What is the relationship between language and cognition? This question is important for psychologists, linguists, and educators, as well as professionals from many other disciplines. For normally developing children, research shows that there is a typical development sequence in both language and cognitive development. For instance, most children learn how to make words plural before they learn how to use the past tense. Likewise, in cognitive development, younger children think more concretely before they develop the ability to reason and think abstractly.

Theorists and researchers have established the parameters and documented many of the products of human language and cognitive development but are still working to determine how these developments occur and the precise relationship between language and cognition. Likewise, many researchers are exploring new areas related to atypical development and factors that may increase human capacity for language and cognition.

For this Discussion, you are asked to share an area of language study about which you are interested in learning more and provide resources to your colleagues about the topics of interest they identified.

To prepare:

· Review the Learning Resources, including the media, and begin to consider what language is and how it develops in the human brain.

· Select one topic from this week’s Learning Resources that you found interesting (e.g., communication development in infancy, the biological basis of language or cognition, social cognition).

With these thoughts in mind:

Post an explanation of the idea or concept that you selected and why you find it interesting or compelling. What about this idea or concept do you want to learn more about? Use terminology from the Learning Resources in your post.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources. Use proper APA format and citations.

RESOURCES FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTION; Gleason, J. B., & Ratner, N. B. (2017). The development of language (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

• Chapter      1, “The Development of Language: An Overview and a Preview” (pp. 1–25)

Kellogg, R. T. (2016). Introduction. In Fundamentals of cognitive psychology (3rd ed.) (pp. 1–36). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Kellogg, R.T. (2016). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology. Copyright 2016 by Sage College. Reprinted by permission of Sage College via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Walden University Writing Center. (2017a). Common course assignments: Literature reviews. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/literaturereview 

Required Media

Big Think. (2012, October 6). Steven Pinker: Linguistics as a window to understanding the brain [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B_ONJIEcE 

Optional Resources

Pinker, S. (1994). How language works. In The language instinct. New York, NY: Harper.

Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. Copyright 1994 by William Morrow & Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow & Company, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.