Chart the language development of children between the ages of 0 – 5 years old.
From Birth – 6 Months Vocalisation accompanied with intonation . Most babies are able to respond to their name as well as being able to distinguish between tones by responding accordingly. Some babies can react to human voices by turning their head and eyes without the aid of visual cues.
6 – 12 Months By now infants are using holophrastic speech ; conveying one word with meaning. The baby is able to understand simple instructions particularly well if they are given with vocal or physical prompts. The baby is aware of the social value of speech furthermore it is practising inflection.
1 – 3 Years Has vocabulary of approximately 20 – 1000 words. In this stage the child’s vocabulary will have expanded from acquiring various words in addition the child is able to respond with prepositions, verbs and nouns. In this stage the child makes the transition from echolalia to being able to construct simple sentences. As a result this progress is reflected in the child’s receptive and expressive language and moving away from telegraphic speech. Moreover the child also has the ability to change their behaviour in response to comments made to them as well as being able to comprehend simple commands.
What should be done is to have the chart as a guideline, so one can see where the child should be heading in terms of development in that age group roughly. Name 3 pragmatic skills.
- Following rules, this can be seen when children have conversations and storytelling and they have to take in turns in converse.
- Changing their language accordingly to the needs of the listener or the situation.
- Using language to communicate their needs or for different purposes.
A child who is not communicating may have hearing impairment and developmental disorders such as Autism, or Asperger’s Syndrome •By 4 years, how long a sentence, might a child be saying? One should anticipate that by 4 years the child should be saying 4/5 words in a sentence.
Read: The Development of Language and Communication from An Introduction to Child Development by GC Davenport and answer questions in the text.
Are the hand signs that deaf people make to each other language? Sign language is a language as people are able to converse although it is not auditory they are able to converse through sign. Is there any such thing as body language? Body language can be seen as a language as one can communicate and convey their needs or feelings.
Are the flags that ships fly signalling distress language? This can be perceived as communication, as one is requesting help by way of flying the flag to notify others they are in danger and in need of help. Is Morse Code language? No, the Morse Code is not a language rather it is used to code languages to communicate and convey a message Are the ways in which we talk to computers language? No, due to the fact computers have been programmed to respond to commands and relay information that we seek. Can animals such as dolphins use language? Dolphins do not use language rather they use high pitched sounds to communicate with each other.
Is it possible to say at what age babies stop babbling and start using language? Milestone charts explain at what age children start babbling and at what age they start to use language. However, due to the fact that all children are different, and they will learn at different rate one cannot specifically say when babies will start using the language; nonetheless, guidelines such as Milestone charts give’s one an indication as to what the child should be doing at an certain age group.
What is language? The difference between language and communication is that communication is simply transmitting a message or something significant between two or more people or used between animals; as seen in the case of the zebras . A dazzle of zebras inferred imminent danger by seeing one of the zebras run. There are various forms of ways one can communicate; visually and orally as well as using gestures or, through sound. In contrast, language is seen as a specific form of communication; whereby many formats and symbols are used such as figures, numbers, gestures, or combination of all three can be used for clarity and specificity.
The list above is not exhaustive, simply a starting point to give one an idea how language is seen, heard and, perceived. Reciprocity: What are Trevarthen and Richards looking for in this observational study? They wanted to see how and whether or not each baby modifies their behaviour when they are given a toy and when they are around their mothers. What is the sample size, and what are the independent variables?
There were 5 babies and the toys and the mothers talk to their child and being around them were the independent variables. What dependent variables were being measured? How the babies responded to the toys and the mothers. What they observed was that babies became excited in the presence of their mother. What is meant by pre-speech? Pre-speech in babies is manifested through few things like when a baby changes their behaviour as well as the tone of their voice. Furthermore it has been observed that they move their lips in an attempt to ‘speak’ as well as taking turns in a ‘conversation’ The Pre-Linguistic Stage: Construct a two column table with the heading: The pre-linguistic stage.
Head one column: Up to six months, and the other one: Six months to one year. Write three of the baby’s main skills in each column. 0 – 6 Months 6 Months – 1 year Babbling increases Stringing sounds together Interactional synchrony (moving the body in response to human speech Associating making sounds to get rewarded Changing tone of voice Physically active in play Early Errors: Write a paragraph summarising the main errors that children make in their early speech. Babies, in the early stages regularly double their syllables; words such as ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’ are a common feature amongst early babies.
Babies will opt to use words which they have mastered and avoid words which are difficult to pronounce and seek to simply a word such as ‘smack’ will be reduced to ‘mack’, and ‘spoon’ will be simplified to ‘poon’. Similarly sounds which are found be enjoyable such as b, d and g are used in places of p, t, and k for example ‘pie’ would be pronounced as ‘bie. Furthermore other mistakes babies make in regards to applying words is they overextend the meaning of some words whereby they identify everything that fits the criteria of that word.
For example a dog with four legs and tail is a dog therefore everything that fits this description must be a dog. On the flipside they also underextend some words. For instance they have learned that a dog is an animal thereby categorising all animals must have four legs and a tail and those who do not have these characteristics they cannot be animals. The First Words: Define an active vocabulary and passive vocabulary? An active vocabulary consists of words that one uses whereas pre-linguistic knowledge contributes to passive vocabulary.
I frightened of mices so I run to find Michael. He’s older n’ me an’ he catched the mice … the mouse. My dog would eat them if I fetched her but she had to go away for a blind dog. She’d eat. ” “One day I was playing in the grounds and I saw a mouse. I was frightened of the mouse. So I ran off to find Michael. He is older than me, and he caught the mouse. My dog, she’d eat them if I fetched her, but she has had to go away as she is blind. Cross-cultural studies: Define a mean and a median? Arithmetically speaking the median is finding the middle number/value in a number of sequences.
Whereas mean, is to find the average value amongst a sequence of numbers. How was the sample drawn, and what were the dangers in using this method? The samples were drawn from 3 different countries; from adverts placed in national newspapers asking mothers to fill in questionnaires. This made the data drawn from the study limited in terms of what could be derived from it. For example as the advert was placed in a newspaper this meant that people who read the newspaper would be exposed to it. Therefore the findings of the study do not reflect the actual demographic capability in terms of language acquisition.
Which society has children who are quickest to start learning language? The children from first society were seen to be the quickest in learning language. What is a cross-cultural study? Cross-cultural studies use field data collated from many societies to examine and understand the extent of human behaviour and test theories about human behaviour and culture. As a result, the study’s findings can be applied to all other members of the investigated group. What are the major drawbacks of cross-cultural research?
One disadvantage is the way different cultures define and view what constitutes as abnormal or, normal behaviour. Therefore, the conclusions drawn from such studies may be misleading in the sense that it may not be true of all children in that society. Moreover as the data is interpreted by observers it can fall foul to being misinterpreted due to the bias of three types such as construct, method, and item bias which are existent in cross-cultural research. Write one or two sentences about whether you think the results obtained from this survey would support the original hypothesis, giving your reasons.
I believe that the results obtained in the survey do not support the hypothesis as the information that were collected from people was very limited due to the fact, that it specifically targeted certain members of society. Furthermore the research was to find how children compare to European children in terms of language acquisition thereby making the European children forerunners in language acquisition which cannot be seen as fair or correct. Telegraphic Speech: The third sentence is rather more difficult for a child to understand than the first two. Can you see why?
This form of questioning will promote analytical thinking and develop listening, reading skills thereby promoting listening and reading comprehension. Furthermore, one of the benefits in asking questions is that children will focus on the content of the story as well as motivating and encouraging them to look for answers in the book thus increasing the reading and understanding comprehension which is one of the many building blocks for language acquisition. Unfortunately some children may not be able to read or comprehend what has een read to them, in such cases the childcare worker may need to talk to the local Social Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) for advice and guidance on how best to help the child.
Writing – Writing is one of the tools that allow us to express ourselves and develop and explore language. The childcare worker can get children into the habit of writing and make it interesting for them also. The children should be made aware that not only writing and spelling is fun, but also something they should be proud of as their hard work as they are learning constantly how to use expressive language and using them for fun and creativity.
A simple activity such as getting children to keep a basic weekend journal will keep encourage them to write and get them thinking about how they spent their time during the weekends, furthermore as a further motivation the childcare worker can get children reassure children that mistakes are fine as we get to learn from them. So a spelling log book can accompany the weekend journal and the spelling log book can incorporate how children will devise strategies to learn the correct spelling. Thus enabling children to express feelings their and thoughts through writing will benefit their linguistic output and their self-confidence.
Not all children will attain the ability to write proficiently due to many reasons, but if the childcare worker suspects it might be something serious then professional help and guidance should be sought. Talking with the SENCO and maybe seeking advice from an Educational psychologist can guide you how to help the child and get to the root cause of the problem. 4. 1) Write reasons for language delay, making reference to special needs. Write reasons for language delay, making reference to special needs. Watching television – Language delay is when children do not speak at their scheduled age time.
One of the many reasons attributed to language delay is television viewing. Research on early brain development showed that babies and young children have a significant need for one-to-one interactions with their parents, or care givers to develop and have a healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. [3] Children who watched television on their own were more likely to encounter language delays than those who were accompanied by the caregivers whom interacted with the child thus keeping them out of a ‘catatonic state’ which can be bought on by children who are so immersed in their viewing.
It has been recommended that children under the age of two do not watch television and after the age of two should be allowed to view quality programmes, which will aid their development. Autism – Which is one of the mental developmental disorders is related to language delay in children. Speech, language, and communication are all affected. One of the signs of Autism is it that affects how a child communicates with others, and relates to other people. It also affects how they make understand and perceive the world around them. The particulars of Autism can be linked to:
- difficulty with social communication difficulty with social interaction
- difficulty with social imagination. Some autistic children may not speak, or have somewhat limited speech.
They sometimes understand what other people say to them. Although many have good language skills sometimes it can be hard to understand the flow and structure of conversations. As they tend to repeat what the other person has just said or just preferring to talk about their interests. Maturation Delay – This is also known as developmental language delay, it is caused due to a part of the brain which is responsible for generating speech, just being slower to mature.
This condition is prominent in boys or people whose family that have a history of late talkers. Children who have this condition are often referred to as ‘late talkers. ” This indicates that children will eventually talk through intervention and therapy. Hearing Impairment – Children who are hard of hearing, either from birth or acquired during early years of childhood, generally have a serious delay in spoken language, due to the inability for auditory processing which is the effect of hearing loss.
This culminates in causing the delaying of receptive and expressive communication skills development of the child. Environmental Causes – Common causes of language delay may include personal circumstances of a child which results in their experiencing language delay. One reason may be of neglect or child abuse. The child may not have anyone interacting with them or resulting in inadequate linguistic stimulation. This will have an impact on the child’s self-esteem making the child less likely to talk and acquire language.
