The slope of the blue curve measures the plane's . the unit of measurement for the slope of the curve is . at point a, the slope of the curve is , which means that the plane is at a rate of feet per minute. at point b, the slope of the blue curve is , which means that the plane is at a rate of feet per minute.

To acquire knowledge, thought is a fundamental necessity -It must be "thought about" before any new ideas can be formulated (e.g., a student who is learning English as a second language must be competent in his primary native language before he can "think" or understand new concepts in another language) -Initial emergence of language and thought are separate from each other, until about the age of 3 when a transition takes place in the child from the external to the internal -Children practice private speech (self-talk) to become more competent ---The use of private speech helps children to self-regulate through organizing, guiding, and controlling their behavior ---Private speech is responsible for all higher levels of mental functioning Noam Chomsky Language Acquisition -Language learning is innate -Chomsky believes that children are prewired to learn language and that infants have a language acquisition device (LAD) built-in neurologically so that they can intuitively understand grammar -There is a critical period when children find it easy to learn language Language development milestones: Infant (0-12 months) -Early vocalizations are spontaneous sounds of cooing (vowels) or crying -Then babbling sounds (phonemes) begin with sounds more like patterned speech with consonant-vowel strings ("da-da-da-da")