Infant Language Education

Abstract

There is a controversy among child language researchers about the effect of input on child language acquisition throughout the years of development. This controversy was the result of arguments about whether language development is the result of the environment shaping behavior, or the result of a child’s unique abilities to process language information. This is what has been labeled the “nature-nurture” argument. There has now been a great deal of data collected about the infancy years, and the influences that appear to affect language development during this period. Some of these influences are from the environment. Others are due to the innate abilities of the infant to process various kinds of sensory information. The answer to the nature-nurture argument is that both are involved. The question for educators of infants is what in the input of the environment assists in the development of language in this period.