants to tune their sound system.
 * **Experiment**: Two groups of infants. Group 1 heard voice onset delays mostly clustered around mid-range (standard distribution). Group 2 heard voice onset delays mostly clustered around the long end of the continuum and the short end of the continuum.
 * **Findings**: Infants from group 1 could not differentiate between long and short voice onset delays whereas infants from group 2 could.
 * **Conclusion**: The infants decided whether or not these sounds were the same based on the distributional linguistic information they received.
 * **Word Segmentation**
 * Why is it hard?
 * Back to **sound bands**
 * wherearethepausesinthissentence?
 * Certain sounds in the stream make up the **words**, some mark **word boundaries**.
 * Some sound **combinations** are more likely than others
 * E.g. pretty baby - pre-tty as a combination is more likely than ty-ba as a combination
 * **Saffran, Aslin, & Newport (1996)**
 * Illustrates the importance of identifying probable sound combinations
 * Used artificial language with six tri-syllabic words
 * E.g. babupu/bupada/dutaba/patubi/pidabu/tutibu/bupada/pidabu...
 * Some syllables predicted others better
 * ba predicts bu, but bu does not predict pu, since babu occured more frequently than bupu.
 * E.g. number of times ba-bu pair occurs over number of times ba occurs will give you a probability of how likely the pair is, which is what is committed to memory and used to predict how likely the combination is in the future.
 * **Procedure**: Infants listened to a stream of syllables, then three-syllable segmented words would play out of speakers on either side of them. Some were segmented the "right" way and some were mis-segmented.
 * **Findings**: In head turn preference procedure (HTPP), 8 month old infants looked longer at correctly segmented words than mis-segmented words.
 * **Conclusion**: Based on how likely sounds were to have followed each other in the training, the infants were able to learn the pattern and determine how words are supposed to be segmented in the test.
 * Supports **Statistical Learning Theory** (?)


 * Morphology**
 * Sounds get put together into the **basic meaningful units of language**.
 * Not necessarily words
 * Free vs. Bound Morphemes
 * E.g. do (one morpheme) and re-do (two morphemes) - "re" is a morpheme that has a meaning but is not meaningful unless it is combined with another morpheme
 * E.g. study and student (stud is a bound morpheme)
 * E.g. cats, dogs, fridges - use of "s" for plural, however sounds produced differ
 * E.g. to run, runs, ran, running - morphemes can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of a word
 * Open Class vs. Close Class
 * Inflectional vs. Derivational
 * do, do-es, un-do, re-do
 * relate, relate-s, relat-ed, relat-ed-0, relat-ive, relat-ive-s, relative-0, relat-ive-ly
 * **Santelmann & Jusczyk (1998)**
 * Evidence for early knowledge of morphology
 * 15 and 18 month old infants were exposed to passages containing V-ing with either "is" or "can" (**natural** sounding vs. **unnatural** sounding passages).
 * Used "is" and "can" because they have similar phonological qualities
 * E.g. At the bakery, everybody is/can baking break. One person is mixing the flour and water together. someone is/can adding slat and yeast. In the next room, a big machine is/can kneading the dough. Another is shaping loaves for the oven. The whole place is/can starting to smell great!
 * **HTPP** (one side played natural passage, the other played unnatural passage)
 * Measure was looking time to each.
 * **Findings**: In 15 month old infants, they didn't actually care whether they were hearing is or can, whereas in 18 month olds, they preferred the naturalistic sounding passage (looking time was longer).
 * //**Limitations** (?) Novelty bias vs. familiarity bias (?)//
 * **How stable is this knowledge?**
 * Put in 2, 3, and 4 syllable adverbs
 * E.g. almost, always, adequately, vigorously, quite often, actively, and
 * Tested 18 month olds
 * **Findings**: Depending on the length of the words they put in, the effects slowly went away. Infants were more capable of distinguishing between the natural sounding passage vs the unnatural sounding passage when the adverbs inserted were shorter.
 * **Knowing what sounds right is not the same as knowing what the case of 3rd person present -s is!**
 * By 3-4 years, children produce -s at or above 90%
 * At 19 months, they prefer to listen to (a) over (b)
 * (a) At the bakery a team bakes bread
 * (b) At the bakery a team bake bread
 * **Do they actually comprehend -s?**
 * **Johnson, de Villiers, & Seymour (2005)**
 * Children ages 3-6
 * Shown 2 pictures
 * 1 duck swimming
 * 2 ducks swimming
 * The child was asked to "show the experimenter the picture where..."
 * the ducks swim in the water/the duck swims in the water
 * This is used because the plural -s of ducks slurs with swim, which makes it ambiguous as to whether they want the picture of 2 ducks or 1 duck. The only way to tell from the grammar is through the -s at the end of swim.
 * **Findings**: Not until 5-6 do children reliably interpret the -s (swims) as referring to the singular duck.
 * **Conclusion**: Component analysis and understanding of rules does not develop until much later in life. (Children at around 18 months can recognize what sounds right, but cannot identify meaning in these sounds until a much later age.)

//Need more detail on studies - Eimas et al. (1971), Saffran, Aslin, & Newport (1996), and Santelmann & Jusczyk (1998)//

//Does not cover acquisition of Syntax (how words are put together to form phrases and phrases put together to form sentences), semantics (what words mean), and pragmatics (the social use of language).//

(Source: Lecture - "Language Acquisition - From Sounds to Syntax" by Sarah Wilson - http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2010-B-74345&semesterid=2010-B)