Aims

- to introduce the students to various aspects of oral language ontogeny, emphasising the study of the cognitive processes implied in this ontogeny. This course, attended by future language clinicians, also aims to introduce them to a critical analysis and reflection towards disturbed verbal behaviours in young children.

Main themes

- to specify the maturation factors in the oral language acquisition;
- to draw a table with the successive stages of the child language (including the prelinguistic stages);
- to establish the formal characters of this language at its various development stages;
- to complete this description with an analysis of the variables determining the evolution and functioning of the observed structures (role of the family circle, caretaker speech, language and cognition, language and communication).

Content and teaching methods

- to specify the maturation factors in the oral language acquisition;
- to draw a table with the successive stages of the child language (including the prelinguistic stages);
- to establish the formal characters of this language at its various development stages;
- to complete this description with an analysis of the variables determining the evolution and functioning of the observed structures (role of the family circle, caretaker speech, language and cognition, language and communication).