Abstract
Children go about learning language in different ways and at different rates. Brown’s (1973) Eve had utterances averaging more than four morphemes when she was a little over 2 years old; Adam’s utterances did not even quite reach that length when he was 3 years and 8 months old. Are such variations due to different neurological organization, different general cognitive ability, or different kinds and amounts of language input? Most likely, all three factors play a role in the variations observed in learning to speak and in the speaking skill eventually attained. Nevertheless, if the contribution of each could be isolated, it would help us to understand how language is acquired and help us to compare language learning to the learning of other cognitive skills.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baddeley, A. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Baddeley, A.D. (1976). The psychology of memory. New York: Basic Books.
Baddeley, A.D., & Hitch, G.J. (1974). Working memory. In G.H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 12, pp. 47–90). New York: Academic Press.
Bannatyne, A. (1976). Language, reading and learning disabilities: Psychology, neuropsychology, diagnosis and remediation. Springfield, IL: Thomas.
Bock, J.K. (1982). Toward a cognitive psychology of syntax: Information processing contributions to sentence formulation. Psychological Review, 89, 1–47.
Bradley, L., & Bryant, P.E. (1983). Categorizing sounds and learning to read—A causal connection. Nature, 301, 419–421.
Bretherton, I., McNew, S., Snyder, L., & Bates, E. (1983). Individual differences at 20 months: Analytic and holistic strategies in language acquisition, Journal of Child Language,10, 293–320.
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brown, R., & Fraser, C. (1963). The acquisition of syntax. In C.N. Cofer & B. Musgrave (Eds.), Verbal behavior and learning: Problems and processes (pp. 158–201). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bryant, P.E. (1986, April). Phonological awareness, rhyme, and reading. Symposium presentation at the Annual American Educational Research Association Meeting, Washington, DC.
Byrne, B. (1984). On teaching articulatory phonetics via an orthography. Memory & Cognition,12, 181–189.
Clark, R. (1977). What’s the use of imitation? Journal of Child Language,4, 341–358.
Corballis, M. (1983). Human laterality. New York: Academic Press.
Corballis, M.C. (1980). Laterality and myth. American Psychologist,35, 284–295.
Critchley, M. (1981). Dyslexia: An overview. In G.Th. Pavlidis & T.R. Miles (Eds.), Dyslexia research and its applications to education (pp. 1–34). New York: Wiley.
de Ajuriaguerra, J., Jaeggi, A., Guignard, E, Kocher, F., Macquard, M., Roth, S., & Schmid, E. (1976). The development and prognosis of dysphasia in children. In D.M. Morehead & A.E. Morehead (Eds.), Normal and deficient child language (pp. 345385). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Edwards, M. (1984). Disorders of articulation. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Ervin, S.M., & Osgood, S.E. (1954). Second language learning and bilingualism. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, 139–146.
Feagans, L. (1986). Otitis media in children: A model of effects and implications for intervention. In J. Kavanaugh (ed.), Otitis media and child development (pp. 192–208). Parkton, MD: York Press.
Feagans, L., Blood, I., & Tubman, J.G. (in press). Otitis media: Models of effects and implications for intervention.
Feagans, L., Sanyal, M., Henderson, E, Collier, A., & Appelbaum, M. (in press). Middle ear disease in early childhood and later language skills. Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Finitzo, T., & Friel-Patti, S. (1987, April). Assessment of hearing in infants and young children: The otitis media quandary. Symposium presentation at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.
Friel-Patti, S., Finitzo-Heber, T., Conti, G., & Brown, C.K. (1982). Language delay in infants associated with middle ear disease and mild, fluctuating hearing impairment. Pediatric Infectious Disease, 1, 104–109.
Galaburda, A.M. (1986, December). Keynote Address to the Convention of the Hawaii Dyslexia Association, Honolulu, HI.
Gazzaniga, M. (1987). Thinking in the two cerebral hemispheres. Plenary presentation at the Third International Conference on Thinking, Honolulu, HI.
Geschwind, N., & Behan, P. (1984). Laterality, hormones and immunity. In N. Geschwind & A.M. Galaburda (Eds.), Biological foundations of cerebral dominance (pp. 211–224). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Grimm, H. (1983). On the interrelation of internal and external factors in the development of language structures in normal and dysphasic preschoolers: A longitudinal study (Occasional Paper No. 5). Honolulu, HI: The Kamehameha Schools.
Grimm, H. (1984). Zur Frage der spachlichen Wissenskonstruction. Erwerben dysphasische Kinder die Sprache anders? In E. Oskar (ed.), Spracherwerb-sprachkontakt-Sprachkonflikt (pp. 30–53). Berlin: de Gruyter.
Grimm, H. (1986). Developmental dysphasia: New theoretical perspectives and empirical results. The German Journal of Psychology, 11, 8–22.
Grimm, H., & Weinert, S. (1987, July). Deviant language processing in dysphasic children. Paper presented at the Fourth International Congress for the Study of Child Language, Lund, Sweden.
Hardcastle, W.J. (1976). Physiology of speech. New York: Academic Press.
Heath, R.W., Plett, J.D., & Tibbetts, K.A. (1987). Some significant educational, ethnic, and social correlates of mild hearing dysfunction in preschoolers. Honolulu, HI: Center for Development of Early Education, Kamhehameha Schools.
Kelso, J.A., Tuller, B., & Harris, K.S. (1983). A “dynamic pattern” perspective on the control and coordination of movement. In P.F. MacNeilage (ed.), The production of speech (pp. 137–173). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Liberman, A.V. & Mattingly, LG. (1985). The motor theory of speech perception revised. Cognition, 21, 1–36.
Lindamood, P. (1985, December). Cognitively exploring the speech-spelling-reading link. Symposium presentation at the 35th Annual National Reading Conference, San Diego, California.
Lundberg, I., Frost, J., & Peterson, O. (1988). Effects of an extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool children. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 263–284.
MacNeilage, P.F. (1970). Motor control of serial ordering of speech. Psychological Review, 77, 182–196.
Mann, V.A. (1984). Reading skill and language skill. Developmental Review, 4, 1–15.
Mann, V.A., & Liberman, I.Y. (1984). Phonological awareness and verbal short-term memory. Journal Learning Disabilities,17, 592–599.
Marchant, C.D., Shuring, P.A., Turczyk, V.A., Wasikowski, D.E., Tutihasi, M.A., & Kinney, S.E. (1984). Course and outcome of otitis media in early infancy: A prospective study. The Journal of Pediatrics,102, 826–831.
Menyuk, P. (1978). Linguistic problems in children with developmental dysphasia. In M.A. Wyke (Ed.), Developmental dysphasia. London: Academic Press.
Menyuk, P. (1986). Predicting speech and language problems with persistent otitis media. In J.F. Kavanagh (Ed.), Otitis media and child development (pp. 83–96). Parkton: York Press.
Menyuk, R., & Looney, P.L. (1976). A problem of language disorder: Length versus structure. In D.M. Morehead & A.E. Morehead (Eds.), Normal and deficient child language (pp. 259–279). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Morehead, D.M., & Ingram, D. (1976). The development of base syntax in normal and linguistically deviant children. In D.M. Morehead & A.E. Morehead (Eds.), Normal and deficient child language (pp. 209–238). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 48(149).
Nelson, K.E. (1987). Some observations from the perspective of the rare event cognitive comparison theory of language acquisition. In K.E. Nelson & A. van Kleeck (Eds.), Children’s language (Vol. 6, pp. 289–331). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Nelson, K.E., Baker, N.D., Denninger, M., Bonvillian, J.D., & Kaplan, B.J. (1985). Cookie versus do-it-again: Imitative-referential and person-social-syntactic-initiating language styles in young children. Linguistics, 23, 433–353.
Peters, A. (1977). Language learning strategies: Does the whole equal the sum of the parts? Language, 53, 560–573.
Rawson, M.B. (1968). Developmental language disability: Adult accomplishments of dyslexic boys. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. (Reprinted in paperback, 1978, Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service.)
Rawson, M.B. (1981). A diversity model for dyslexia. In G.T. Pavlidis & T.R. Miles (Eds.), Dyslexia research and its applications to education (pp. 13–34). New York: Wiley.
Rosen, G.D., Sherman, G.F., & Galaburda, A.M. (1986). Biological interactions in dyslexia. In J.R. Obrzut & G.W. Hynd (Eds.), Child neurology, Vol. 1, Theory and research (pp. 155–173). New York: Academic Press.
Rumelhart, D.E., & McClelland, J.L. (1987). Learning the past tenses of English verbs: Implicit rules or parallel distributed processing. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), Mechanisms of language acquisition (pp. 195–248). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Schwartz, R.H., Stool, S.E., Rodriguez, W.J., & Grundfast, K.M. (1981). Acute otitis media: Toward a more precise definition. Clinical Pediatrics, 20, 549–554.
Speidel, G.E., & Brandt, B. (1987, April). Individual differences in learning to speak and to read. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.
Speidel, G.E., & Power, M. (1987, April). A cornucopia of language skills in learning to read. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.
Stanovich, K., Cunningham, A.E., & Cramer, B.B. (1984). Assessing phonological awareness in kindergarten children: Issues of task comparability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 38, 175–190.
Stanovich, K.E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 361–406.
Vellutino, F. (1977). Alternative conceptualizations of dyslexia: Evidence in support of a verbal-deficit hypothesis. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 334–354.
Weinreich, W. (1953). Language in contact. The Hague: Mouton.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Speidel, G.E. (1989). A Biological Basis for Individual Differences in Learning to Speak. In: Speidel, G.E., Nelson, K.E. (eds) The Many Faces of Imitation in Language Learning. Springer Series in Language and Communication, vol 24. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1011-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1011-5_9
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6983-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1011-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive