Behaviourism

The theory of behaviourism is often accredited to B. F. Skinner. Skinner says that a child learns language based on positive and negative reinforcement of ideas.

Examples

For example, when a child correctly calls a dog, a dog, the caregiver may say something positive like ‘yes, that’s the dog’ to reinforce the idea.
Similarly, when an incorrect utterance is produced, like the child calling a dog a cat, the caregiver may say something negative, like ‘no, that’s not a cat, it’s a dog’. Tone of voice and paralinguistic features will often assist with this.

1Children's Language Development

1.1Stages of Development

1.1.1A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition

1.1.2Consonant Acquisition

1.1.3Beginning Stages of Language

1.1.4Lexical Development

1.1.5Stages of Development

1.1.6Grammatical Constructions

1.2Theories of Language Development

1.2.1Behaviourism

1.2.2Interactionism

1.2.3Interactionism 2

1.2.4Nativism

1.2.5Chomsky

1.2.6Cognitivism

1.2.7Social Constructionism

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