The Secrets of Children's Chatter: Research Shows Boys and Girls Learn Language Differently

2nd July, 2014

3 July 2014, Language, News of the Week, Newsletter, SLP

[Source: Science Daily]
newcastle
Experts believe language uses both a mental dictionary and a mental grammar. The mental ‘dictionary’ stores sounds, words and common phrases, while mental ‘grammar’ involves the real-time composition of longer words and sentences. For example, making a longer word ‘walked’ from a smaller one ‘walk’.

However, most research into understanding how these processes work has been carried out with adults.

“Most researchers agree that the way we use language in our minds involves both storing and real-time composition,” said lead researcher Dr Cristina Dye, a specialist in child language development at Newcastle University. “But a lot of the specifics about how this happens are unclear, such as identifying exactly which parts of language are stored and which are composed.
“Most research on this topic has concentrated on adults and we wanted to see if studying children could help us learn more about these processes.”
Read the Rest of this Article on Science Daily

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