Development of language in children, according to B.F. Skinner, is the result of

According to B.F. Skinner, children develop language through imitation and reinforcement, a behaviourist account of verbal behaviour.

Skinner argued that children copy the speech they hear and are reinforced by adults when they use words correctly.

Training in grammar is a formal instructional aim, not Skinner's explanation of how speech first emerges.

Innate abilities belong to Noam Chomsky, who posited a language acquisition device and universal grammar against Skinner.

Maturation, stressed by Gesell, attributes development to biological unfolding rather than to reinforced imitation.

Skinner set out this position in his 1957 book Verbal Behavior, which Chomsky famously reviewed and criticised.