Language Development

Based on recent studies of language acquisition in children all over the world, the film notes that all children go through the same sequence of language stages at about the same rate. An animated sequence blended with a montage of actual sounds illustrates each stage and some of its important features. Includes a visit to the laboratory of Dr. David Premack where chimpanzees are trained to manipulate plastic symbols to perform basic language functions. Concludes with Noam Chomsky's theory that, since all children develop language in the same sequence, the human mind is genetically pre-programmed to process the kinds of information needed to create language., , Illustrates the child's language process in the first four years, beginning with the development of phonemes, syntax and semantics - the process by which language is acquired and how that acquisition can be influenced.NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.