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Birth
Shortly after birth, Kendrick was responsive to my face and voice, and was able to distinguish me from others he didn't know. Kendrick would also make eye contact when I would talk to him. -
3 months old
During this time, Kendrick learned the signal values of certain behaviors. For example, his crying resulted in my response to feed or change him. He learned to predict my responses based on his constant signaling. -
8 months old
Around 8 months, Kendrick would make requests by gesturing. He would reach and make vvocalizations for things he wanted. He would also make noises ans eye contact when he simply wanted attention. In our text, these behaviors are characteristic of the development of intentionality (Owens, Metz, & Farinella, 2011, pg. 107). -
12 Months Old
Around a year old, Kendrick knowingly said his first word. If I remember correctly it was 'ba-ba' for 'bottle'. He would yell 'baba!' and reach for his bottle or sippy cup. Sometimes I couldn't make it fast enough! -
18 Months Old
As Kendrick's cognitive abilities further developed, so too did his ability to represent and symbolize at this time. When he was at his father's house, and I would talk to him on the phone, he would start smiling and squealing. Even though I was not present, je would call for me when at his father's house. His babbling began tondecrease as he began to make more two word phrases. -
2 Years Old
Around 2 years old, I noticed Kendrick was understanding a lot! His vocabulary mushroomed, and he loved saying 'No!' and 'What?' when I said his voice in a tone that indicated he was getting into something he wasn't supposed to.Toward the end of his second year, he became even more talkative and was using three word phrases. these more frequent and complex utterances reflected his growing syntactic knowledge and communicative goals (pg. 110). -
3 Years Old
Kendrick's increased language skills at this time allowed him to recount events from the past. He would tell me how his sister wouldn't share with him and tell her how that was not nice. He would tell me what he ate at his dad's house earlier and where they went. he overgeneralized the past tense rule for go/went, telling me he 'goed' there. Our text explains that this is evident of the child hypothesis forming stage of language development. -
4 Years Old
By 4 years old, I felt Kendrick understood so much more than he produced. It seemed I could tell him anything and he understood what I was saying. This is because around tjis age, children may comprehend 2-3 times their vocabulary production abilities, given the context. He acquired relational phrases very well as his cognitive abilities were developing more, allowing for more advanced categorization and storage procedures. -
Five Years Old
By 5 years old, Makayla's langguage was characteristic of more elaborate grammar, with the inclusion of articles, adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, and adverbs (pg. 112). She was able to form complex interrogative sentences and correctly invert the subjects and auxillary verbs to change the question appropriately. She could also combine independent clauses to create more complex sentences and properly used bound morphemes. -
Six Years Old
Around age 6, Makayla began to be very interested in reading and writing, especially writing. She even had a diary in which she wrote in regularly. Her abilities at this age were due to advanced metalinguistic skills which allowed her to think abstractly about language, a significant ability for literacy acquisition.
