Mini-Lesson
Child Language Acquisition
How do children acquire language so quickly? This lesson covers the stages of spoken and written development and the competing theories that explain them.
You will meet the stages from babbling to telegraphic and the theorists Skinner, Chomsky, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. Press Start .
Spoken · stages
Stages of spoken development
Speech develops in predictable stages (ages approximate):
Cooing (~6 weeks) and babbling (~6 months) — repeated consonant-vowel sounds.Holophrastic / one-word (~12 months) — one word carries a whole meaning.Two-word (~18 months) — emerging word order.Telegraphic (~2 years) — content words kept, function words dropped.Post-telegraphic — inflections and complex clauses appear.
Terms: holophrastic = one word for a whole idea; telegraphic = content words only.
Quick check
Name the stage
? A one-year-old says milk to mean I want milk, using a single word for a whole idea. This is the:
Holophrastic stage ✅
Telegraphic stage ❌
Two-word stage ❌
Babbling stage ❌
Spoken · domains
Domains and errors
Development spans several domains :
Phonological — mastering sounds (wabbit for rabbit ).Lexical / semantic — vocabulary; overextension (all animals are dog ).Grammatical — virtuous errors like goed , sheeps .Pragmatic — turn-taking, politeness, requests.
Berko's wug test showed children apply grammatical rules to invented words, strong evidence of rule-learning.
Quick check
Explain the error
? A child says the dog goed home. Applying the regular -ed rule to an irregular verb is called a:
Virtuous error (over-generalisation) ✅
Overextension ❌
Elision ❌
Babbling ❌
Theory · nature vs nurture
Skinner and Chomsky
The central debate:
Skinner (behaviourism): learning by imitation and reinforcement . Weak at explaining virtuous errors.Chomsky (nativism): an innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and universal grammar ; children produce novel sentences (the poverty of the stimulus ).
Attribute: imitation/reinforcement = Skinner; LAD/universal grammar = Chomsky.
Sort it
Sort each idea to its theorist
Tap an idea, then tap the theorist it belongs to.
Theory · cognitive & social
Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner
Three further theorists:
Piaget (cognitive): language follows cognitive readiness.Vygotsky (social interactionist): language grows through interaction ; the zone of proximal development is what a child can do with help.Bruner: the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) — the scaffolding carers provide.
Link: Bruner's LASS answers Chomsky's LAD — support, not just an innate device.
Written development
Written development
Writing develops later than speech. Broad stages include:
Scribble and mock letters imitating writing.Phonetic spelling by sound (woz for was ).Conventional spelling and punctuation becoming secure.
Kroll described broad phases (preparation, consolidation, differentiation and integration) as children learn to handle genre and audience in writing.
Note: early writing often mirrors the child's spoken grammar and vocabulary.
Match it
Match theorist to idea
Tap a theorist on the left, then their idea on the right.
Recap
The big ideas to take away
Stages: cooing, babbling, holophrastic, two-word, telegraphic, post-telegraphic
Domains: phonological, lexical/semantic, grammatical, pragmatic
Errors: overextension and virtuous errors show rule-learning (Berko)
Nativism: Chomsky: LAD and universal grammar
Behaviourism: Skinner: imitation and reinforcement
Social/cognitive: Piaget, Vygotsky's ZPD, Bruner's LASS
You can now describe the stages and evaluate the theories of acquisition. Press Finish to see your score.
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Mini-lesson complete!
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