SPEECH & LANGUAGE -any professionals/buffs out there, quick query!

[LittlePushka]

I am really very interested in speech and language development in young children and hearing it all unfold in my little boy has been truly fascinating.

I would really like to know more about the theory and would be very grateful if any of you could recommend a textbook for me to get into.

(PS He has no problems and I am not pushy,...just fired up by how and why it happens!)

Stephen Pinker 'The Language Instinct' is very readable and comes from the view that humans' brains are programmed to learn language before they are born.

How Babies Talk - not a text book but very readable by Golinkoff and Hiresh-Pasek

Language aquisition does have its controversies though....

Quite - which is why I stated what the Stephen Pinker view is !! It's not everyone's cup of tea. No-one really knows how it happens - there are just theories.

from mum and teacher perspective, take a look here? (including the "also" line at the bottom of the page )

The How Babies Talk book is recommended by Pinker on the back, so will present the same view.

ooh i like this question!

pinker 'language instinct' is a great read but not sure i would recommend it to someone who is interested in finding out the nuts and bolts. as others have suggested, it's a very partial view, although he has a great writing style and makes his points very persuasively! not sure golinkoff and hirsh-pasek have exactly the same views as pinker, but they are very focused on brains as opposed to minds...

a very simple read is david crystal 'listen to your child'. some nice ideas for little experiments/ observations you can make at home (!) to give you an insight into what is happening in your own child's development too.

o'grady's book is a bit more technical but still readable, and gives you a bit more detail about how researchers have found out what we know so far!

berko gleason is good too tho' you may need to get it second hand or from a library.

finally if you get really into it, eve clark is the one i get my second year students to buy. very comprehensive and detailed but still readable (just)!

hth! happy reading

Thank you so much asics girl,..I am checking out all your very kind suggestions and I cannot wait to get my teeth into them!

Only need another 6 hrs a day to read them...

Thanks again!

PS Asics girl, do you know if any of the suggestions you kindly made have commentary on dialects/accents?

hi littlepushka! good question... couldn't tell you off the top of my head but i would imagine they will all mention it somewhere. are you looking for particular info?

not especially asics girl,...just want to know everything! and also dh and i are very different so interesting to see who the boys copy for what before they become homogenised by primary school!

How Babies Talk - by Golinkoff and Hiresh-Pasek ....just aboutto finish this. What a great read to have whilst having a toddler to oblige with testing the theories. Great!

Waiting for the rest to arrive..! Thanks again