In early childhood, children develop an ecological sense of self at birth and by 18 months, they recognize their own body. They also begin to recognize themselves in mirrors and manifest self-conscious emotions. During school years, the development of competence takes on a new meaning as children face five challenges: knowing who they are, the challenge of peers, and the development of a positive sense of self.
Two studies demonstrate how toddlers become self-aware around 18 months. Infants and toddlers primarily learn through sensory experiences and manipulating objects, with key achievements including understanding object permanence. Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. Once a child’s sense of self is established, they are more likely to remember information related to themselves.
A child’s sense of self primarily develops from social experience, internal cognitive processes, inner conflicts, and the adoption of social labels. Self-esteem refers to one’s sense of identity, evaluation of the self, and overall evaluation of the self. The first indication of a child’s self-concept is becoming aware of themselves, siblings, and sense organs and muscles in the physical domain.
In early childhood, most children conceive of the self primarily through social experiences, such as exploring the environment and developing self-control. If toilet training is too harsh or if the child’s sense of self is not developed, it may lead to infants realizing they are distinct from others and that other people have a separate existence.
📹 What is Critical Thinking?
Critical Thinking encompasses six vital skills: problem solving, analysis, creative thinking, interpretation, evaluation, and …
How does a child develop a sense of self?
Self-concept is a crucial aspect of a child’s development, as it involves their thoughts and feelings about themselves. Children are not born with the ability to recognize their own feelings, but their early relationships and experiences with caregivers shape their self-concept. This awareness of themselves as separate individuals is essential for forming positive relationships and building self-confidence. Self-concept begins with a physical realization that children are separate from their primary caregivers, usually their mother.
Around five months, children realize they may be separate individuals and develop self-awareness. Around 18 months, children demonstrate self-recognition in mirrors and photographs. Social development during this time supports the idea that children are building their mental self-concept, as they can identify their body parts and refer to themselves in the first person. They also begin using words like “I” and “mine”. As children continue to develop self-concept, they begin to identify their own characteristics and feelings in everyday interactions.
What is the sensory domain in child development?
The sensory domain encompasses the seven senses: sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste, vestibular, and proprioception. These senses are an integrated system that plays a crucial role in a child’s physical, social-emotional, communication, and cognitive development. Outdoor play environments that integrate these senses can provide opportunities for children to seek sensory relief or input. Children with disabilities may experience heightened sensitivity, sensation avoiding, sensation seeking, and poor registration.
Cognitive development refers to the continuous growth of perception, memory, imagination, conception, judgment, and reason. It involves mental activities such as comprehending information, acquiring, organizing, remembering, and using for problem-solving and generalization to novel situations. Children with disabilities may experience heightened sensitivity, sensation avoiding, sensation seeking, and poor registration.
Where does sense of self come from?
A 2021 study published in SCAN explores the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in the brain, which may be responsible for forming a fundamental model of oneself and placing it in mental time. This region may be the source of our sense of self. The study suggests that when the vmPFC produces this model, it may be the source of our sense of self. Researchers have observed that the mind handles information about oneself differently than other details, with self-related memories being easier to recall due to the self-reference effect.
This effect makes information related to oneself more salient in our thoughts. Self-related memories are distinct from episodic memory, which pertains to specific events and experiences, and semantic memory, which connects to more general knowledge.
How is a child’s self-concept formed?
The self-concept of children is influenced by various factors, including emotional characteristics and parent-child interactions. A study was conducted to examine the relationship between children’s self-concepts and child temperament, dyadic parenting behavior, and triadic family interaction. The results showed that temperamental proneness-to-distress and triadic family interaction contributed independently to children’s self-reported Timidity and Agreeableness.
Dyadic parenting behavior moderated the associations between child temperament and self-reported Timidity and Agreeableness, suggesting that temperament was only associated with children’s self-concepts when mothers and fathers engaged in specific parenting behaviors. The study suggests both direct and interactive influences of family dynamics and child characteristics on children’s self-concept development.
At what age do most children develop theory of mind?
Between ages 4-5, children develop their theory of mind, which includes understanding “wanting”, “thinking”, “seeing leads to knowing”, “false beliefs”, and “hidden feelings”. They learn to predict what one person thinks or feels about what another person is thinking or feeling. They also understand complex language that relies on theory of mind, such as lies, sarcasm, and figurative language.
The development of children’s theory of mind continues after age five, as they learn to predict what one person thinks or feels about what another person is thinking or feeling. They also begin to understand complex language that relies on theory of mind, such as lies, sarcasm, and figurative language. Some experts argue that theory of mind development continues over a lifetime as one has more opportunities to experience people and their behavior.
At what age does a child’s mind develop?
The brain, which powers movement, thinking, and communication, is primarily made up of connections between cells. The early years of a child’s life are crucial for creating these connections, with at least one million new neural connections occurring every second. Different brain areas, responsible for different abilities like movement, language, and emotion, develop at different rates. As brain connections become more complex, they enable the child to move, speak, and think in more complex ways. Although all children develop differently, the early years are the best opportunity for a child’s brain to develop the connections they need for healthy, capable, and successful adults.
What facilitates the child’s growing self-concept?
Self-concept is a child’s view of themselves and their abilities, which begins at birth and is influenced by adults’ responses. Parents and caregivers create a positive emotional bond with infants, which promotes a healthy self-concept. As the child grows, their ability to interact successfully with their environment nurtures a healthy self-concept. This is crucial in early childhood, as it empowers the child to feel competent, try new things, and strive for success.
Parents have the responsibility to nurture a positive self-concept in their children. To do this, parents should be mindful of their language and focus on their child’s strengths rather than labeling them as lazy, naughty, aggressive, or mean.
What are the 5 domains of child development?
Dianna Fryer, a training and curriculum specialist for the Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Child Development Program, identifies five critical domains in a child’s development: social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. These domains guide the JBSA CDPs’ approach to early childhood education and can serve as a guide for parents to support their children’s development. Parents can engage their children through talking, singing, playing, family-style eating, pretend playing, and games, while also providing opportunities for exploration through play groups and sporting activities.
What does a child’s sense of self primarily develop from?
The study explores the relationship between children’s self-concepts and their individual characteristics or aspects of their social environment. The developing self is influenced by various factors, including gender, culture, friendship, and peer groups. However, developmentalists have long emphasized the role of family in children’s emergent personality, with family relationships being the most important correlates.
The study examines the correlates of children’s self-concepts through family systems and ecological perspectives. Family systems focus on the unique role of each family member and family relationship (mother-child, father-child, mother-father-child triad) in self-concept development, while ecological perspectives emphasize the role of family and children’s characteristics on self-concept development. Belsky’s process model highlights the interrelations among family subsystems and how these relations may affect development.
The study also borrows from the notion of “goodness-of-fit”, which argues that temperamental characteristics develop differently as a function of a child’s social environment and emphasizes the importance of examining interactive effects of temperament and parenting. Children’s self-views may reflect both early emotional tendencies and the ways in which parents differentially respond to this emotion.
These theoretical frameworks suggest that children’s self-concepts are likely associated with child, parent, and family characteristics. Although the developmental mechanisms underlying this aspect of development are not yet established, documenting the relations of these child and family elements to children’s early self-concepts is crucial. This study is among the first to examine how observed child temperament, mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, and triadic family interaction at age 3 are related to children’s perceptions of their own personalities at age 4.
Which of the following are the main characteristics of self-understanding in children in early childhood?
The primary characteristics of children’s self-understanding are their developing abilities to understand others’ perspectives, thoughts, and emotions. This is known as the theory of mind and self-awareness.
At what age do children develop a theory of mind quizlet?
At approximately four years of age, children commence the development of a Theory of Mind, as evidenced by their ability to pass the false belief task.
📹 Language: Crash Course Psychology #16
You know what’s amazing? That we can talk to people, they can make meaning out of it, and then talk back to us. In this episode of …
Text: Critical thinking is all about asking questions. The right questions. Questions that help you assess both the meaning and the significance of claims and arguments. Building these skills and applying them in your life makes it easier for you to assess evidence, evaluate arguments and adapt your thinking and stay switched on and engaged in different situations. Critical thinking involves stepping back from a situation to enable you to see all the angles before making judgements or making decisions. It means identifying the key points, analysing the source of information, weighing up different types of evidence, just as a judge and jury would do in a court of law and putting it all together into your own independent, thought through point of view. One thing that’s very important to realise is that critical thinking isn’t about being critical and it’s about much more than finding flaws in other people’s claims. By itself, that isnt enough to give you an edge. To be a true critical thinker means being creative, reflective and adaptable. Evaluating the evidence to decide for yourself what is accurate, what is relevant, and do I have sufficient info to make a decision on this topic. Thinking critically means taking a stand for yourself. It can be difficult not to be swayed by close family and friend’s views on things, or certain beliefs that just…feel right. But learning how to use these higher order thinking skills can help you feel more confident on your own opinions and conclusions.
Critical Thinking :- Asking Right Questions Critical Thinking:- perusal A Situation In All The Angles before giving judgement, it helps to see key points Critical Thinking :- Critical Thinking Isn’t About Being Critical, It’s About Finding Flaws In Other’s Claims and it isn’t an edge Critical Thinking :- critical thinker means being creative, reflective, adaptable & Evaluating evidence to decide a accurate Critical Thinking :- Standing For Yourself what is right in your family and friends situation Critical Thinking :- a sense of discovery, excitement & not only about learning but also evaluating arguments to see how they stand up and filtering for yourself what resonates is right, wrong By Using These Techniques You’ll Find Yourself Becoming A Clear&Better Thinker
I really am impressed with this course, these skills most defiantly need to be taught in grade school to college. this skill trains society to function properly and respectfully to solve problems accurately by using facts to come to answer instead of rouge feelings and ignorance to make a final decision . Truly wish i had taken this class a long time ago!
Critical Thinking is all about questions. Creativity, adaptivity and the ability to embrace relevant information. In all circumstances think things through and developing a planned process will save time and energy. I don’t think any business likes time wasted. Sometimes in certain cases it may be better to take a step back and asses from different view-points.
Transcript: Critical thinking is all about asking questions, the right questions. Questions that help you assess both the meaning and the significance of claims and arguments. Building these skills and applying them in your life makes it easier for you to assess evidence, evaluate arguments, and adapt your thinking so you stay switched on and engaged in different situations. Critical thinking involves stepping back from a situation to enable you to see all of the angles before making judgments or taking decisions. It means identifying the key points, analyzing the sources of information, weighing up different types of evidence, just as a judge and jury would do in a court of law, and puting it all together into your own independent thought through point of view. One thing that it’s very important to realize is that critical thinking isn’t about being critical. And it’s about much more than just finding flaws in other people’s claims. By itself that isn’t enough to give you an edge. To be a true critical thinker means being creative, reflective, and adaptable. Evaluating the evidence to decide for yourself what is accurate, what is relevant, and do I have sufficient information to take a decision on this topic? Thinking critically means taking a stand for yourself. It can be difficult not to be swayed by close family or friend’s views on things or certain beliefs that just feel right, but learning how to use these higher-order thinking skills can help you to feel much more confident in your own opinions and conclusions.
I’m plugging my article “The Problem with Critical Thinking: tools for the moral antagonist” for anyone interested. Looking for opinions from critical thinkers and scholars. I don’t see much on this subject for the anarchist or conscientious objector. This is purely for intellectual achievement. Thank you.
Nobody highlights how scary it is to be a critical person, and what I mean is, when you step back to look to the big picture, investigate, question, evaluate, reflect, all that is such a hard and scary task. Knowing that there are no truths, just assumptions can bring a feeling of emptyness, all what we have are assumptions that at any time can be broken. For me, critical thinking is like being locked in a dark room with an unkown monster that seems to want to kill and tear me apart in to pieces, but in reallity, once becoming friends, he will will be my guide and mentor for life. Please, I want to be your friend but it’s so much easier to hide myself in my cave, ask someone to unlock the room, hide in my false troughts, why does it have to be that painfull. Please don’t open the door, but help me to become your friend.
What resonates as right or wrong? Is not such a thing as right or wrong. From who’s point of you do we consider this? What happens to be perceived as wrong may be exactly what is necessary for change to happen. What about thinking of the natural stages of transformation and trying to find out what can make the situation or person further develop. What do you think about focusing on issues that bring new perspectives and a nuanced understanding.
I feel Critical Thinking should be renamed as ‘Logical Thinking’ or something. Despite your intro that says ‘critical thinking is not about being critical’, people at the workplace still feel repelled by the concept. If we want to introduce the concept in our daily ops, I’ve seen many who take it some sort of ultimatum that their work will be judged / criticized. It’s that psychology..
Critical thinking skills are great. It’s great to be able to read a situation given the circumstances. However, if it’s someone like the Mighty God, no one is able to read Him. All the critical thinking skills fail when it comes to reading the mind of the Mighty God, so there are limits to the usefulness of critical thinking skills.
You used a traffic accident as an example. That’s one place where it might be better not to weigh things out with a level head. If you say “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Looks like it was my fault.” your attorney will hate you. Don’t admit fault. Just exchange info and call the police if you feel it’s necessary but often that might not be the best way to go. It’s perfectly legal to work it out between yourselves. If you do call a cop or traffic investigator, your insurance rates could go up.
bruh, this skill has been mostly useless in my life such as an MCQ question in my exam asks why cant the sword do the work of a needle I selected the answer as the sword can’t do it because the sword is made of iron and will tear through the fabric you are trying to stitch. turns out the answer was needle does the stitching, not a sword. like wtf that is not critical reasoning and factual, you’re just providing the question in a statement form, it’s like saying why can’t water be used for making a milkshake and why can we only use milk, and the answer is milk is used for making a milkshake, not water. Like, provide a factual and critical fact when backing your argument. This is why schools are rigged.
This was BS. Seems to have a political agenda about how evaluation is interpreted. I;m still evaluating the website, but as someone who went to school for this, it stresses the now cultural benefit of “creativeness” more than the rigorousness of logic. It places the wrong emphasis at the wrong time. “Decide for yourself”? Um, no. Decide for the value which has the evidence provided? Yes. This article seems to advocate for some marginally thought out view of the world. Though logic may sometimes need to be superseded, 5,000 years of history has provided some reliable guideposts. This article seems to say, “take you best shot” ( a gut reaction).
Started out well, but then rounded off with warm and fuzzy “let’s be positive” nonsense. Critical thinking is the result of studied and challenged conclusions. It is a necessary component for every facet of education. But it must be taught, and that by people who value the gift of reason and temperance over personal opinions and political positions. In other words, it doesn’t exist in public education!
Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance- Albert Einstein. I get so tired of lazy thinking and douches that think they have said topic figured out when they have no clue. Most people just follow their programming and have no original thoughts of their own. Now that I think of it (no pun intended), maybe I should cancel my reddit account after all.
Oddly enough, my daughter would practice a sound or word for a few hours or days, until she got it right, then not say it again. She would just point at things we knew she could say the name of but not say the actual word, making us have to guess sometimes about what she really wanted. (She would point at a cabinet full of items and we would have to figure out ourselves that she wanted the box of Cheerios, or whatever it was…) She wouldn’t really “speak” until she was 3 and could form full sentences. At first, we thought she had developmental problems, but it turned out that she was just a stubborn perfectionist, and has remained one for her entire 21 years. lol!
I found a story my mom told me really interesting. She told me that when I was learning to walk I refused to let go of the edges of things. One day my dad and her were arguing about how to help me learn how to walk and though I didn’t know how to speak yet I let go of the couch and walked towards them. I imagine that their arguing and disappointment in me caused me more anxiety than my fear of falling. When I talk to babies, I talk to babies. I have people tell me “they can’t understand you” but we have no idea just how much they actually can understand. I’m sure I knew exactly what my parents were arguing about and I’m positive that I knew that I was the cause of the argument.
Being multilingual. The language of my toughts changes. I mostly think in my native tongue. However alot quite often i think in English. When i think specificly, i think in English due to the fact that English has more words specifying things making it easier to think fast and accurate. This is reason why i end up using some English words even in my native tongue. This is due to the fact i either dont remember the word in my language. Or the English is more specific. As many words here are pronounced the same thus sometimes hard to get into context when trying to explain something. But mainly my tough wary. I usually think in English when I’m hanging out with English speaker like on the internett or English speaking friends. And i think in my native language when hanging out with family or work. Yoy end up thinking in a foreign language when hanging out with foreigners. This is so that you dont struggle speaking the other language fluent. This is where i notice most people struggling speaking a new language is because they don’t understand enough to have toughs in that language. And thus they get strange vocabulary at times and struggles with pronunciations. Also stuttering. Thinking in that language helps you warm up before speaking it. This making you’re language more fluent
I wasn’t able to speak a comprehensive language until I was late into my 4th year. My parents took me to a doctor to see if i was deaf, but found out that my babbling was the result of living in a multilingual environment, where I tried to speak my mom’s Filipino, my dad’s Hungarian, and my country’s English. This caused me to speak sentences combining all three of the languages, where it was eventually stopped when my parents decided only to speak English to me. English is all I know now though 😛
I’m learning a new language right now and it feels so weird. Actually, I found the perfect metaphor yesterday. I bought an old Super Mario Bros game that I used to be obsessed with as a kid and found that while I could play it alright (the muscle memory and some actual memory was there), it also felt weirdly foreign and awkward. I’m not that young girl clumsily pawing at the buttons when I was a beginner, but nor am I the pro, quickly clearing levels, that I eventually came to be. So while learning Arabic is difficult and feels foreign, I’m beginning this process already knowing what language is as a concept and how communicating works. Also, I second all comments requesting a linguistics crash course.
According to my parents, I started saying “mama” and “dada” at 5 months old. At 7 months I started using simple sentences. For example, I said “Dada go bye-bye car” when I saw my father starting his car to drive away to work in the morning. At 9 months I said “Huh, that daddy-man shoo-shoo twain tink he can,” alluding to “The Little Engine that Could” when I saw my father struggling to get over a steep hill while running a marathon.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the intonation-based language of the praerie dogs, or how American crows that migrate understand French crows, but American crows that stay put don’t understand what the French crows are on about, and also how dolphins seem to gossip with each other. The more we learn, I think the more we realise we are not alone in our capabilities.
As a student of linguistics in university who studies 5 languages, this episode was my favourite. :3 Language is endlessly fascinating, I stuff myself full of whatever language I can learn on a daily basis and still know next to nothing. You can always observe behaviour, but to have a richer understanding of other cultures and ways of thinking, there really is no better way than to study their language. It’s the only way to really get in their noggin and really know what they’re thinking, why, and how. Thanks so much for this episode, Crash Course!
One time my friends and I were emcees for a prize presentation event in school, and we were supposed to pronounce names for the prize winners. Our school’s population is predominantly Chinese, while one of my friends is a Filipino who only speaks English and some Filipino dialect, one a Malay who speaks English and Malay and also picking up some Chinese recently, and another a Chinese like me. So we came across a Chinese name that gave my Filipino friend a lot of trouble, and it went something like: Friend: Yoon Yoo. Me: No, it’s Yün Yü. Friend: Yoon Yew… Me: No, it’s like (fumbles) just try to imitate the sound. Yün. Yü. Friend: Yün…Yoo. Me: Arghh (takes paper and scribbles some alphabets until it looks right) like “uin ui” except you mesh u and i together and don’t move your lips while making the sound. Friend: …what? Me: (turns to Malay friend) how do you pronounce this name? Friend #2: Yün Yü. Me: Just like that. Friend: Yoon Yoo. Me: Goddammit just let me take that name. Pronunciations glargh.
Not language but metacognition (knowing about knowing or to think about your thinking) sets us apart from animals. But then again, can we be sure that animals do not possess the metacognition ability? Anyways It brings me great pleasure to see how many people watch these clips. Luckily there are still people who are curious and want to learn new things just for the fun of it. Not just for good grades.
I don’t know if you guys have already made a article on this but I would love to see the origins and/or the evolution of language. Where did all of these languages come from? Are new languages still emerging or evolving? I’m Iranian and I tried to look into the origins of Farsi and had to give up because it was far too complicated. Would be great if you guys could simplify it for my tiny brain.
I didn’t always think in words; I could use words just fine, but I processed them slower. I thought in whole concepts; the sounds, smells, feelings, whatever was in what I was thinking about. This wasn’t limited to thoughts only involving my physical senses, most abstract concepts were in feelings that I really don’t know how to describe in any language I’ve explored. A couple years ago I realized I was having a lot of trouble translating between spoken English (I was better at written, from reading so often) and my thoughts and back fast enough to keep up with a normal conversation, so I decided to optimize that process and I changed to mostly thinking in words. It’s limiting, slow, and less accurate, but I can communicate easier & faster and remember things longer without losing details. There are several other changes I noticed in myself, but I don’t know if they were caused by my change in thinking. I don’t really know why I’m sharing this… I guess I think maybe someone will find it interesting. Maybe it’ll help with someone’s research, seeing my (unusual?) story.
as a Nerdfighter with a BA in Theoretical Linguistics who is starting a masters in Applied Linguistics – I AM SO HAPPY THAT PEOPLE WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THIS!! a lot of the stuff in this article is a simplification, but it’s a good overview for people who are interested. Language is cool people! Thanks so much for making this so other people can share my passion 😀
My first cat would meow in such a way it sounded like it said in, out, pet, and food. Pusskers used his limited vocabulary well, meowing with the appropriate “word” to convey what he wanted. He was a smart little bugger- held a hatchling captive to bait its parents, knew how to turn a couple of his electric toys on, the list goes on.
OK, this answers a lot. I have a few memories from when I was less than 1 year old and most of them involve understanding what was said by others, though not being able to talk myself. Until now, I’d never been sure if that was just me filling in the blanks with something logical. Now I know my memories of other people’s words are accurate. Thank you, Hank!
I often use a mental short-hand of skipping words and thinking of the concept specifically. This can aid in thinking faster and more deeply on a subject but relying on it too much makes interactions with people harder as actual words are required to express things externally. I’m sure this isn’t that uncommon.
Egh. Close, but I have to nitpick. I’d say the smallest unit of language is a PHONE, which is the actual sound that the speaker makes. A PHONEME is the psychological representation of the smallest indivisible unit of language. For example, in English, the “t” in “top” and the “t” in “stop” are technically different “t”s—different PHONES—but to English speakers, they are the same PHONEME.
i got into a heavy feud with my brothers wife. she would tell her children jokingly they are “little devils” or “hell raisers” and i had to express to my brother that doing so could really have a negative affect of the kids. but it’s not my place to tell others how to raise theyre kids. so i apologized.
Interesting they mention aphasia. I had that as a byproduct of a “childhood” disorder. Childhood is in quotes cause it’s so rare they did the first long term study (with only 7 people!) in 2013 and apparently 6/7 were still affected in some degree by aphasia, or the other byproduct seizures, and I guess I’m one of the lucky 14%… I think ha. Anyways, my aphasia kicked in when I was 7 or 8 years old (mid-1990s) and I had to relearn English, both the speaking and comprehension of it; I believe more comprehension though. So, I guess it affected both the Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area for me.
I think that “the language makes humans different from other animals” statement is incomplete, at best. All social animals communicate and have basic understanding of abstract concepts (social relations are kind of abstract). If anything, it’s the (probably unmatched by other earthly creatures) extent of its complexity. But there are definitely other characteristics which contribute to “humanity”. Some overlap with language and (thus) abstract thinking, but don’t have to be identical to them – strong social ties, long learning period and adaptive capabilities. There are others though, and they have also been crucial – ability to precisely manipulate objects of many dimensions or outstanding eyesight, for example. I think that “sapience”, human uniqueness and superiority (however one understands them), is not identical with intrinsic qualities (“soul cell”) – but is rather encored in capabilities possible thanks to them. These differences are often seen as “quantitative” (a rock used by an ape is technically a worse version of man’s hammer), but I think there are some objective thresholds – leaving Earth, creating better human (education, rational physical “conditioning”, and such can be put under this, although SF stuff is probably a more significant threshold), longtime data storage and its worldwide distribution, fast technological progress in general. So, it is more about being tall enough to reach the trapdoor, rather than having a non-zero height.
Hi Hank! Your work with both CrashCourse and SciShow is spectacular. Both websites are incredibly powerful learning tools and have helped me in my undergraduate degree. On the language topic, would it be possible to post a article about acquisition of a second language? This is a particularly interesting field and I am sure that a lot of people would find it helpful in learning new languages.
My husband and I are in the process of raising our son multilingual (Italian, English and Mandarin), and hopefully he will be able to master all these languages into adulthood, but it is a pretty intimidating job to make sure he learns each one of them. To top that off we live in Malaysia where the national language is Bahasa Melayu, and people of chinese heritage (like our family) use equally Mandarin and Cantonese (so he will need to at least understand both dialects). However it is not uncommon to meet multilingual people in Malaysia, as it is a very mixed and varied country in terms of culture, languages spoken, religions and ethnicity.
Ah man, I have been perusal your Sci Show articles for awhile and have been pining over how smart you seem… Thank you so much for crediting all the people who make this wealth of information possible. I really enjoy learning, and try to soak up as much as possible, but I was getting discouraged by the vast amount of topics you cover with such confidence. You truly have a gift for making learning fun. Please let my math teacher in on your tricks. Thanks for the articles.
My mind speaks to itself in the language of images, which until recently I wasn’t aware was something not everyone does. Words were hard for me to commit to when I kept finding them so contextual. Now they act as toe tags on top of what I can best describe as a meta ideograms. Just thought I would share. <3 thanks for these amazing articles er'body
I’ve always been so interested and fascinated by how children learn more than one language at once. I learned two languages at the same time since my parents speak Kannada (a south Indian language) as their mother tongue but I grew up in America. It’s really just amazing to me how small children can differentiate and separate two languages. I suppose it was because they are quite different languages and not remotely similar with roots of words. but it’s still so fascinating!
i believe language very much influences how you think, as language is a huge part of culture in it self. huge philosophical notions such as freedom, fairness, power, ect all have very different meaning depending on what language your speaking in. and how you view things such as those largely impact your way of thinking and living.
I speak English at home but I speant ages 0-9 in Spanish speaking countries. When i’m speaking English, I think in English and when I speak Spanish I think in Spanish. Now I live in China, learning Mandarin (rather than aquiring it through exposure). When I speak Chinese I think in English and I transate it in my head before saying it.
You done goofed with morpheme’s definition. You defined a lexeme. A morpheme is the smallest unit of morphology. Whilst most morphemes are lexemes, the reverse is not true. An idiom, like “pulling my leg” is its own lexeme in that it’s meaning cannot be predicted from its components but is made of four separate morphemes, pull, -ing, my and leg.
Hoping someone here can answer my question. From the day we get them all of my cats we taught that when we say “ready to eat?” The wet food is coming out(the good stuff, not the everyday dry food). Every time we say “are you ready to eat?” They go wild and get excited. Have we taught them that those words together mean “your favorite food is coming out” or have we “Pavloved”/conditioned them to expecting their favorite food when hearing “R U redee to eet”, or are these both the same thing? Sorry if I make no sense
Since every language has words and expressions that can’t be easily conveyed to other languages, I think our thoughts become more clear the more languages we know. I know three languages, and I can dress my thoughts using expressions from any of them when thinking. If the thought comes first and we dress it up in words in our head, then it becomes a lot more clear and precise. If thoughts arrive already dressed in words, then additional languages can allow us to think thoughts we were previously not capable of. It’s mind boggling, really.
Your language does not doom your knowledge. A richer vocabulary can definitely help you think more clearly, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to understand concepts that are more common in other languages. There have been experiments on tribes that use different language and some don’t have words for east, west or even left and right! Instead, they use some other “compass”, like a topical natural site (e.g.: mountain). But when they were asked to complete tasks that were based on left-right/east-west problems, they did just fine.
Y’all should read “Seeing Voices”, Oliver Sacks’ excellent book on sign language and deaf culture, and the importance of language to mental and cultural development. I’ll just transcribe one of the bets bits here as a teaser: The mother – or father, or teacher, or indeed anyone who talks with the child – leads the infant step by step to higher levels of language; she leads him into language, and into the world picture it embodies (her world-picture, because it is her language; and beyond this, the world picture of the culture she belongs to). The mother must always be a step ahead, in what Vygotsky calls the “zone of proximal development”; the infant cannot move into, or conceive of, the next stage ahead except through its being occupied and communicated to him by his mother. But the mother’s words, and the world behind them, would have no sense for the infant unless they correspond to something in his own experience. He has an independent experience of the world given to him by his senses, and it is this which forms a correlation or confirmation of the mother’s language, and in turn, is given meaning by it. It is the mother’s language, internalized by the child, that allows it to move from sensation into “sense,” to ascend from a perceptual into a conceptual world. The corollary to all this is that if communication goes awry, it will affect intellectual growth, social intercourse, language development, and emotional attitudes, all at once, simultaneously and inseperably. And this, of course, is what may happen, what does happen, all too frequently, when a child is born deaf.
Quite honestly any animal can form language, though they use a much simpler form. complex mammals like dolphins, whales, and apes have very complex calls and sounds. They almost have a very basic grasp of language, at least comparative to toddler language. They may not be able to speak like us, but to say language only exists in humans is not true in my opinion.
IMHO language is not a requirement for creating thoughts, but it affects them. Speaking out a problem can help you finding a solution. Translating thoughts can help you understand both languages from a cultural context (e.g. try to find a translation for the concept of Vergänglichkeit, or cool). Every language lacks words for description. Spotting such gaps gives you an impression, what other speakers are not concerned. We got for instance so many words for colors but only few for smells. Also the systematic nomenclature of bodyparts is relatively recent. On the other hand it should give you something to think if the word with the most synonyms is the female rear, or money…
I believe the thought is created before the word identifies it. I started learning Japanese about 6 months ago, and I find that while I think in english, in some circumstances where japanese communicates the thought better, the thought in my head will be in japanese even though I’m speaking in english. It often makes me studder.
I think animals do speak their own languages, they can speak to each other just as easily as we can speak to our friend, and when different species of animals speak, it’s like their listening to another language. Animals can also recognise names and link words to concepts, so they should be able to understand normal language too.
CrashCourse : With regard to the Babbling, One-word stage and Two-word stage developmental process (and also the receptive and productive language for that matter), I wish to know how they play a role for a toddler who lives in a bi-lingual household (like an Indian household where both Hindi and English are spoken.) Do the principles remain the same or do they change ?
I thought you did a wonderful job with the article, but I felt like there was enough information left out that could make up another article. For instance, discussing the language of thought hypothesis, symbol grounding problem and the discussion about neural networks vs the physical symbol system hypothesis. Some these topics are moving into the territory of what does it truly mean to be intelligent but most of this research has been discussed through the lens of language production and acquisition. Just some food for thought. Keep up the crash course articles, I love how they inspire curiosity in me about other subjects that are beyond the scope of my major.
I really think language does affect the way you think about certain things. I did a project on this but it was so long ago so some details are chopped and screwed but basically if you compare 2 languages for example Spanish and I want to say it was French. When you say “the bridge” in Spanish you say “el puente”….”el” is putting a male tone on the object bridge. And if you say the mountain in Spanish..”la montaña”..”la” is putting a feminine tone on the mountain. Now if you compare it to another language where these tones are switched around ( I don’t remember what language it was but I think it was French) and then you ask the people from these two language sets to describe the bridge they will give adjectives that are distinctly different depending on the tone set on it. For example, “el puente” in Spanish was described mostly to be a strong firm big structure then compared to the different language where the bridge is given a feminine tone..ppl there described it more of being elegant long, well structured. Where it gets more interesting is when you look at these distinct cultures and you can see the difference in the architecture in accordance to how they describe it. Now I am bilingual and I have said this all my life about English and Spanish how to me it is so hard to compare two different things in the two languages because in one language it can be way more offensive if directly translated than compared to the other.
language and thinking are very connected. Culture as well. It even includes body language and posturing. When I speak Japanese I am more passive, shy and more concerned with how the listener perceives what Im saying. Its also more indirect. When I speak English or Spanish I feel more free, but also less considerate towards others. Also more aggressive and fight for the spotlight in a group conversation. Spanish and english are more similar, but I do feel difference between the two. Pretty crazy, ignore my typos and bad grammar/ I dont wanna proofread
I grew up in a bilingual household of English and Cantonese, and as such can think and speak fluently in both languages without one accent leading into the other. In fact it’s very difficult to mimic a Cantonese accent in English and vis versa . However, in highschool I took a few courses in Spanish. While I could easily pick up sounds and words that were not native to either language like like the letter ñ, I found having learned Spanish at an English speaking school I had to mentally translate the Spanish to English before finally going to Cantonese. Similarly enough, I learned Mandarin by associating the sounds with Cantonese words, and also have to translate Mandarin to Cantonese before getting to English. Why does this happen?
Chomsky’s ideas are compelling. For me what’s most interesting is his ideas on hard wired abilities that don’t fit within the evolutionary model. For example, the ability for humans to do advanced mathematics like number theory or vector calculus doesn’t seem to emerge as a survival/natural selection adaptation at all. So what I find mind-blowing is that theoretically, you could take a new born baby from a 40,000 year old cave dweller and eventually teach it calculus. The ability didn’t develop over time, it was hard wired without any practical use.
Okay, Hank, I know you’re really busy making articles for multiple websites… But can you PLEASE think about making a Physics series for Crash Course? I have a lot of friends who actively watch your articles (World History, Psychology, US history, etc.) for help with our classes here at ATECH (which is in Las Vegas, and is frankly a challenging school lol). A lot of us are going into AP Physics I next year (which is basically the first semester of Physics B) and learning the material the way you explain it WOULD BE AMAZINNGGGG!! So please give this message a second thought and hopefully… one day… all my classmates and I will be able to enjoy Physics with you! -Ariel, Current Advanced Technologies Academy Sophomore, going into Junior year!
important not to reduce language down to simple areas in the brain- as hank demonstrated, a lot of our expression is also found in our facial movements, our hand and arm gestures, and the topic of conversation or context. all these and more are vitally important for the functioning of language but don’t easily boil down to neurons in broca’s or wernicke’s areas
I think that nurture > nature when it comes to acquiring language. The studies of children with limited contact, extremely limited contact, and no contact at all with other humans strongly supports this. Feral children, for example, acquired merely grunts and growls as their language. They also ate live animals in the wild.
A. this may be one of the very few times that i’ve heard/read a lesson (of any length) involving psychology and language/;language acquisition without the mention of the the story of Genie. B. made me think of the various articles floating around of words that don’t have a direct, if any translation into english. and maybe it limits or not a person’s thoughts depending on language. in some cases, maybe that how metaphors, similes and even using an anecdote end up happening…
I didn’t speak a lot when I was growing up, but also knew several languages. My thought were definitely ideas first, then narrowing them down to say it in the appropriate language. Sometimes this caused me to pause a lot because I just couldn’t find the right name for something, and even today that I got used to talking to people more, I have a problem with that, especially names. The concept of a specific human is too wide to express though a specific code-word instead of the most notable characteristics…
Hey Hank! I’m commenting because your Nerdfighteria census results analysis article convinced me that you might actually read it and care. 🙂 This article was really interesting, especially the parts about non-human language. I would really like to know what science knows/hypothesizes about the languages of other intelligent species, such as dolphins. Clearly dolphins are very social and have a wide variety of vocalizations–has anyone tried to decipher what they mean? Analyzed the patterns to look for potential syntax or sentence structure being used? In other words, What Are The Dolphins Really Saying? I would love to see a SciShow article on this. Thanks!
I think it’s important to mentions the “wild child” (I forget her name but you can look her up) who was locked in a room until she was 13 and never acquired a language. Psychologists studies her after and tried to teach her but she could only memorize words and their meanings and never acquire full sentences Even today, she still can’t speak except on a level that is on par with other primates. This shows that language IS NOT just learned by repetition or else she would’ve learned it as well. Seriously, look it up it is VERY INTERESTING although her story is quite sad, and how messed up her family was is just…khkjebrbjsjd Just watch a documentary, you will not be dissappointed
I was expecting this to be a lot more reductive than it turned out to be (although personally I would have dropped the bit about morphemes, since any simplification of the reality of morphemes is inevitably going to be contentious). Well done! Seconding the nomination for a Crash Course: Linguistics.
The next time to return to psychology in the CrashCourse series, it would be great if you could focus on learning and memory (or one on learning, one on memory). There are a ton of teachers, I suspect, who use your vids as content for their courses, and I’m sure they would find courses that would extend their own knowledge useful. Another great one in any case.
After perusal this I realized that my German teacher started teaching us by just speaking German, no English. We were expected to pick it up. In addition, you can think without language. IT’s a very good practice as it keeps you in the present. Doing so also lessens anxiety and stress although my cause you to do or say things without contemplation for consequences. LOL
Of course we have thoughts with out language!! I do it a lot of the time, however it mostly occurs when I am unfocused and as soon as I realize what I am doing my brain switches back into English. Also, haven’t you ever experienced those moments when you are trying to think of a word and you know the meaning and feel of the word, but you can’t actually think of what it is?
One very interesting thing I have experienced about language: I am from sweden, and my first language is ofcourse Swedish, however, when I am not thinking subconciously, I will think in english, and in many cases I will use english words in my swedish, for example, the swedish word “gullig” which means “cute”, both word means the same, but I associate both words to different things. I used and heard the word “gullig” when I was a kid, and has associated that word with things like stuffed toys, dolls, and such, in my childhood I also associated this word to a femenine.. sort of way, so as a guy I thought using this word was wrong, which obviously not the case. Another sort of synonym, is the word “söt” which means “sweet” and also “cute” which has sort of become the same way for me However, when I learned and used the word “cute” I associated this word with other things, and thus making this word a word I am much more comfortable to use, and will even if I shouldn’t replace the word “gullig” with “cute” even if I am speaking Swedish. And in general I feel it easier to express myself in english then in swedish in various situations, but mostly I feel more comfortable with english, regardless of how good or bad I am at the language itself.
Question: If you spend your essential early years around a language, then get planted into a whole new language culture, can you still hear certain unique parts of the old language, nonexistent in the new one. This is a personal question honestly. I lived in China until I was 3, then I was adopted to the USA. My family doesn’t speak Mandarin at all and I don’t speak it. I’ve tested the waters, and I can hear and distinguish the Chinese tones, but I’ve always felt insecure about the ability. Like, do I know this from my childhood or did I just re-learn really quickly? Basically, are the early years of language learning so powerful, that they can hold on to linguistic traits for the rest of your life? Even if you don’t use them at all.
Great article Hank! I do have question about language I was hoping you and your team or others could answer. I was brought up in a household that spoke several languages. As a young child I was fluent in french, english, Italian, and german with english being predominantly spoken in the house. As an adult I can speak a few phrases in each language and understand a bit more but, I lost fluency as I entered the american school system. The weird thing is, when I am really tired or out of it my fluency comes back. Why is that?
With the definition of language as communicating with words, writing or signs, I think that would mean a much larger portion of animals would be included than we think. Like bees communicate where the flowers are with intricate dances and movements that show direction and distance, does that count as language?
frequent exposure is how i learned english and japanese 😀 and while i have little knowledge of the respective grammatical rules, my intuition is top-notch (meaning, after hundreds of movies, tv series, anime, manga and books, i have developed an innate sense of how to speak and write correctly) kind of like how i learned my native language, except via artificial sources instead! tl;dr imho, frequent exposure is the best language acquisition method by far 🙂
very interesting, although i would like to think that self consciousness and thoughts would exist even without language, i do find that attitude might be affiliated with which language you use. i have always thought that while using different languages might not total change ones personality, it might slightly alter the manner of which you would use that language. for instance, when i use korean i feel the need to be more careful and put my distance a bit more to be polite but when i use english i feel more outgoing and confident and connected. it is possible that when you obtain a new language you not only learn the syntax and grammer but you also take in some cultural factors, hence if one enviorment requirs the user to be a little more polite while another enviorment would require something else, wouldn’t there be variations in the manner of using such languages? I’m not saying that one language is superior and that some language would alter your psyche in a negative way, never! ALL languages are beautiful in their many forms:) but i am suggesting that not all but some people might have a slightly different manner of personality projection with the different usages if language, you know, just a thought, nothing to get serious about 🙂
I have a question, for example, a kid is born in another country where it’s parents speak the language there. After a year old, the family moves to another country. The child would then be able to learn the new language and yet still be able to develop more his native language, thus becoming naturally bilingual?
As a bilingual person I have very funny things happening to me when I communicate. Besides basic replacement of words and phrases,sometimes I start speaking Russian even though I am completely sure that I am speaking English. Furthermore, when I am physically tired I can write English words in Russian cursive and vice-versa without consciously controlling this process.
I’m fascinated by the psychology of language, most particularly in language savants. I’ve a question, though, which I’ve not been able to find an answer to. Would a language savant be able to learn sign language extraordinarily quickly, despite it using parts of the brain not used when learning spoken languages?
I find it interesting that you didn’t mention the role that anatomy plays in early speech development. Please comment if you have another theory on the subject, but when I was working with children’t language development in infants (ages 10 months to 18 months) we were told to both sign and speak when we could for the children. This was meant to introduce children to language in multiple forms, but my head teacher mentioned that our school did it also because the children were allowed to speak more words sooner by using sign. She claimed that the timeline for ability to use language orally (which you matched in this article) was different then their timeline for comprehension and that sign allowed them to produce even two word sentences sooner. While I admit that this was not the case for all the children, mostly they signed and spoke in one word sentences that they appeared to understand equally, there was at least one group of children that far earlier then two embarked on two word sentences in sign much earlier then they did with speech. None of the children I worked with had signing as a language at home and I can only recall one parent saying that they used sign similar to how we did in the classroom. I can’t be sure if the anatomy of the children had any effect in this development, but I had considered it one of many possibilities to explain what I saw in the classroom. What do you guys think? This has been something I’ve considered and attempted to understand for awhile and yet I still don’t know if I should suggest the practice to parents or not.
My theory is, that like universal grammar, we basically start out by observing everything, like objects or animals, and while doing this we express interest to these things! When we listen to people speaking we automatically remember these sounds and try to use these words! Basically, we start out babbling while observing anything we are interested in, and we learn how words are formed and we learn basic grammar. We eventually try to speak words ourselves in one word or two word sentences! we eventually speak sentences, and reason for this is we start taking note to how grammar rules works and we apply this to the language we’re speaking, as we start learning more vocabulary, we apply this to grammar! This is why babies learn languages easily, because they’re exposed to grammar rules, and any adult would have to start around the two word stage and learn everything practically at once! But as for Adults, would it be possible to learn a language almost as effectively as babies!?
One of the most interesting points of language is that we still don’t have a good explanation for its evolution. Many animals (such as wolves) are capable of complex social interaction with very minimal language complexity. And other animals such as some mimic birds don’t derive a big competitive advantage despite being able to create and mimic sounds that exceed what a human can do. My personal favorite theory is the meme-driven hypothesis. Susan Blackwell posited this in her book ‘The Meme Machine’. (Note, said book goes off the rails into crazy tin-foil-hat territory in the last third so be prepared for that) Basically, she hypothesizes that human language was driven by a fairly singular human trait – our extremely high capacity to work with abstract thought and to transmit those abstract concepts to each other. While other animals sometimes show a rudimentary capacity for this, we’re in a completely different class here. Other animals can learn by perusal another animal do an action. Humans, can, however, explain something like a wheel to each other using nothing but words or symbols. The meme-deriven hypothesis states that this was such a huge evolutionary advantage for humans that our evolution of the last million or so years has basically been single-mindedly driven to increase out ability to do this. Our huge brains, our ability to speak words, write, etc are all adaptations that were driven to improve our capacity to create, manipulate and transmit memes to each other.
Because very few (perhaps no) people acquire any ability in writing before 3 or 4 years, some linguists don’t claim it is natural language. This is not to say it can’t be linguistic in character but not in the same way spoken and sign language are language. I realize that I am using writing right now, but it is hard to call this language without calling everything that encodes information, at all, language.
Language deprivation is a thing. Most deaf kids are born to hearing parents, and if they’re not exposed to a usable language(a visual one) they won’t acquire language. Point is that not all deaf babies babble with their hands to copy their parents signing because most deaf babies aren’t even exposed to sign language. Also, phones are sounds. Phonemes are the mental units of sound. In case anyone was wondering.
You said that infants can recognize speech and start to read lips at the age of 4 months and correspond sound with mouth movement, therefor you should watch what you say around infants at this age. But how does it work when the long term memory starts to kick in at around age one (or between 8 to 12 months of age which is at the same time that toddlers start to react to names). There are no qualitative differences between signed and spoken languages; sign language is governed by the the same mechanisms and principles that that is used in spoken languages. IMHO you should had included LAD (language acquisition device) and the vocal apparatus as well.
My dog can surely understand the meaning of “Food”… She also knows who I speak of when I say “Mom” or “Dad”, and she knows that I refer to my nephew when I use his name… She can understand what I mean, not in many things… But, she has comprehension to some degree to some things. Animals can certainly understand certain things… Has for speech, they have natural raw and honest expressions. So, they can’t lie… They always express their emotions physically, and that’s their language. Some signs can be recognized through many forms of species… Same action, that represents the same form of emotion… Some have more complex forms of communication, but… Most are emotional speech. Or even through pheromones. “I smell how you feel”.
One thing I’ve always wondered is: do infants recognize different languages? It’s something I’ve wondered for the fact that I myself tend to use multiple languages at once because I tend to use whatever language comes to mind first, even though I know how to express my thoughts fully by solely using one language. Because of this, I’ve always wondered how this would impact my future children, if I ever have any. This might be a stupid thing to wonder, since I grew up hearing at least two different languages every day, and it didn’t affect my ability to recognize when my parents were using one language and when they were using another. Maybe a better way to put this question would be: HOW do infants recognize different languages?
I am Polish and I have a sister who is 1.5 years old. My dad works in Ireland, so when he buys her books and toys, they are in English. She also has some toys both in Polish and in English. She seems to dislike playing with the English-only speaking toys, as if she didn’t understand them and she is now at the stage of saying single words and sounds that mean certain things. Will it be easier for her to learn English (words and sounds) and English grammar later?
Something quite interesting happens to me once in while. Sometimes, when I’m speaking english, some french words, out of nowhere, just blurt out of my mouth into the english sentences and vice-versa. Even more interesting is the fact that it never happens to me when I’m talking in my native language, only when I reach out for the foreign ones. Also, I’ve never had problems neither with nouns nor adjectives, only with articles, prepositions and conjunctions. When it comes to verbs, I quite often swap the french “il y a” for the english “there is” and “there are”. Can someone explain me that? Is it a type of Aphasia? This article has been really effective in enlightening somethings to me, but it also brought about some issues
Out of curiosity, to someone who can’t hear and thus uses some sort of sign language, and always has, would hand gestures like the ones Hank uses throughout his articles become distracting, or would you just be able to ‘tune it out’ like people who can hear can tune out certain noises? Sorry if this is silly I honestly don’t know.
I’ve often wondered if one reason we don’t remember much before about the age of three is that we didn’t have the language to “record” those memories in our brains. Are there studies with people who for whatever reason didn’t have speech until they were older? What do they report remembering about their earlier lives? Helen Keller?
I believe that the stages of language development are not really limited to those ages you mentioned. According to what I have seen in earlier recordings I was in the two-words phase by my first birthday. My cousin is two years old now and she speaks in full sentence. Yes, her pronunciation is as bad as it can be but she talks almost like an adult does. So I guess it is after all caused by practice.