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Language development is the process by which children come to understand and produce language. This entry focuses on the period between birth and 5 years of age. The entry presents theoretical perspectives on language development, followed by a review of the biological basis of language. The language acquisition process is then described for various components of language, with a focus on typically developing children learning one first language; brief sections also discuss bilingualism and atypical language development.

Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on Language Development

In the first half of the 20th century, the field of language development was dominated by studies documenting the normative course of language acquisition. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the linguist Noam Chomsky published several works that took the field in different directions. The first was a review of B. F. Skinner's book Verbal Behavior. Skinner applied behaviorist theory to language development, arguing that it results from processes such as imitation and reinforcement. Chomsky's review was a rebuttal of the application of behaviorism to language and suggested that language development is much more complex. Chomsky followed with his theory of innate linguistic knowledge in which he claimed that there is a language acquisition device in the human brain that contains innate knowledge of the structure of language, also known as universal grammar.

Chomsky's theory is a nativist view of language development as it claims that children have preexisting knowledge of language, whereas Skinner's behaviorist approach is an empiricist view that all knowledge of language comes from experience. The extreme empiricist view is not popular today. The interactionist perspective provides a more moderate approach to language learning by highlighting the importance of experience in language development while acknowledging the existence of brain structures that support language development. The main difference in the nativist versus interactionist perspectives lies in the importance they place on experience. Further, in their emphasis on experience, interactionists tend to see the child as playing more of an active role in language development than do nativists, who see the development of language more as something that happens to the child in a predetermined way. Although much has been learned over the past 50 years about child language development, there are still many unanswered questions.

Biological Basis of Language

Almost all humans learn to talk. From birth, human beings are biologically prepared for language. A specialized vocal tract helps humans produce language, and the position of the larynx and properties of the lips and tongue make rapid sounds easy to produce. Upright teeth, while not necessary for eating, allow for the production of certain sounds such as /s/ and /f/. These characteristics are unique to humans. The vocal tract is not the only human characteristic that makes language production possible; specific parts of the brain work in tandem with the vocal tract to produce language. For 85% of the population, the left hemisphere is dominant for language processing. This is known as functional asymmetry, in which one hemisphere in the brain plays a different or larger role than the other for a specified function.

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