The social-pragmatic theory of language development highlights the importance of:

Get help with access

Institutional access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Sign in through your institution

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth / Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

1. Click Sign in through your institution.
2. Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
3. When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
4. Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Sign in with a library card

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

1. Click Sign in through society site.
2. When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
3. Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

Personal account

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

Institutional account management

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Theories of Speech & Language DevelopmentResearched by: AlexaObjectives:1. Understand each of the four theories of language development2. How do clinicians apply the theories of language development?3. Be familiar with the multicultural considerations of speech and language development

The process of speech and language development in infants and children is complex and interrelated. For normal communication to develop, there must be an integration of anatomy and physiology of the speech systems, neurological development, and interactions that encourage infants and children for communication attempts. Language development includes both receptive and expressive language. (Owens, 2012) There are four theories that explain most of speech and language development: behavioral, nativistic, semantic-cognitive, and social-pragmatic.

Understanding the Theories 

Behavioral Theory
The behavioral perspective states that language is a set of verbal behaviors learned through operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a method of changing behavior so that a desired behavior is reinforced immediately after it occurs. B.F. Skinner is considered to be the father of the modern behavioral theory. This theory can be applied to many aspects of human learning including speech and language. The theory centers around the idea that children are conditioned by their environment and the reinforcement of their communication.

Behaviorists believe that language behaviors are learned by imitation, reinforcement, and copying adult language behaviors. They consider language to be determined not by experimentation or self-discovery, but by selective reinforcements from speech and language models, usually parents or other family members. Behaviorists focus on external forces that shape a child's language and see the child as a reactor to these forces. (Hulit, Howard, & Fahey, 2011)

Imitation and Practice
Two other concepts that are important for understanding the behaviorist ideas of speech and language development are imitation and practice. A young child will try to imitate sounds and words he hears his parents say the best he can. When a child says a word that sounds close to what the parents say, they accept and reinforce it. In other words, they begin shaping the word until the child can eventually say the word as well as the parents do.

An example of selective reinforcement:
A child says "mama" when his mother starts to pick him up. The mother is delighted to hear the child say this and gives the child a hug and kiss. The mother says "Mama, that's right, I'm Mama!" The mothers affectionate response makes it more likely that the child will say "mama" again. The mother's response to the child reinforced the behavior.

Nativistic Theory
The nativistic theory is a biologically-based theory which states that language is innate, physiologically determined, and genetically transmitted. This means that a newborn baby is "pre-wired" for language acquisition and a linguistic mechanism is activated by exposure to language. (Hulit, Howard, & Fahey, 2011). This theory believes that language is universal and unique to only humans and that unless there are severe mental or physical limitations, or severe isolation and deprivation, humans will acquire language. The nativistic theory argues that caregivers do not teach children the understanding of language and do not usually provide feedback about the correctness of their utterances. (Pinker, 1984).

Language Acquisition Device
 The main theorist associated with the nativist theory is Noam Chomsky. He came up with the idea of the language acquisition device (LAD). The LAD is a language organ that is hard-wired into our brains at birth. Once a child is exposed to language, the LAD activates. Click the button below to learn more about Chomskey's ideas. 

Semantic-Cognitive Theory
The semantic-cognitive theory is a perspective of language development that emphasizes the interrelationship between language learning and cognition; that is, the meanings conveyed by a child's productions. Children demonstrate certain cognitive abilities as a corresponding language behavior emerges. (Bloom & Lahey, 1978). The semantic meaning that a person wants to communicate determines the words and word order (syntactic form) the person uses. For example, children know what they want to communicate (cognition) but do not always use the correct semantics or grammar. Also, children may not know the correct use of a word or understand that a word can have more than one meaning.

Social-Pragmatic Theory
The social-pragmatic theory considers communication as the basic function of language. This perspective is first seen in infant-caregiver interactions in which the caregiver responds to an infant's sounds and gestures.

The prerequisites for the social-pragmatic theory are:
1.) The infant must have a caregiver in close proximity to see, hear, or touch
2.) The caregiver must provide the infant with basic physical needs such as food, warmth, and exploring the environment
3.) The infant must develop an attachment to the caregiver
4.) The infant and caregiver must be able to attend to the same objects or actions simultaneously
5.) The infant and caregiver engage in turn-taking in both verbal and nonverbal behaviors (McLaughlin, 2006).

In ideal parent-child communication, all of the five prerequisites are met in most interactions. The social-pragmatic perspective emphasizes the importance of the communicative partner's role; the partner's interpretation of what is said defines the results of the speech act.

How do Clinicians Apply These Theories?

Behavioral Theory

For decades, clinicians have used a behavioral approach to study children's language by observing, describing, and counting specific language behaviors. This basic stimulus-response model first teacher children to imitate a sound and then reinforces the sound production with verbal praise (e.g. "Great job!"). The children's sounds are shaped into increasingly closer approximations of the target sound, and when they finally are able to produce the target sound correctly, the sound is practiced in a variety of word and sound combinations. 

Nativistic Theory
When children do not use certain language structures that are appropriate for their age, they most likely have not acquired them naturally and would need to improve in therapy. Helping children learn how to combine words, phrases, and sentences lets them convey messages to others. Instructing children about how to use language appropriately in different social situations and environments allows them to use appropriate pragmatics when communicating.  

Semantic-Cognitive Theory Clinicians use the semantic-cognitive theory by describing children's strategies for gaining new information. For example, the complexity of a sentence, the amount of information in the sentence, and the rate at which the sentence is said may significantly affect the way a child understands a sentence. A child with delayed or disordered language could benefit from a clinician who can adjust one or all of these variables. A clinician may be able to make a sentence simpler with less information for a child to process and slow down the rate of speech so that the child can better understand the message.

Social-Pragmatic Theory
them Caregivers can make language easier in many ways, including playing social games that are stimulating and exciting for infants (e.g. peekaboo), taking turns in activities where the caregivers speaks and expects the infant to respond in a similar way, and reading books with young children. Clinicians can assess and treat a child's language impairments from a social-communicative and contextual perspective. The goal of therapy is to maximize the child's ability to communicate.

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Perspective

Although not necessarily considered a theory of language acquisition, clinicians need to be aware of cultural and diversity perspectives. Regardless of the theory of language development that is followed, children mature and grow within the context of their caregivers, whether they are parents, family members, or other members of the community. These people provide an environment with communication for the maturing child that reflects the range of meanings, values, perceptions, and beliefs of the cultures they are a part of. The United States is considered multicultural, like many other countries. Multicultural refers to a society that is characterized by a diversity of cultures, languages, traditions, religions, and values, as well as socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, and ability levels where, ideally, individuals are respected and valued for their contributions to the society as a whole. Speech-language pathologists and audiologists need to be able to understand and appreciate the cultural-linguistic diversity of client populations in order to better serve them. (Owens, 2012)

Cultural diversity is not determined by a person's origin or color of skin, but by many other factors including linguistic background, level of education, socioeconomic status, and religious beliefs. Any of these factors could influence speech and language development. Many children in America are come from families who have recently immigrated to America. These families often continue to speak their native language at home and in social environments. This typically causes children to develop the family's native language as their first language. However, many children may be exposed to both their native language and English and will learn to speak English with an accent.

Dialects
There are approximately 1,000 languages in the world spoken by at least 10,000 people. (Crystal, 2010). Languages have a variety of forms and dialects that can vary in phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Within a language, no dialect is better than another, however, standard dialect can be associated with higher education levels and is used in education environments. Standard dialects for one language can even vary from country to country. For example, America, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore all use English, but have very different dialects.

ASHA (1998) provided a statement about speech-language pathologists working in school settings who have different dialects than the community. "ASHA maintains that members may not discriminate against people who speak with a nonstandard dialect in educational programs, employment, or service delivery. However, clinicians must have the necessary diagnostic and clinical skills and be able to model required treatment targets. In addition, the clinician may not have limited English proficiency."

Regional Dilect Differences in the U.S.

Click the button below to hear America's dialects in action

What is social

What are the importance of knowing theories of language development?

What are the 3 theories of language development?

Who proposed social