Self-Assessment Questions

This section provides a review. Mark each statement on the Answer Sheet according to the factual materials contained in this issue and the opinions of the authors.

Article One (pp. 203–214)

1. Which of the following is generally not found in infant- and child-directed speech in Western cultures?

   • A higher type-token ratio than in adult-addressed speech

   • A lower type-token ratio than in adult-addressed speech

   • A high level of paraphrase

   • A high proportion of very short utterances

   • Misnaming of referents thought to be difficult for the child to comprehend

2. Which of the following has not been found true of input to young children?

   • Language specifically addressed to the child has more of an impact on language development than overheard language.

   • Both the quantity and quality of input appear to influence child language outcomes.

   • Fathers, mothers, teachers, and therapists all make similar alterations in speech to young children.

   • Greater use of imperatives and related directives in adult speech aids language growth in most children.

   • Question use by adults may help children learn aspects of the auxiliary verb system in English.

3. Which of the following may be most impaired in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder and require intervention in order to increase their use of parental language input?

   • Memory

   • Speech perception skills

   • Joint attention

   • Verb processing

   • All of the above

4. Which of the following are not recommended input adjustments in language to children with communication disorders?

   • Use of recasts and expansions

   • Use of language that facilitates engagement in ongoing activities or interests

   • Frequent use of joint book reading

   • Simplifying grammar and vocabulary when speaking with children who stutter

   • Increasing opportunities for reciprocal interactions between young children and adults

5. How does low socioeconomic status impact input to children?

   • Maternal education appears to impact the richness of input that children hear.

   • Mothers with less education may not know how important their input is to children's language learning.

   • It can raise the rate of maternal depression, which negatively impacts children's language development.

   • It can lead to child care and educational placements that provide less rich input to children.

   • All of the above are true.

   Article Two (pp. 215–226)

6. Sources of variability in language abilities in young bilingual first language learners include which of the following?

   • Relative amount of input in each language

   • Family composition

   • Input from native speakers of each language

   • All of the above

7. Clinical assessment of language development in young bilingual first language learners can be conducted by

   • calculating a total vocabulary size using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory and Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas

   • administering standardized tests in both of a child's languages

   • incorporating estimates of relative input in each language

   • testing a child in his or her dominant language.

8. As dual language learning children get older

   • they are likely to become English dominant

   • they generally attain monolingual-like proficiency in each of their languages.

   • they will have difficulty sustaining heritage language development

   • A and C

9. Due to the distributed nature of bilingual children's language abilities, young bilingual children tend to

   • develop language at rates comparable to monolingual children

   • catch up to monolingual children by age 9 or 10 on all language skills

   • lag behind monolingual children in single-language development

   • be unable to process two languages

10. Some of the difficulties with language assessment of young bilingual children are due to

    • a lack of standardized tests available in each language

    • an inability to identify an appropriate reference group for bilingual children

    • attempting to infer bilingual performance based on monolingual norms.

    • all of the above

    Article Three (pp. 227–236)

11. How does early gesture production relate to spoken language development?

    • The onset of children's first words coincides with the onset of their first gestures.

    • Children who gesture more at the early ages produce fewer words at the later ages.

    • Children's gesture production is not related to their language development.

    • Children who gesture more produce more words at the later ages.

    • Iconic but not deictic gestures predict later spoken language development.

12. What best explains children's gesture production after they begin to produce single words?

    • Children only use gestures to convey the same information as their words.

    • Children first produce gestures that convey the same information as speech, followed by gestures that convey different information from speech.

    • Children use gesture increasingly less to convey information not found in the accompanying speech.

    • Children gesture very little after they produce their first words, mainly to request objects they do not have names for.

    • Children use gestures only to convey additional information not found in the accompanying speech or to clarify a referent.

13. What best describes parents' verbal and nonverbal input to their children at the early stages of language learning?

    • Parents modify their verbal but not gestural input when communicating with their children.

    • Parents modify their gestural but not verbal input when communicating with their children.

    • Parents modify their gestural input to their children only in gesture-rich cultures that have a large repertoire of gestures.

    • Parents produce many iconic but very few deictic gestures to help children understand what they say.

    • Parents adjust both their gestural and verbal input to the communicative needs of their children.

14. How do the types of gestures and gesture—speech combinations parents produce relate to children—s own gesture production at the early stages of language learning?

    • Parents provide models for the types of gestures but not for the types of gesture—speech combinations that their children produce.

    • Parents and children use supplementary and reinforcing combinations at similar rates.

    • Unlike their parents, children increase their use of supplementary gesture—speech combinations.

    • Parents provide models for the types of gesture—speech combinations but not for the types of gestures that their children produce.

    • Parents very rarely produce gesture—speech combinations and these combinations do not resemble the types of combinations their children produce.

15. How does parents' gesture input relate to children's language development?

    • Parents' gestures influence children's language development only in gesture-rich cultures where parents gesture frequently.

    • Parents gesture input does not have any long-term outcomes for children's language development.

    • Parents' gestures have been shown to be helpful for children with comprehension but not production of words.

    • Parents' gesture use influences children's gesture production, which in turn strongly relates to children's subsequent language development.

    • There is very little evidence that suggests a link between parent gesture input and children's vocabulary development.

    Article Four (pp. 237–248)

16. What is maternal responsivity in the beginning language-learning context?

    • Mothers' disposition to provide an emotional response to their child

    • Mothers' disposition to follow their child's attention to an object and talk about that object

    • Children's ability to respond to their mothers' attention bids.

    • Mothers' disposition to answer their children's questions

    • The speed with which mothers notice their child's activities

17. Why might children with autism have difficulties learning from their input during the early period of language development?

    • Children with autism need to be able to talk in order to learn language.

    • Parents do not provide language input when their children with autism spectrum disorder are very young.

    • Children with autism have difficulty following their parents' attention to help determine the content of what their parents are saying.

    • Input does not predict languagelearning skills, only innate abilities, which are impaired in autism spectrum disorder.

    • Children with autism have impaired short-term memory for verbal information.

18. How does maternal responsivity assist children with autism spectrum disorder in early language development?

    • Mothers' emotional responses help the children get in touch with their own emotions.

    • Children with autism spectrum disorder are helped in mapping language onto meaning when their mothers talk about what the children are looking at.

    • When children respond to their mothers, the mothers talk more.

    • Children with autism spectrum disorder respond best to information conveyed in a pragmatically engaging intonation contour.

    • It provides the child with input that is richer in grammatical information.

19. Why does frequency of word use matter to children with autism spectrum disorder in learning language?

    • High-pitched words are easier to hear and so easier to learn.

    • Words that appear more frequently in the input are more likely to be mapped onto the correct meanings.

    • High-frequency words are the most important ones in the language.

    • More frequent words have inherently transparent meaning.

    • More frequent words carry differential emphasis in the input.

20. Why doesn't exact repetition of sentences seem to be beneficial to children with autism spectrum disorder in learning language?

    • Exact repetitions help the child “pull” the sentence out of the sound stream.

    • Exact repetitions are more easily memorized as rote phrases, so that the child does not analyze the words and patterns inside the utterances.

    • Exact repetitions get boring after a while so the child stops paying attention.

    • Sentences that are repeated often tend not to have relevant meaning to the child.

    • Repetition of input items is never helpful in child language learning.

    Article Five (pp. 249–259)

21. On average, research shows that fathers use more of what type of speech than mothers?

    • Diverse words

    • Longer mean lengths of utterance

    • Conversation-eliciting speech

    • Age-appropriate speech

22. What type of clarification request do fathers use most often?

    • Specific

    • Nonspecific

    • Equal amounts of specific and nonspecific

    • Fathers do not use clarification requests

23. Research examining input to children indicates that

    • Social interactions are not important for language development

    • Fathers' and mothers' input is vastly different

    • Fathers rarely use conversationeliciting speech with children

    • The quality and quantity of input positively influence language development

24. Fathers' use of wh questions relates to children's

    • Letter—word identification

    • Rate of speech

    • Print awareness

    • Productive vocabulary

25. Which type of wh question would a 24-month-old child most likely hear from a father?

    • “What is that?”

    • “Where is the dog?”

    • “Who are you talking to?”

    • All of the above are equally likely to occur.

    Article Six (pp. 260–266)

26. Decontextualized language is

    • Talk that is abstract and removed from the here and now

    • Talk that is grounded in the present

    • Talk about context

27. Which of the following is not a type of decontextualized language?

    • Pretend

    • Narrative

    • Explanations

    • Object labels

28. Decontextualized language is most appropriate for children of what ages?

    • 0—1 year

    • 1—2 years

    • 2—3 years

    • 3—5 years

29. Why is decontextualized language challenging?

    • Because meaning is conveyed entirely through language and not context

    • Because the linguistic form of decontextualized language is more complex than that of contextualized language

    • Because it often involves understanding sequencing and causality

    • All of the above

30. Which of the following contexts would be likely to elicit narrative talk from parents?

    • Playing with blocks

    • Mealtime

    • Watching TV

    • Using flash cards

    Article Seven (pp. 267–278)

31. What aspects of children's early language environments are important for their development and educational attainment?

    • Amount of linguistic input

    • Complexity of caregiver speech

    • Adult—child interaction

    • All of the above

32. Hart and Risley found diminished early language environments in children from low socioeconomic status to correlate with

    • larger vocabularies but weaker reading skills upon school entry

    • significantly smaller vocabularies and weaker reading skills upon school entry

    • bad math skills

    • significantly smaller vocabularies only

33. Children's early language environments affect their

    • cognitive development

    • linguistic development

    • school readiness

    • ultimate educational outcomes

    • all of the above

34. Parent-directed interventions

    • have been found to have no effect on the outcomes of children with speech and language delays

    • negatively affect children with speech and language delays

    • have been found to positively impact the outcomes of children with speech and language delays

    • only help typically developing children

35. A person with an “incremental” theory of intelligence believes that

    • intelligence is malleable and can be increased with effort

    • intelligence is fixed and cannot be changed

    • one has no influence over one's own intelligence

    • there is no such thing as intelligence