Educational Psychology / Unit 3 EDP 0241 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Ordering Language Milestones
The idea
Language milestones follow a broadly universal order. Babbling comes first, around seven months. Around the first birthday come holophrases, single words that carry a whole idea. Then comes telegraphic speech, two or more words with the small grammatical words left out. As vocabulary grows, children fast-map new words after a single exposure. And as grammar emerges they overregularize, applying a rule where English makes an exception.
In practice
Worked example: "Juice!" meaning "I want juice" is a holophrase; "Daddy go car" is telegraphic speech; "I goed" is overregularization, the last of the three to appear.
Where people slip
Overregularization looks like a step backward, since the child may have said "went" earlier, but it shows the child has learned the rule and is applying it. Timing varies from child to child; the sequence, not the exact age, is the dependable part.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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