Language and Communication

A syndrome characterized by disordered social interactions and problems with language and communication

A cluster of five related syndromes that vary in terms of language skill deficits, children's IQ, and the appearance and course of symptoms

Patterned but meaningless sequences of reduplicated sounds, such as strings of syllables

The ability to extract recurring patterns from repeated experience with stimuli

Systems of rules for combining words or signs

Infants' first one-word utterances that name objects but also communicate other meanings

Modifications that adults make when speaking (or signing) to infants, producing language that is shorter, more repetitive, higher-pitched, more variable in pitch, and less semantically and grammatically complex than language addressed to adults

Nonverbal adjustments in posture, gaze, and head orientation that enable infant-adult dyads to focus their attention together on objects or events

The ability to learn a new word's meaning by comparing it to words that are already known

A measure of grammatical development that is based on the number of morphemes in speech

Minimal meaningful units in speech, such as words, parts of words, or word endings

A constraint on learning that guides children to assume that objects will have only one name and to look for a nameless object when they hear a new word

A common error in which children apply grammatical morphemes to words for which a language makes an exception to the rule

A phenomenon in which acoustic space is altered as a result of increasing sensitivity to native language phonemes and delining sensitivity to nonnative language phonemes

Linguistically meaningful phonetic categories that signal differences in words through combinations of vowels and consonants

A sets of vowels and consonants that a particular language uses

Sound patterns of language

Using language for particular purposes in specific social contexts

Verbal and nonverbal behaviors, such as gaze, facial expression, and head orientation, that reflect an individual's attentional focus, intentions, or expectations

Meanings of words or signs

Combinations of consonants and vowels, such as baba and mama

A constraint on learning that guides children to assume that new words should be extended to objects within the same category rather than thematic associates

Early two-word and multiword utterances that sound like telegrams because they lack grammatical markers and extra words, such as articles, plural endings, prepositions and auxiliary verbs

An error in which children apply a word only to a specific instance or fail to use it to refer to other referents for which the word would be correct

A constraint on learning that guides children to assume that new words refer to whole object rather than actions, spatial location, or parts or features of objects