Invitation to Psychology

Chap

T

er 3

Development Over the Life Span

COn

C

ept Map

116 ChapTer 3 Development Over the Life Span

From Conception Through the First Year

Language Development

Noam Chomsky argued that the human brain contains an innate

mental module containing a universal grammar, which enables

young children to acquire language readily. Findings supporting

Chomsky’s view:

Findings contradicting Chomsky’s view:

• Children in different cultures go through similar stages of
  linguistic development.


• Children combine words in ways that adults never would.


• Adults do not consistently correct their children’s syntax, yet
  children learn language anyway.


• Children who are not exposed to adult language may invent a
  language of their own.


• The world’s 7,000 languages have major differences not explain-
  able by a universal grammar. Culture may be primary
  determinant of a language’s linguistic structure.


• Computer programs can acquire many linguistic features of
  language.


• Adults do frequently model correct language usage.
  Both sides agree that acquisition of a first language must require
  both biological readiness and social experience. Children who are
  not exposed to language during their early years rarely speak
  normally or catch up grammatically.

Babies may be securely or insecurely attached. Insecure babies may, in turn, be avoidant or anxious-ambivalent. These styles of

attachment are unaffected by normal child-rearing practices and whether a child goes to daycare. Insecure attachment is promoted

by extreme deprivation in infancy; abusive or erratic parenting; stressful family changes; and the child’s own fearful temperament.

Language is a set of rules for combining elements that are inherently meaningless into utterances that convey meaning.

• rubella (German measles).


• exposure to X-rays, toxic chemicals, or pollution.


• sexually transmitted diseases.


• cigarette smoking.


• chronic or severe maternal stress.


• many drugs, including illegal ones (cocaine and
  heroin), legal ones (alcohol, which can cause
  fetal alcohol syndrome), prescription drugs,
  and some over-the-counter medicines.

Prenatal development begins with a zygote (a

single-celled egg), which becomes the embryo,

which becomes the fetus at about 8 weeks.

Harmful influences that can cross the placental

barrier and affect the fetus include:

Prenatal Development

Language: Built In or Learned? From Cooing to Communicating

• Babies are born with motor
  reflexes, including rooting,
  sucking, and grasping.


• Newborns also have some innate
  perceptual and cognitive abilities.


• Cultural influences affect
  maturational milestones, such as
  an sleeping through
  the night.

The Infant’s World

Developmental psychologists study people’s growth and change over the life span. They begin with socialization, the process by which

children learn the attitudes and behaviors expected of them by their society.

• Acquiring language begins in the womb because
  newborns recognize the language their mothers
  spoke during pregnancy.


• First few months: Babies coo and respond to
  rhythms and emotions in voices.


• 4 to 6 months: Babies begin to recognize key
  consonant and vowel sounds of their native language.


• 6 months to 1 year: Infants become able to
  distinguish words from the flow of speech.


• End of first year: Infants start to name things based
  on familiar concepts and use symbolic gestures to
  communicate.


• 18 to 24 months: Children begin to
  speak in two- and three-word phrases
  (telegraphic speech) and understand
  verbs from the context in which they
  occur.


• 2 to 6 years: Children rapidly acquire
  new words, inferring their meaning
  from the grammatical and social
  contexts in which they hear them.

Attachment begins with contact

comfort, the pleasurable

reassurance of being touched and

held by the parent or other

caregiver.

Between 6 and 8 months of

age, babies develop separation

anxiety if their primary caregiver

temporarily leaves them.

Attachment