Programme write up homework

The first part of the programme supports David crystals stage theory in which children learn through stages from babbling to the one word stage then the two word stage then on to the telegraphic stage through to the multi-word stage. This is shown through the 24/7 observation of the young child passing though all these stages before they can make long coherent sentences, however due to it only being one case it might not be applicable to the entire population. The data collected from this investigation is extensive and spans many years and once it has all been analysed it will be able to be used as a significant piece of evidence to either prove or disprove certain language acquisition theories. One discovery that came from this investigation in the early stages of its analysing was how the parents subconsciously change the way they talk and slowly increase complexity as the child’s competence and understanding of language increases.  This supports Piaget's theory since he believed children learnt language when they were cognitively developed enough, this would explain the parents’ behaviour since as the child develops more the parents push the child with more complex sentences and words.

 

Another part of the programme focused on whether language was unique to humans due to anatomical structuring or cognitive processes. It was discovered that dogs and birds among others could change their anatomy when they vocalise leaving it down to the difference in cognitive ability as the main cause for human communication. This revelation helped explain why children were able to pick up language much faster than adults, this is because there is a critical period to learn language due to the speed at which connections and synapses are created in a particular part of your mind when you are younger. This is supported in the programme by a case study of a man that suffers from autism which affects his social skills among other characteristics but the biological difference in a particular region of his mind which is connected to language acquisition also gives him the capability to learn languages much faster than an average human.