Child and Adolescence Development

Growth and Development

Growth – is physical change and increase in size. It can be measured quantitatively.
Development – is an increase in the complexity of function and skill progression.
- It is the capacity and skill of a person to adapt to the environment
- gradual and orderly unfolding of the characteristics of the individuals
- the behavioural aspect of growth

TYPES OF DEVELOPMENT
 Physical- refers to the bodily structure and functions
 Cognitive –talks about how the children think, reason, use language and process information
 Socio-emotional- development of child personality, self-concept, identity and social skills
 Moral- development of the judgment between right and wrong

Domains of Development
 Physical development - Body size, body proportions, appearance, brain development, motor
development, perception capacities, physical health
 Cognitive Development - Thought processes and intellectual abilities including attention,
memory, problem solving, imagination, creativity.
 Psychological development - Interpersonal and intrapersonal aspect

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

 Growth and Development are continuous, orderly, sequential processes influenced by
maturational, environmental and genetic factors.
 The sequence of each stage is predictable, although the time of onset may vary with the person.
 Each developmental stage has its own characteristics.
 Growth and development occur in cephalocaudal and proximodistal direction.
 Development proceeds from simple to complex, or from single acts to integrated acts.
Maturation or readiness should precede certain types of learning.
 Development becomes increasingly differentiated, from generalized response to a skilled
specific response.

FACTORS INFLUENCING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

 GENETIC – genetic inheritance of the individual; unchanged
 TEMPERAMENT – the way individual responds to environment
 FAMILY – purpose of family is to provide support and safety to the child.
 NUTRITION – adequate nutrition is an essential component of growth and development
 ENVIRONMENT – external factor such as living conditions, socio-economic status, climate, and
community
 HEALTH – illness and injury can affect growth and development
 CULTURE- cultural customs can influence child’s development

STAGES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

 NEONATAL – Birth to 28 days
o behaviour is largely reflexive and develops to more purposeful behaviour.
 INFANCY – 1 month to 1 year, Physical growth is rapid
  TODDLERHOOD – 1 to 3 years
o Motor development permits increased physical autonomy. Psychosocial skills increased
o Extremely active, “questioning stage”
 PRESCHOOL – 3 to 6 years
o New experiences and the pre-schooler's social role are tried during play. Physical growth
is slower
o “Golden Age of Creativity”
 SCHOOL AGE – 6 to 12 years
o Preadolescent period
o Peer group increasingly influences behaviour.
 ADOLESCENCE – 12 to 20 years
o Self-concept changes with biologic development
 YOUNG ADULTHOOD – 20 to 40 years
o Personal lifestyle develops
o Person establishes a relationship with a significant other and a commitment to
something
 MIDDLE ADULTHOOD – 40 to 65 years
o Lifestyle changes due to other changes like children leave home, occupational goal
change
 OLD AGE – 65 to death
o Adaptation to retirement and changing physical activities.
o Chronic illness may develop
o Adaptation to decline in speed of movement, reaction time.

Social psychology - is about understanding individual behaviour in a social context the scientific field
that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour in social situations. (Baron,
Bryne & Suls 1989)

Biological Psychology - is the study of the brain and human behaviour – primarily of how the brain
brings about behaviour but also how behaviour can alter the brain as we learn from experience.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Operant conditioning- rewards and punishments for behaviour. Individual
makes an association between a particular behaviour and a consequence.

Ivan Pavlov, Classical Conditioning- Classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behaviour via
the process of association. In simple terms two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned
response in a person or animal.
Little Albert Experiment by Watson

Developmental Psychology - The branch of psychology devoted to identifying and explaining the
continuities and changes that individuals display over time.
- the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life
-
What causes us to develop?
Two main processes:
 Maturation- developmental changes in the body or behaviour that result from the aging process
rather than from learning, injury, illness or some other life experience.
 Learning- - a relatively permanent change in behaviour that results from one’s experiences or
practice.

DIFFERENT CONCEPTS OF DEVELOPMENT

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

Continuity- says that change is gradual. Children become more skilful in thinking, talking or acting much
the same way as they get taller.
Discontinuity- sees development as more abrupt-a succession of changes that produce different
behaviours in different age-specific life periods called stages.

Nature vs. Nurture

Nature - refers to the process of biological maturation inheritance and maturation.
Nurture - refers to the impact of the environment, which involves the process of learning through
experiences.

Stability vs. Change

Stability - implies personality traits that are present in an individual at birth remain constant throughout
the life span.
Change – implies that personalities are modified by interactions with family, experiences at school, and
acculturation.

Fertilization - also referred to as conception, impregnation, or fecundation, is the union of an ovum and
a spermatozoon. This usually occurs in the outer third of a fallopian tube, the ampullar portion.
Zygote - the structure formed right after fertilization, the fertilized ovum.
Morula (Day 3),
Blastocyst (Day 4),
Implantation (Day 8 to 10)
Embryo - 2 to 8 weeks of conception
Embryonic Phase- is the period during which the fertilized ovum develops into an organism with
most of the features of the human.
Fetus - From week eight of your pregnancy onwards, the embryonic period ends.
It is characterized by a period of rapid growth in the size of the fetus. Both genetic and
environment factor affect its growth.

MENDELIAN AND NON-MEDELIAN INHERITANCE

GREGOR MENDEL- father of modern genetics

- Proposed the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance.

Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance

Law of Dominance - States that in a pair of alleles, only the dominant trait will be expressed while the
recessive allele would not.

The F1 generation = dominant trait

The F2 generation = dominant and recessive traits
Law of Segregation - During gamete formation, alleles for each gene segregate from each other so that
each gamete carries one per gene
- Occurs during meiosis
- Gametes then randomly unite in the process of fertilization.
Law of Independent Assortment - Members of one gene pair separate from one another independently
of the members of the other gene pairs.
- This usually occurs if there is more than 1 trait.
Non-Mendelian inheritance - is a general term that refers to any pattern of inheritance in which traits
do not segregate in accordance with Mendel's laws. Ex. Incomplete Dominance, Codominance

HOW DO WE CALCULATE THE PROBABILITY OF INHERITING A SPECIFIC TRAIT FROM OUR PARENTS?
Punnet Square- a table used in predicting the possible combination of alleles of an offspring.
For example:
Monohybrid Cross- a cross between one trait of two parents
Dihybrid Cross- a cross between two traits of the two parents

Other Inheritance patterns:

Incomplete Dominance:
A characteristic of gene expression in which one allele is not completely dominant over the other
Codominance:
A form of dominance wherein the offspring showed the physical characteristics of both alleles
Example: ABO blood types

Blood Type
A blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence and absence of antibodies and also based
on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells.

Environmental Influences
- Heredity is not the main reason or factor in the manifestation of traits.
- Some traits manifest only after being influenced by the environment
- Expression some genes have both hereditary and environmental influences
For example:
Some rabbits change its colour turns to brown when snow melts.
Grizzly bear changes its coat in summer into a dark rich brown, while the worn coat becomes tawny or
reddish brown.

Tabula rasa - It is the notion that individual human beings are born "blank" (with no built-in mental
content), and that their identity is defined entirely by events after birth.
- Thomas Aquinas was the first to assert the tabula rasa theory in the 13th century, though it
was John Locke who fully expressed the idea in the 17th century.

Brain plasticity - also known as neuroplasticity, is a term that refers to the brain's ability to change and
adapt as a result of experience.
For example, each time we learn a new dance step, it reflects a change in our physical brains: new
"wires" (neural pathways) that give instructions to our bodies on how to perform the step. Each time we
forget someone's name, it also reflects brain change— "wires” that once connected to the memory have
been degraded, or even severed.
Mental retardation - is a developmental disability that first appears in children under the age of 18. It is
defined as an intellectual functioning that is well below average (70-75) and significant limitations in
daily living skills.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Criteria
- Mild retardation- 50-75
- Moderate retardation- 35-55
- Severe retardation- 20-40
- Profound retardation- under 20-25
Forgetting - refer to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in long- term memory
- the loss, permanent or temporary, of the ability to recall or recognize something learned
earlier
Pruning - refers to the normally occurring process that change and reduce the number of neurons,
synapses and axons that exist within the brain and nervous system.

According to William Greenough, the brain has evolved so that it produces an excess of neurons and
synapses in preparation for receiving any and all kinds of sensory and motor stimulation that a human
being could conceivably experience. Of course, no human being has this broad a range of experiences; so
much of one’s circuitry remains unused. Presumably, then, neurons and synapses that are most often
stimulated continue to function. Other surviving neurons that are stimulated less often loses their
synapses (Pruning) and stand in reserve to compensate for brain injuries or to support new skills.

Emotional Intelligence, or emotional quotient (EQ), is defined as an individual's ability to identify,

evaluate, control, and express emotions.
- EQ is a better indicator of success in the workplace and is used to identify leaders, good team
players, and people who best work by themselves.

IQ, or intelligence quotient, is score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess
an individual's intelligence.
- IQ is used to determine academic abilities and identify individuals with off-the-chart
intelligence or mental challenges.

The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence by Goleman

 SELF-AWARENESS - Ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions and
drives, as well as their effect on others.
 SELF-REGULATION - Manage or redirect one’s disruptive emotions and impulses and adapt to
changing circumstances.
 SOCIAL SKILL - Manage other’s emotions to move people in the desired direction.
 EMPATHY - Recognize, understand, and consider other people’s feelings especially when
making decisions
 MOTIVATION - Motivate oneself to achieve for the sake of achievement.

Egotist - a tendency to talk about oneself all the time and a lack of humility.
- Caring too much about others’ opinions
- Reliving the past: They love to hang on to their moments of glory.
Narcissist - fantasize and have a sense of grandeur
- an excessive need for others to praise them.
- love to show off
Egocentric - a lack of empathy
- Don’t understand the point of view of others
-
IMPORTANCE OF PLAY IN YOUNG CHILDREN
There are at least three ways in which play is important for young children: skill development, social
development, and imagination and creativity. Learning occurs in all areas of development as young
children play.
 Skill development - they learn to coordinate movements of their hands with what their eyes see
 Social development - they learn how to get along with others
 Imagination and creativity - provides such an outlet for young children in cultivating and
expressing their creativity and imagination

Research determines causes of boys' underachievement at school

Negative stereotypes about boys may hinder their achievement, while assuring them that girls and boys
are equally academic may help them achieve. From a very young age, children think boys are
academically inferior to girls, and they believe adults think so, too. Even at these very young ages, boys'
performance on an academic task is affected by messages that suggest that girls will do better than they
will.
"People's performance suffers when they think others may see them through the lens of negative
expectations for specific racial, class, and other social stereotypes-such as those related to gender-and
so expect them to do poorly." - Bonny L. Hartley, PhD

Late Childhood Stage (9 to 12 years; grade 4-6)

Social Characteristics
1. Peer group becomes more evident and begins to acquire adult behaviour
- Need for understanding and limit setting rather than punishment, provide cooperative
activities
2. Increase the development of interpersonal reasoning
- Try to play down comparisons between best and worst learners;
- Encourage pupils to participate in rule setting

PIAGET’S PHASES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

THE PRIMARY ABILITIES IN EACH STAGE
 ASSIMILATION – We take in new information or experiences and incorporate them into our
existing ideas. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experience or
information to fit in with our pre-existing beliefs
 ACCOMMODATION - Involves altering one's existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new
information or new experiences
Examples:
 When a child learns the word for dog, they start to call all four-legged animals dogs. This is
assimilation. People around them will say, no, that's not a dog, it's a cat. The schema for dog
then gets modified to restrict it to only certain four-legged animals. That is accommodation.
 A child seeing a zebra for the first time and calling it a horse. The child assimilates this
information into her schema for a horse. When the child accommodates information, she
takes into consideration the different properties of a zebra compared to a horse, perhaps calling
a zebra a horse with stripes. When she eventually learns the name of zebra, she has
accommodated this information
SENSORIMOTOR
- Infants develop an understanding of the world through trial and error using their senses and
actions. Through the processes of assimilation and accommodation actions become
progressively adapted to the world
- OBJECT PREMANENCE - objects continue to exist even though he or she cannot see or hear
them
- SENSORIMOTOR PLAY
- PRETEND PLAY
- SOLITARY PLAY
Sensorimotor Play - is characterized by exploring sensations and movements, and it tends to dominate
the first two years of life.
Ex. peekaboo, chase, imitating caregivers, dropping or throwing objects
Pretend play - involves using realistic props to act out basic actions, and it tends to appear around 12
months of age.
Ex. drinks from an actual cup or pretend to feed a baby doll with a spoon.
Solitary play - is typically present during the first two years, and occurs when children are in each
other’s presence, but they engage in their own independent activity with their own materials

PREOPERATIONAL PHASE
- Children are thinking at a symbolic level but are not yet using cognitive operations.
- The child's thinking during this stage is pre (before) operations. This means the child cannot
use logic or transform, combine or separate ideas
- Egocentrism - refers to the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point
of view.
- CENTRATION, ANIMISM, IRREVERSIBILITY
- “GOLDEN AGE OF CREATIVITY”
- SYMBOLIC PLAY
- PARALLEL PLAY TO ASSOCIATIVE PLAY
CENTRATION - Centration is the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation at one time.
ANIMISM - This is the belief that inanimate objects (such as toys and teddy bears) have human feelings
and intentions.
IRREVERSIBILITY – This is the inability the reverse the direction of a sequence of events to their starting
point.
Symbolic play - means the child is now able to use an unrealistic or invisible prop as part of their
pretend play.
Ex: pretends to pour her mommy coffee out of an invisible coffee pot, picks up a spoon and
then pretends to play it like a flute
Parallel play - This means children may be playing side by side and there will be little to no interaction
between them, but you may see them imitate each other.

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL PHASE

- is characterised by the development of organized and rationale thinking. It marks the
beginning of logical or operational thought. The child is now mature enough to use logical
thought or operations (i.e. rules) but can only apply logic to physical objects (hence concrete
operational)
- Children on this stage primarily used inductive reasoning.
- CONSERVATION, DECENTRATION, REVERSIBILITY, SERIATION,
- COOPERATIVE PLAY
CONSERVATION – refers to the ability to determine that a certain quantity will remain the same despite
adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size.
DECENTRATION – refers to the ability to consider multiple aspects of a situation
REVERSIBILITY – refers to the ability the reverse the direction of a sequence of events to their starting
point.
SERIATION - the ability to mentally arrange items along a quantifiable dimension, such as height or
weight

Cooperative play
- Occurs during this stage of 7-12 years of age, allowing kids to work together to achieve an
outcome in a structured or organized activity. Kids become interested in both their peers as
well as the activity their peers are doing.
FORMAL OPERATIONS
- Use rational thinking
- Reasoning is deductive and futuristic
- Can do mathematical calculations, think creatively, use abstract reasoning, and imagine the
outcome of particular actions.
- HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE REASONING “What if” - is the ability to think scientifically
through generating predictions, or hypotheses, about the world to answer questions.

Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development

 TRUST VS. MISTRUST (HOPE)

 AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT (WILL)
 INITIATIVE VS. GUILT (PURPOSE)
 INDUSTRY VS. INFERIORITY (COMPETENCE)
 IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION (FIDELITY)
 INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION (LOVE)
 GENERATIVITY VS. STAGNATION (CARE)
 INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR (WISDOM)

TRUST VS. MISTRUST - Birth to 18 months

- The infant looks towards their primary caregiver for stability and consistency of care.
- The success of this stage will lead to the development of sense of trust and the virtue of
HOPE, otherwise, will lead to development of FEAR.
-
AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT - 18 months to 3 years
- The child is developing physically and becoming more mobile, and discovering that he or she
has many skills and abilities, such as putting on clothes and shoes, playing with toys.
- Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of will
- If not, they will develop lack of self-confidence, overly dependent upon others and feel a
sense of shame or doubt in their abilities.
-
INITIATIVE VS. GUILT - 3 years to 5 years
- The children assert themselves more frequently.
- Time of vigour of action and of behaviours that the parents may see as aggressive.
 - Central to this stage is play. They may start initiating activities and make up games.
- The children develop a sense of initiative and feel secure in their ability to lead others and
make decisions.
- Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of purpose
- If not, the children may feelings of guilt for being a nuisance to others and will, therefore,
remain followers, lacking in self-initiative.

INDUSTRY VS. INFERIORITY - 5 years to 12 years

- Children will be learning to read and write, to do sums, to do things on their own.
- Child’s peer group will gain greater significance and will become a major source of the
child’s self-esteem.
- Children should be encouraged and reinforced for their initiative to feel industrious
(competent) and feel confident in their ability to achieve goals. Otherwise, if restricted, they
may have the feelings of inferiority and doubting his abilities.
- Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of competence.
-
IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION - 12 years to 18 years, Adolescence stage
- Adolescents search for a sense of self and personal identity, through an intense exploration
of personal values, beliefs, and goals.
- Major stage of development.
- During this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly
who he or she is.
- Success in this stage will. lead to the virtue of fidelity.
- Failure to establish a sense of identity within society can lead to role confusion. ("I don’t
know what I want to be when I grow up")

INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION - 18 years to 25 years, Young adulthood

- The major conflict centers on forming intimate, loving relationships with other people.
- We explore relationships leading toward longer-term commitments with someone other
than a family member.
- Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of love.
- Avoiding intimacy, fearing commitment and relationships can lead to isolation, loneliness,
and sometimes depression
-
GENERATIVITY VS. STAGNATION - 25 years to 65 years, Middle Adulthood
- We give back to society through raising our children, being productive at work, and
becoming involved in community activities and organizations.
- Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of care.
- By failing to find a way to contribute, we become stagnant and feel unproductive.

INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR - 65 years to death

- We tend to slow down our productivity and explore life as a retired person
- During this time that we contemplate our accomplishments and can develop integrity if we
see ourselves as leading a successful life
- Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of wisdom. Wisdom enables a person to look back
on their life with a sense of closure and completeness, and also accept death without fear.
 - If we see our lives as unproductive, feel guilt about our past, or feel that we did not
accomplish our life goals, we become dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often
leading to depression and hopelessness.

KHOLBERG’S MORAL DEVELOPMENT - Specifically addresses the moral development in children and
adult. The morality of the individual's decision was not Kholberg’s concern; rather, he focused on the
reasons an individual makes a decision.

STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

 PRECONVENTIONAL (egocentric focus)
o Punishment and Obedient Orientation
 Fear of punishment, not respect for authority, is the reason for decisions, behaviour and
conformity.
o Instrumental Relativist Orientation
 “I’ll do something if I get something for it or because it pleases you.”

 CONVENTIONAL (societal focus)

o Interpersonal Concordance Orientation
 Based on the concern of others, empathy; person wants others’ approval or reward.
 “I can put myself in your shoes”
o Law-and-Order Orientation
 Person wants to established rules from authorities.
 “I’ll do something because it’s the law and my duty”

 POSTCONVENTIONAL (Universal Focus)

o Social Contract Legalistic Orientation
 Social rules are not the sole basis for decisions because the person believes a higher
moral principle applies such as equality, justice, or due process
o Universal Ethical Principle Orientation
 Decision and behaviours are based on internalized rules, on conscience rather than
social laws.

SIGMUND FREUD - the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also
a theory which explains human behaviour.

LEVELS OF MIND
o Conscious
o Subconscious
o Unconscious
PSYCHIC APPARATUS
 ID – Pleasure principle
 EGO – Reality principle
 SUPEREGO – Conscience
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
 ORAL – Birth to 1 ½ years
 ANAL – 1 ½ to 3 years
  PHALLIC – 4 to 6 years
 LATENCY – 6 to Puberty
 GENITAL – Puberty to after
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
 ORAL – Mouth is the center of pleasure.
o Major conflict: weaning
 ANAL – Anus and bladder are the sources of pleasure.
o Major conflict: toilet training
 PHALLIC – Child's genitals are the center of pleasure.
o Major conflict: Oedipus Complex, Electra complex
 LATENCY – 6 to Puberty
o Energy is directed physical and intellectual activities.
o Sexual impulses tend to repressed
o Develop relationship between peers of the same sex.
 GENITAL – Puberty to after
o Energy is directed toward full sexual maturity and function and development of skills
needed to cope with the environment.
o It is operated at an unconscious level according to the pleasure principle (gratification
from satisfying basic instincts)
VYGOTSKY
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
 The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent
problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through
problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers
 VYGOTSKY suggests that teachers should use cooperative learning where less
competent children develop with help from more skilful peers.
BANDURA
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
 is how people learn through observing others.
 Models are an important source for learning new behaviours and for achieving
behavioural change
 The Bobo Doll Experiment was how Albert Bandura studied aggression and non-
aggression in children.
 Introduce the MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways.
 First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as
similar to itself.
 Second, the people around the child will respond to the behaviour it imitates with
either reinforcement or punishment.
 Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when
deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions.
MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES
Bandura believes that humans are active information processors and think about the
relationship between their behaviour and its consequences. Therefore, individuals do not automatically
observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it.
Four mediational processes
  ACTIVE: Extent to which we are exposed/notice the behaviour.
 RETENTION: How well the behaviour is remembered
 REPRODUCTION: Ability to perform the behaviour
 MOTIVATION: The will to perform the behaviour.

BOWLBY
ATTACHMENT THEORY
 Suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments
with others, because this will help them to survive.
 The infant produces innate ‘social releaser’ behaviours such as crying and smiling that stimulate
caregiving from adults.
 The determinant of attachment is not food but care and responsiveness.
 Bowlby used the term maternal deprivation to refer to the separation or loss of the mother as
well as failure to develop an attachment.
 Bowlby (1952) believe that short-term separation from an attachment figure leads to distress
Three progressive stages of distress
 Protest: The child cries, screams and protests angrily when the parent leaves. They will try to
cling on to the parent to stop them leaving.
 Despair: The child’s protesting begins to stop, and they appear to be calmer although still
upset. The child refuses others’ attempts for comfort and often seems withdrawn and
uninterested in anything.
 Detachment: If separation continues the child will start to engage with other people again.
They will reject the caregiver on their return and show strong signs of anger
GARDNER
THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
 Musical-rhythmic: Sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music
 Visual-spatial: visualize with the mind's eye
 Verbal-linguistic: facility with words and languages
 Logical-mathematical: logic, abstractions, reasoning, numbers and critical thinking
 Bodily-kinesthetic: Gross motor skill and Fine motor skill
 Interpersonal: Social Skill
 Intrapersonal: Introspective and self-reflective capacities
 Naturalistic: sensitivity to the factors influencing and influenced by organism in the natural
environment.
 Existential: sensitivity to issues related to the meaning of life, death and other aspects o the
human condition.
CHOMSKY (The father of modern linguistics)
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE
 an inborn linguistic processor that is activated by verbal input and contains a universal
grammar, or knowledge of rules that are common to all languages
 Universal Grammar is considered to contain all the grammatical information needed to
combine these categories, e.g. noun and verb, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the
words of her language.
 For example, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g. a boy) and a verb (to eat)
into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats).