In order to acquire language knowledge, the child needs to be able to pay attention to adult’s interaction with objects until the names of objects, as well as the names of actions are implanted into his or her long term memory. The better the attention span of the infant is, the better his or her language development will be. Infants also need to be able to distinguish speech from environmental noise, as well as the various phonemes within a language. The child will learn phonotactic regularities, which are essentially the pairings of different vowels and consonants that are acceptable within a language. Cognitive development is vital in preparation of intentional communication because it is necessary for the child to develop word knowledge, and to do this the child needs both an acceptable attention span and a long term memory ability. It is also important that the child is able to distinguish human speech from outside noise as well as the components of …show more content…
Without interaction from the caregiver, it is virtually impossible for the child to develop language. This is because a child learns by their social partner’s references of the environment around him or her. The infant will follow the social ques of the caregiver, whether they are pointing, glancing, or holding an object, and will connect these ques to the words that the adult coincides them with. For example, the caregiver will point at a dog, and say to the child “Johnny, look at the dog” while pointing. Given the text, the child will not only be exposed to the physical definition of the word “dog” but he will also get a reinforcement of his own name. Within the topic of social interaction regarding infants, motherese play a crucial role. This is the language that mothers use to speak to their children, and it includes characteristics such as increased intonation and a slower rate of speech. These social adaptations allow the infant to attend to, understand and retain the information that he or she is being given. Studies have shown that a lack of social interaction will cause slower vocabulary and overall language