Early knowledge of language:: development of receptive knowledge of language in the first two years of life

The article provides an overview of research on the knowledge of language rules in young children whose productive language abilities are limited. The methods used in this research area are reviewed and key findings discussed. In particular, the use of preferential looking and preferential listening methods in language comprehension research is demonstrated. The summary of the research findings concentrates on research suggesting early sensitivity to word-segrnentation cues, grammatical morphology and word order, and argues that there is sufficient evidence in current research to conclude that children consistently show sensitivity to or comprehension of grammatical phenomena that the children do not yet produce themselves.