Ch. 5 - Tomasello

In this chapter Tomasello lays out a fascinating system of how children learn to speak.  The first very striking passage to me was discussing how children only hear "concrete utterances."  These utterances are ones that can be sensed but they are the building blocks for children develop in to more abstract thoughts.  Tomasello marks this as an important step in a child's cognition as it marks a point where they are beginning to use language in a metaphorical way.  The development of children from not knowing language and by just imitating what is said around them to eventually learn language is fascinating.  If you have ever been around a child you can tell that Tomasello identifies real stages by which children develop (presented on page 152 in table 5.1).  Form the use of one word phrases to their uses of partial sentences and finally being able to make full sentences is very accurate.  Since children learning language are "imitation machines" what is the best way to teaching the to talk?  What words are children most apt to learn?