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First Language Acquisition and Child Speech

First Language/Native Language Acqusition

Our native languages surround us from birth. Babies start acquiring them as soon as they start crying, and then cooing (usually around six 6 weeks). Babbling (“mamamama, dadadadada”) doesn’t generally start until around six 6 months. Language acquisition occurs fastest around the age of two 2 years, when a child learns most at once.

Most children pass language milestones at similar ages. However, some children pass some milestones earlier or later than others. Even so, they pass milestones in the same order as most other children.

Babbling (6-12 months)

More or less all babies babble, even Deaf babies (with some exceptions). In the earliest stages of babbling, babies will use sounds that aren’t part of their native languages’ systems, as initial babbling comes from the baby, not from the baby’s linguistic environment (the language(s) being spoken at home).

Babbling becomes specific to a hearing baby’s native language between six 6 and twelve 12 months. After this, a hearing baby will only use sounds that are found in their native language(s). At this stage, Deaf babies will often stop babbling. However, if their caregiver uses a sign language, a Deaf baby will often start babbling in that sign language, repeating particular signs where a hearing baby would use combinations of vowels and consonants.

At the babbling stage, a baby will say, “Mama,” “Dada,” “Baba,” and “Papa,” which is why words with these sounds are used for parents in lots of languages; they’re sounds that stick to a particular figure in a child’s life, often present in the earliest stages. Parents tend to reinforce this by referring to themselves in the third person when talking to the child, e.g. “Do you want Mama/Papa to read you a book?”, “Dada’s taking you to the park this afternoon.”

Holophrastic/One‑Word Phase (12‑18 months)

In the holophrastic phase, a child will begin to speak in individual words. At this stage, these words are used in the places of whole phrases (holo‑=whole, ‑phrastic=phrase), and their meanings can vary with context, as well as from child to child.

“Milk” may really mean “I like milk,” but it may also mean “I want milk,” or “I don’t want milk,” or “Have some milk.” You really need to know the child and the context well in order to understand properly.

At this stage, children may also overextend the meaning of a word, so that “milk” refers to all liquid. Meaning may also be underextended, so that “man” only refers to the child’s father, and “dog” only refers to the family dog; other dogs aren’t called “dog”, and other men aren’t “man”.

A child may also pronounce words differently in the holophrastic phase, contracting consonantal clusters like “pl” [pl] into “p” [p] or “l” [l] to make “plum” into “pum” or “lum”.

Combining the different pronunciation heard in the holophrastic speech with the overextension/underextension of meaning, and the use of single words in place of phrases, “lum” might be a child’s way of saying, “I would like a plum” (whole‑phrase speech and consonant contraction) or even “Where is the fruit bowl?” if the child overextends “lum” to mean all fruit, not just plums.

Two‑Word Stage (18‑24 months)

The two‑word stage is present in the acquisition of more or less all first languages. This stage is similar across different languages, and all children will use the right syntax (word order) for their native language.

Japanese and Korean word order is Object‑Verb (“store go”), and English word order is Verb‑Object (“go store”). Children acquiring their first languages get syntax right automatically, and don’t have to sit down and learn it like in a second‑language lesson. They observe speakers around them, and mimic their syntax. Grammar is usually missing at this stage, but word order is usually accurate.

At this stage, auxiliary words (such as “will” in “I will go”, “to” in “go to playgroup”, and “can” in “can I go?”) are omitted. So are articles (“the”, “a/an”, etc.) and pronouns (“she”, “him”, “their”, “your”, “we”). Therefore, an English‑speaking child between 18 and 24 months will say “go store” rather than “I will go to the store”.

Semantics at this age are very simple. A child at the two‑word stage won’t have a large vocabulary, so will call all shades of blue “blue”, rather than specifying “turquoise” or “cerulean” etc. They might not distinguish between “cat” and “kitten”, “walk” and “crawl”.

Telegraphic/Multiword Stage (24‑30 months)

This stage is also called the telegraphic stage because children speak as if they’re writing a telegram. This is because 24‑30 month‑old children don’t use auxiliaries. They say things like, “I want go park” when they mean, “I want to go to the park”. Little grammatical words are missing, like they are in a telegram. Only words that carry real meaning are used; sentences can still be understood, but an adult will think of them as having gaps.

Gradually, a child at this stage will start adding functional words, such as pronouns, as well as inflections (for the ends of words), like “‑ing” and “‑ed”, so that “Holly walk” becomes “Holly walked” and “Joey swim” becomes “Joey swimming” (to mean “Joey is swimming”).

Complex sentences (30+ months)

Complex sentences have two clauses, e.g. “I know that she likes toffee” and “This is the bus which broke down yesterday”. Children will start to produce these sentences from about 30 months.

Questions and negative statements are grammatically complicated, so many children still struggle with them at this age. “Where has she gone?” requires the inversion of “she has” as seen in “she has gone.” “I don’t like peas” requires the auxiliary “do”, which the positive “I like peas” doesn’t. Most grammatical structures like this will be in place by the time a child reaches three 3 years, so having a child older than that speak in telegraph or holophrase will seem odd to a reader unless there’s a reason for it, explained in the story. Most children won’t speak in telegraphs past 30 months.

At this stage, some children will still have trouble with irregular past tenses, saying “I swimmed” instead of “I swam”, and “I runned” instead of “I ran”. However, they’re not likely to confuse “I swim” with “he swims” and say “I swims” or “he swim” at the complex sentence stage.

Children hypothesise rules to produce words and sentences that they could never have heard. They might overregularise language, hearing “happy/unhappy” and assuming they can also say “sad/unsad”, or “fat/unfat”. A child might hear “can you butter my bread?” and produce “can you jam my bread?”, because they think that “jam” can be a verb in this context, as “butter” can.

Correcting Grammar

Linguistic input has an important role in first language acquisition, but direct teaching or covert correction by adults is generally fruitless unless the child is cognitively ready to understand what’s being said to them. You can’t teach a two-year-old how to make questions or relative clauses, because they’re not old enough to understand your corrections.

For @sins-virtues and @givethispromptatry From university lecture notes, organised by Hilary Hale, AKA @thorlokibrother.

Since Alhaithams story quest has been out for a while, and it confirms that the messy one of the roommates is actually HIM.... which is very different from everyone's initial fanon ideas... I present:

"Organised Chaos" messy alhaitham and "in the moment" messy kaveh

By this I mean that alhaitham leaves anything. Not just books. Everywhere. Cups, pens, papers, the entire place is a mess if he really doesn't care.

But he knows where everything is. Kaveh tries to nag him by asking "well how would you find anything like this" and alhaitham explains that he can recall where he left That One Paper, That Book and everything. He is a mess but at least he knows where things are. He will still nag at Kaveh when he is messy however.

Now Kaveh, I'm projecting on as an artist. Chaos during art hours. Papers everywhere. Paint, pens, anything and everything scattered all around while he's in the zone. Probably nearly drank paint water a few times. Alhaitham nags him to clear up in case he actually does, also so paint doesn't get on his books.

But he clears up everything the second he's finished. And the mess is likely contained to his room and maybe like. The living room table. Everything put away and in its place once Kavehs finished. Will nag at alhaitham and say it's haithams fault for leaving books everywhere if paint gets on one.

Together the house is simply a mess. But at least they don't lose things. Hopefully.

Thank you for reading. I am not ok

if i told you what rhis sounded ljke i dont think youd believe me so just listen

"you know you are only supposed to have 1 apprentice maybe 2 not 15." said the wizard council member "well until people stop leaving surprisingly powerful orphans at my doorstep I'll be taking care of my 17 apprentices." The council member snapped their wand "WHERE DID YOU GET 3 MORE!"

HERE IS ANOTHER FUNDRAISER THAT WOULD DRIVE ME UP ON THE WALL. PLEASE DONATE TO SUAD AHMAD (#279). SHE IS A DEAR FRIEND OF MINE AND SHE IS EXHAUSTED TO THE BONE. THIS MAKES SENSE SINCE SHE IS CONSTANTLY ON FLIGHT OR FLIGHT MODE. SHE WOULD ALSO BE ILL, BUT SHE HAS TO PUT ON A STRONG FACE AND RECOVER ASAP!

AT THE SAME TIME, KHALED IS ILL WITH 2 VIRAL INFECTIONS. THERE IS ONE IN HIS CHEST AND HE WOULD HAVE TROUBLE BREATHING. HE DEPENDS ON A NEBULIZER, BUT DUE TO THE LIMITED ELECTRICITY, THIS IS NOT A RELIABLE METHOD. HE DESERVES BETTER MEDICAL CARE! ! !

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? PLEASE DONATE. HELP US ACHIEVE THE SHORT-TERM GOAL OF 36K IN THE NEXT 3 DAYS. THERE IS $1,259 USD LEFT TO GO! YOU CAN EVEN MATCH ME. I HAVE GIVEN $5 USD, BUT YOU'RE MORE THAN WELCOME TO GIVE MORE. AND IF YOU CAN'T, THEN MAKE SURE TO BOOST!

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Donate to Urgent: Help Suad and Her Newborn Escape Gaza’s Danger, organized by Mohammed Ahmad

A Tale of Strength and Determination: Suad Fights for a Better L… Mohammed Ahmad needs your support for Urgent: Help Suad and Her Newborn Es

No matter what anyone tries to say otherwise, Jayce and Mel truly loved each other. The love was there and that is an undeniable fact.

Character A is a bit of a party animal, but has decided to tone it down for this celebration because it’s in character B’s honor/important for B in some way and they are determined to not mess this up for them.

The antagonist spikes A’s drink, and A knows something is wrong and can’t think of a plan further than “Find B, they will know what to do.” However, their motor skills are seriously impaired, so they end up taking out a major decoration/food table/something noticeable. B is mortified, and grabs A’s arm and takes them to the side.

“You told me you wouldn’t do this, I can’t believe you!” B hisses. A tries to explain, but their speech is so slurred that they can’t get it out.

“God, look at you! You know how important this is for me. I do so much for you, and you can’t even be chill for one night.”

The antagonist come up, and offers to take A outside for some air, and A is desperately trying to tell B to not trust the antagonist but they just /can’t/.

B thanks the antagonist and doesn’t even suspect anything is wrong until they can’t get ahold of A the next evening.

A couple of touch starved x words of affirmation lovers