Question

what is the basic language development, including the basic properties of language and theories of language found in infants/toddlers

Answer 1

Language ability starts even before birth and happens in every area of the child’s life. A child absorbs the language that is spoken in their environment with characteristics such as the tonal quality, the syntax, and the usages of that language. A child can learn languages which are spoken by their parents. The child absorbs the language that is most prevalent in the environment they live. It is a unique phenomenon in human life and occurs in a significant time span.

Three major theories have informed our understanding of how language develops.

1.B. F. Skinner (1957) initiated the behaviorist theory of language development. Skinner proposed that language is acquired through operant conditioning; that is, parents reinforce the baby’s efforts at language. Subsequently, they reinforce the most correct forms of efforts to say words. Behaviorists also propose that the child learns language through imitation. The adult conditions the child to use correct language forms by rewarding efforts to imitate adult language.

2.Noam Chomsky (1957) understood that even very young children take charge of learning language. His theory was labeled as nativist because he believed that children have an innate ability to acquire language. He proposed that all children have a biologically based innate system for learning language that he called a language acquisition device (LAD). Chomsky believed that the LAD contains a set of rules common to all languages that children use to understand the rules of their language.

3.A more recent theoretical approach, termed interactionist, is based on the fact that language is not acquired without socialization. Language cannot be acquired without a social context. Infants and toddlers have an innate capability to learn language facilitated by adult caregivers.