Discussion 6 | Week 11 | Cookie

It was a bright fall day, and 1-year-old Mari sat in a highchair as her father mashed an avocado while making her

lunch. As Mari watched attentively, she suddenly said, quite clearly, "cookie." No matter that she misidentified the

avocado. Or maybe not-perhaps she was asking for a cookie? Although her motivation for the use of the word

wasn't totally obvious, what was clear was that "cookie" was Mari's first word. Her father took out his iPhone and

tried to get her to repeat the word, to no avail. It wouldn't be for another 2 days before Mari repeated "cookie," this

time correctly using it when eating a cookie. And it wasn't long before other words emerged. Mari was learning to

speak!

How might child developmentalists from the behavioral and evolutionary perspectives explain Mari's emerging use of language?