• The process of language acquisition has some basic requirements 

• In the first two or three years of development, a child must interact with other language users to understand the general basics.

• All infants make “cooing” and “babbling” noises during their first year, but congenitally deaf infants stop after about six months. 

• So, in order to speak a language, a child must be able to hear that language being used. 

• Children have a natural ability to acquire their first language without being taught explicitly, regardless of their background environment.

• Interaction with other language

• Exposure and learning from a language-using environment  

• Physical ability to send and receive sound signals

• The language that an acquirer/learner is exposed to or receives, in contrast to the output 

• Refers to the language used around a child by its parents, siblings, other caregivers, and even media. 

• This linguistic environment plays an essential role in a child's language acquisition process.

• The characteristically simplified speech style adopted by someone who spends a lot of time interacting with a young child incorporates a lot of forms associated with “baby talk.” 

• Sometimes described as “motherese” or “child-directed speech,” this style is more generally known as “caregiver speech.” 

• The way caregivers talk to young children often encourages them to take part in the conversation, even before they can actually speak. 

• Before a baby can talk it needs to figure out the language they hear all around them.

• At one month an infant is capable of distinguishing between [ba] and [pa]. During the first three months, the child produces big smiles in response to a speaking face and starts to create distinct vocalizations. 

• Children develop language at roughly the same time, with physical activities  

• Children have a biological capacity to identify aspects of linguistic input 

• Infants process what they hear and can distinguish speech sounds 

• Cooing: the earliest use of speech-like sounds by an infant in the first few months 

• During the first few months of life, the child gradually becomes capable of producing sequences of vowel-like sounds, particularly high vowels similar to [i] and [u]. 

• By four months of age, the developing ability to bring the back of the tongue into regular contact with the back of the palate allows the infant to create sounds similar to the velar consonants [k] and [ɡ]. 

• They are five months old, and babies can already hear the difference between the vowels [i] and [a] and discriminate between syllables like [ba] and [ɡa].

• Babbling: the use of syllable sequences (ba-ba) and combinations (ma-ga) by young children in their first year

• By 6~12 months of age, the child is sitting up and producing a number of different vowels and consonants, as well as combinations such as ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga. This type of sound production is described as babbling 

• Recognize intonation patterns and variation in combinations 

• Late babbling stage -> more complex syllable combinations, sound-play, and attempted imitations.

• Usually starts around 6 months of age

• In the later babbling stage, around nine to ten months, there are recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations being produced, as well as variation in the combinations such as ba-ba-da-da 

• Nasal sounds also become more common and certain syllable sequences 

• The period in L1 acquisition when children can produce single terms for objects 

• By 12-18 months of age, children begin to produce a variety of recognizable single-unit utterances. This period, traditionally called the one-word stage, is characterized by speech in which single terms are used for objects such as “milk,” “cookie,” “cat,” “cup” and “spoon” (usually pronounced [pun]) 

• Produce single terms for objects 

• Holophrastic (utterance): the use of a single word to express a complex idea or convey a complete sentence's meaning.

• A period beginning at around 18–20 months when children produce two terms together as an utterance (baby chair)

• Begin as the child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty words 

•  When a child is 2 years old, they can combine various words 

• Show appearance of a variety of combinations 

• E.g: baby chair, mommy ear or cat bad 

• => Adult interpretation of combination is tied to the context of their utterance 

• Telegraphic Speech known as “multiple-word” speech: is strings of words (lexical morphemes) without inflectional morphemes.

• -> strings of words ( lexical morphemes without inflectional morphemes ) in phrases produced by two-year-old children

E.g.  this shoe all wet, cat drink milk, daddy go bye-bye

• The child has clearly developed some sentence-building capacity by this stage and can get the word order correct 

• While this type of telegram-format speech is being produced, inflections (-ing) begin to appear in some word forms, and simple prepositions (in, on) are also used. 

• By the time a child is two and a half years old, children will be able to develop above telegraphic speech forms and combine inflectional and functional morphemes.

• Overgeneralization: the marking of regular plurals with the -s form, as in books and films.

• Children acquire question and negative structures in three stages with varying ages of development between 18 and 20 months  

• Numerous studies have been conducted on the development of syntax in children’s speech. 

• In the formation of questions and the use of negatives, there appear to be three identifiable stages

There are 3 stages:

• Stage 1 ( between 18 and 26 months)

• Stage 2 (between 22 and 30 months) 

• Stage 3 (between 24 and 40 months)

• The overlap in the periods is a reflection of the different rates at which different children normally develop.

–Overextension: Children often use a word for many different things that are similar in some way.

E.g: a child might call all round objects “ball”

–> This is common when children are learning new words.

–Semantic Development: is the process of learning word meanings.

–Hyponymy: refers to the relationship between words where one word is a type of another.
E.g: “dog” is a hyponym of “animal”

• Some types of antonymous relations are acquired fairly late (after the age of five) 

• The fact that children are still in the process of acquiring a number of other aspects of their first language through the later years of childhood, it is normally assumed that, by the age of five, they have completed the greater part of the basic language acquisition process 

• According to some, the child is then in a good position to start learning a second (or foreign) language. 

1. Higher pitch: Caregivers often speak in a higher pitch than their normal speaking voice when talking to infants.

Slower tempo: Caregivers tend to speak more slowly and with longer pauses between words when interacting with infants.

Exaggerated intonation: Caregivers use more exaggerated changes in pitch and volume, making their speech more melodic and attention-grabbing for infants.

Simplified vocabulary: Caregivers often use simpler words and sentence structures when talking to infants, focusing on core vocabulary and avoiding complex grammar

2. Infants are typically capable of distinguishing between the sounds [ba] and [pa] around 6 to 8 months of age. 

3. Infant's first sounds are described as "cooing" because they are characterized by vowel-like sounds produced with a relaxed vocal tract. These sounds often express contentment and are produced when the infant is relaxed and comfortable. 

4. Holophrastic speech is the stage where infants use single words to express complete thoughts. This typically occurs between 12 and 18 months of age. 

5. Children typically begin producing syllable sequences like "mama" and "dada" during the babbling stage, which starts around 6 months of age. 

6. Children typically begin producing varied syllable combinations such as "ma-da-ga-ba" around 6 to 9 months of age. This is also part of the babbling stage.

7. "Mommy books" is the most likely to be used first. This is because it's a simple two-word utterance that uses the child's name for a familiar person and a familiar object. 

8. Where kitty go?" is the most likely to be used first. This is because it's a simple question that uses basic word order and syntax. 

9. (a) I not hurt him" was likely produced by the older child. This is because it shows a more complex understanding of grammar and sentence structure. 

10. Overextension is the term used to describe this process. It occurs when a child applies a word to a wider range of objects or situations than it is typically used for.