Chapter 3: Infancy and Childhood "Watch That Language"

Introduction
Students have read about the development of children in infancy and childhood. An important part of their growth is language development. In this exercise, students will read about a study on long-term memory in infants for learning word sounds.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the article "Infants Have Keen Long-term Memory for Learning Word Sounds" at the Headlines@Hopkins Web site to learn about research on language development in infants. Students will then answer four questions and apply this information by writing a research proposal for a follow-up study on this research.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will be able to discuss memory in language development in infants, and how infants remember complex words over an extended period of time.
2. Students will be able to use this knowledge to write a research proposal for a follow-up study on this research.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. Until Peter Jusczyk and Elizabeth Hohne started their study, little research had been done on how infants focus on the sounds of words.
2. The researchers first recorded stories with specific words and played these stories to 8-month old babies every day for 10 days. They then arranged 36 key words in the stories into lists and read those lists to the same infants in a controlled environment. They also read lists with similar-sounding words to the same infants. The researchers read the same lists, but not the stories, to a control group of babies.
3. The researchers found that the babies listened to the list with the familiar words that appeared in the stories much longer than to the other list, indicating that babies are storing any information away about sound patterns that occur frequently. Since learning words requires storing both sounds and meanings, this is an important step in language development.
4. The infants learned the words even though they never had personal contact with the women who narrated the stories. Jusczyk implies that babies would be much more inclined to store information when they hear words from familiar people. Therefore, reading to babies is important for language development in babies even before they learn to talk.
5. Students' research proposals will vary but should include a clear idea on the future research, what the students are trying to learn, and how they plan to conduct their research.


Student Web Activity