Child language acquisition (CLA) refers to how children develop the ability to understand and use language. But what process do children go through exactly? How do we study CLA? And what is an example? Let's find out!

Stages of first language acquisition in children

There are four main stages of first language acquisition in children. These are:

• The Babbling Stage
• The Holophrastic Stage
• The Two-word Stage
• The Multi-word Stage

The Babbling Stage

The babbling stage is the first significant stage of language acquisition in children, occurring from around 4-6 months until about 12 months of age. During this stage, the child hears speech syllables (sounds that make up spoken language) from its environment and caregivers and attempts to imitate by repeating them. There are two types of babbling: canonical babbling and variegated babbling.

• Canonical babbling is the type of babbling that emerges first. It consists of the same syllables being repeated over and over e.g. a baby saying 'ga ga ga', 'ba ba ba', or a similar string of repeated syllables.

• Variegated babbling is when different syllables are used in the babbling sequence. Instead of using one syllable repeatedly, the child uses a variety e.g. 'ga ba da' or 'ma da pa'. This occurs around two months after canonical babbling starts, at around eight months of age. Children may also begin to use intonation that resembles actual speech at this stage, while still only producing meaningless sounds.

Babbling is the first stage of language acquisition - Pexels

The Holophrastic Stage (The One-Word Stage)

The holophrastic stage of language acquisition, also known as the ‘one-word stage’, typically occurs around the age of 12 to 18 months. At this stage, children have identified which words and combinations of syllables are the most effective for communicating and may attempt to communicate a full sentence's worth of information. For example, a child may say 'dada' which could mean anything from ‘I want dad’ to ‘where is dad?’. This is known as holophrasis.

A child's first word will often resemble a babble and, while they may hear and understand a wide range of sounds, they can still only produce a limited range themselves. These words are known as proto words. Despite sounding like babbles, they still work as words because the child has assigned meaning to them. Children may also use real words and typically adapt them to suit their speaking ability. Sometimes these words are used incorrectly as the child attempts to learn and use them. For example, they may call every animal a 'cat' if they grew up with one.

The Two-word Stage

The two-word stage occurs at around 18 months of age. At this stage, children are able to use two words in the right grammatical order. However, the words they use tend to exclusively be content words (words that hold and convey meaning) and they often leave out function words (words that hold a sentence together, such as articles, prepositions, etc.).

At this stage, the child’s vocabulary starts at around 50 words and consists mostly of common nouns and verbs. These often come from things their caregivers have said or things in their immediate environment. Typically, as the child progresses through the two-word stage, the ‘word spurt’ occurs, which is a relatively short period during which the child's vocabulary grows much larger. Most children know 50 words by around 17 months of age, but by 24 months they may know up to over 600.¹

The Multi-word Stage

The multi-word stage of language acquisition in children can be broken up into two distinct sub-stages: the early multi-word stage and the later multi-word stage. Children move on from two-word phrases and begin to form short sentences of around three, four, and five words, and eventually even more. They also begin to use more and more function words and are able to form more complex sentences. Children typically progress rapidly through this stage as they understand many of the basics of their language already.

The early multi-word stage

The early part of this stage is sometimes called the ‘telegraphic stage’ as the children's sentences seem to resemble telegram messages due to their simplicity. The telegraphic stage takes place from around 24 to 30 months of age. Children mostly ignore function words in favour of using the most important content words and usually start using negatives (no, not, can't, etc.). They also tend to ask more questions about their surroundings.

The later multi-word stage

The later multi-word stage, also known as the complex stage, is the final part of language acquisition. It starts at around 30 months of age and has no fixed endpoint. At this stage, children start to use a variety of function words and there is a great increase in the amount of words children can use. Their sentence structures also become a lot more complex and varied.

Children in this stage have a concrete sense of time, quantity, and the ability to engage in simple reasoning. This means they can talk confidently in different tenses, and verbally explain ideas such as putting ‘some’ or ‘all’ of their toys away. They can also start to explain why and how they think or feel things, and may also ask others.

As children reach the age of five and above, their ability to use and understand language becomes more or less fluent. Many children still struggle with pronunciations, but they are able to understand when others use these sounds. Eventually, older children gain the ability to confidently read, write, and explore a variety of new topics and ideas. Typically, school will also help children to further develop their linguistic skills.

At the multi-word stage, children can talk about a variety of topics - Pexels

Methodology in child language acquisition

So, how exactly do we study child language acquisition?

Types of studies include:

• Cross-sectional studies - comparing different groups of children of different ages. This method helps to get results faster.
• Longitudinal studies - observing several children over a period of time, from several months to decades.
• Case studies - in-depth studies of one or a small number of children. This helps get a more detailed understanding of the child’s development.

There are several methods to measure a child’s development. For example:

• Observations e.g. recording spontaneous speech or repetition of words.
• Comprehension e.g. pointing at an image.
• Act-out e.g. children are asked to act something out or make toys act out a scenario.
• Preferential-looking e.g. measuring the time spent looking at an image.
• Neuroimaging e.g. measuring brain responses to certain linguistic stimuli

Language acquisition example

An example of the study of child language acquisition is the Genie Case Study. Genie had minimal interaction with others as a child due to her abusive upbringing and isolation. Due to this, her case drew many psychologists and linguists who wanted to study her and study the idea of a 'critical period' for language acquisition. This is the idea that the first few years of a child’s life are a crucial time to learn a language.

Researchers provided Genie with stimulus-rich environments to help her develop her language skills. She began to copy words and could eventually put together utterances of two to four words, leaving researchers optimistic that Genie might be able to fully develop language. Unfortunately, Genie did not progress past this stage and was not able to apply grammatical rules to her utterances. It appeared that Genie had passed the critical period for language acquisition; however, it is also important to remember the impact of abuse and neglect on her childhood. Case studies like Genie’s are key components of research into language acquisition.

The role of the environment in language acquisition in children

The role of the environment in CLA is a key area of study for many linguists. It all comes back to the 'nature vs nurture' debate; some linguists argue that environment and upbringing are key in language acquisition (nurture) whilst others argue that genetics and other biological factors are most important (nature).

The Behavioural Theory is the main theory that argues for the importance of the environment in language acquisition. It proposes that children do not have any internal mechanisms for learning a language; instead, they learn language as a result of imitating their caregivers and those around them. Interactionist theory also argues for the importance of the environment and propose that, whilst children do have the innate ability to learn language, they require regular interaction with caregivers to achieve full fluency.

Opposing theories to these are the Nativist theory and the Cognitive Theory. The Nativist Theory argues that children are born with an innate 'Language Acquisition Device' that provides children with a baseline understanding of language. The Cognitive Theory argues that children learn language as their cognitive ability and understanding of the world develops.

¹ Fenson et al., Lexical development norms for young children, 1993.