Course Description
Monolingual and bilingual language development, from infancy to
adulthood, in typical and atypical populations. Milestones,
sequences, processes, and difficulties of acquiring
a native language. Exceptional conditions that can interact
with language, including culture, gender, socioeconomic status,
cognitive abilities, and pre-linguistic influences.
Athena Title
Typical and Atypical Lang Dev
Non-Traditional Format
This course will be taught 95% or more online.
Prerequisite
Students must be enrolled in a professional program to register for this course
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- Upon completion of this course, students will have an appreciation for the amazing task that almost every child is able to accomplish in acquiring his or her first language.
- Upon completion of this course, students will have gained detailed knowledge of language development including the major milestones in the development of speech perception, speech production, word learning, morphology, syntax, pragmatic and social language skills.
- Upon completion of this course, students will understand the methods used in studying language development and become acquainted with the types of results these methods have uncovered.
- Upon completion of this course, students will understand basic child language data and conduct basic analyses of this data.
- Upon completion of this course, students will understand the major theories of language development and some of the major debates in field.
- Upon completion of this course, students will understand how to relate normal language development to disorders and abnormalities.
- Upon completion of this course, students will understand cultural and linguistic differences in language development, including those of children who are developing language in diverse cultures or developing language atypically (e.g., children with disabilities as well as the exceptional learning needs of individuals whose primary language is not English).
- Upon completion of this course, students will appreciate the fact that “the study of language development is a constantly evolving and complex area of science in which practitioners have many more questions than answers” (Pence and Justice 2008: 3).
- Upon completion of this course, students will appreciate the importance of language research to the everyday practices and activities of parents, teachers, psychologists, and other professionals who are invested in helping children achieve their fullest language development potential.
Topical Outline
- Introduction to language: Communication, language, and neurophysiology for language
- Acquiring the basic grammar: Semantic, morphological, syntactic, and phonological development
- Communicative competence: Development of language use (pragmatics)
- Language and literacy: Development of reading and writing
- Second language acquisition in children
- Atypical language development
- Individual and cultural differences in language acquisition
