L

LAISSEZ-FAIRE PARENTS

Laissez-faire is a French term meaning ‘‘to let people
do as they please.’’ Applied to parenting, the term re-
fers to a permissive style in which parents avoid pro-
viding guidance and discipline, make no demands for
maturity, and impose few controls on their child’s be-
havior. Permissive parents allow their children to
make their own decisions regarding matters such as
mealtimes, bedtimes, and watching television. Re-
search published in 1989 by Diana Baumrind found
that children of permissive parents tend to be impul-
sive, disobedient, rebellious, demanding, and depen-
dent on adults. As teens, many of these children had
poor self-control, poor school performance, and a
high rate of drug use. Baumrind found that the best
adjusted and most academically competent children
had authoritative parents who were neither too le-
nient nor too strict; these parents set reasonable lim-
its for their children, were warm and responsive, and
did not use harsh methods of punishment.

See also: PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS;
PARENTING

Bibliography
Baumrind, Diana. ‘‘Rearing Competent Children.’’ In William
Damon ed., Child Development Today and Tomorrow. San Fran-
cisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989.

Ann D. Murray

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE

The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a hypo-

thetical brain mechanism that Noam Chomsky postu-

lated to explain human acquisition of the syntactic

structure of language. This mechanism endows chil-

dren with the capacity to derive the syntactic structure

and rules of their native language rapidly and accu-

rately from the impoverished input provided by adult

language users. The device is comprised of a finite set

of dimensions along which languages vary, which are

set at different levels for different languages on the

basis of language exposure. The LAD reflects Chom-

sky’s underlying assumption that many aspects of lan-

guage are universal (common to all languages and

cultures) and constrained by innate core knowledge

about language called Universal Grammar. This the-

oretical account of syntax acquisition contrasts sharp-

ly with the views of B. F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, and

other cognitive and social-learning theorists who em-

phasize the role of experience and general knowl-

edge and abilities in language acquisition.

See also: LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Bibliography

Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA:

MIT Press, 1965.

Laura L. Namy

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