[Haptic perception and language development assessment in kindergarten and pre-school children]

B Götze1, C Kiese-Himmel, M Hasselhorn

  • 1Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Georg-Elias-Müller-Institut für Psychologie, Abt. 4: Pädagogische Psychologie und Entwicklungspsychologie, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen. britta.goetze@freenet.de

Related Concept Videos

Perceptual Development During Infancy01:30

Perceptual Development During Infancy

Perceptual development enables infants to organize and interpret sensory information, helping them understand objects, distances, and surfaces in their environment. Two important aspects are depth perception and haptic perception. These abilities develop as infants gain sensory experience and their nervous systems mature.Development of Depth PerceptionDepth perception is the ability to see objects and surfaces in three dimensions and judge their relative distance. Infants gradually learn to use...
Perceiving Language Sounds and Structure During Infancy01:20

Perceiving Language Sounds and Structure During Infancy

Infants are born with a predisposition to perceive and categorize basic linguistic sounds. Early in development, they can discriminate sounds from many languages and detect differences in rhythm and pattern. This sensitivity may begin before birth. Newborns exposed to two languages prenatally can recognize both, indicating that fetal language exposure influences later auditory discrimination.Recognition of Familiar SoundsBy five months, infants show preferences for familiar auditory stimuli,...
Hearing During Infancy and Toddlerhood01:29

Hearing During Infancy and Toddlerhood

Hearing begins developing before birth. Fetuses respond to sounds in the womb through changes in brain activity, heart rate, and body movements, showing sensitivity to auditory stimulation. After birth, hearing continues to develop rapidly, supporting language learning and environmental awareness.Auditory Acuity and Sound LocalizationAuditory acuity refers to the ability to detect sounds. Newborns are especially responsive to human voices and can detect many speech sounds, although their...
Language Development01:22

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Gestures During Infancy and Toddlerhood01:29

Gestures During Infancy and Toddlerhood

Gestures are nonverbal movements of the hands, arms, or face that allow infants and toddlers to communicate emotions, needs, and intentions before speech develops. Gesture use generally appears before spoken language and decreases as vocabulary expands. For example, an 11-month-old may raise their arms to request being picked up, whereas an 18-month-old may say “up.”Types of GesturesChildren mainly use deictic and representational gestures. Deictic gestures emerge around six months and include...
Language Development I: Behaviorist Perspective01:15

Language Development I: Behaviorist Perspective

Skinner’s behaviorist perspective explains language development through experience and learned associations. Children learn language through operant conditioning, in which behaviors followed by positive consequences become more likely to happen again. Caregiver responses gradually shape infants’ vocalizations.Reinforcement and Speech DevelopmentInfants first produce random babbling without intending specific meanings. When a sound resembles a word or adult speech, caregivers may respond with...