2. Language development in early childhood
(2 – 6 years age)
Language development is the process by which children
come to understand and communicate language during early
childhood. Language development is a critical part of child
development. It supports your child's ability to communicate,
and express and understand feelings. It also supports
thinking and problem-solving, and developing and
maintaining relationships.
3. Why is language important?
Language is an essential skill that allows one and other to
communicate. Children begin to develop language from birth,
with the use of cries to get their needs met. Language
development is important for a child to allow them the
ability to adequately exchange information with others in a
meaningful way.
4. Why is language development important?
-Language development is important as language consists of a set of social standards that
show comprehension of meanings behind words, putting words together in a sentence
in order to communicate and understanding commands, directions and information given by
others.
Children need to develop language skills to relate with others and to grow into a person
who can socially interact with others through life.
“The child begins to perceive the world not only through his [or her] eyes but also through
his [or her] speech” (Vygotsky, 1978)
5. The benefits of healthylanguage development in childhood period
Language is the foundation for all social interactions, having problems to communicate can
cause frustration both for you as a parent, but more importantly for your child.
The development of language is strongly interdependent with, and supports, your child’s brain
development and cognitive development. Studies have shown that having a large
vocabulary increases creativity and helps people to come up with new ideas. There are also
numerous benefits to learning more than one language.
In other words, the development of language cannot be viewed in isolation, but is strongly connected
to, and hugely important for, your child’s overall development during the first years of life
6. Fun activities that help developlanguage learning in childhoodperiod
Word games. Expand children's vocabulary with word games. ...
Jokes. Telling age-appropriate puns will also help foster good humour and creativity in
children. ...
Riddles. Riddles are fun ways to use words and paint pictures of scenes or situations. ...
Rhymes. ...
Homonyms. ...
Storytelling. ...
Songs. ...
Tongue twisters
7. To helpspeech and language developmentin early childhood
Talk with child, and see respond to child's interests.
Read aloud together. ...
Tell stories together: child will enjoy hearing stories. ...
Sing songs together.
Play stories and songs in the car.
Tell simple jokes and riddles.
8. Theoriesof languageacquisitionin earlychildhoodperiod
VygotskyandLanguageDevelopment
Lev Vygotsky hypothesized that children had a zone of proximal
development (ZPD). The ZPD is the range of material that a child
is ready to learn if proper support and guidance are given from
either a peer who understands the material or by an adult. We
can see the benefit of this sort of guidance when we think about the
acquisition of language. Children can be assisted in learning
language by others who listen attentively, model more accurate
pronunciations and encourage elaboration.
For example, if the child exclaims, “I’m goed there!” the n the adult
responds, “You went there?”
9. 2). Private Speech
Children talk to themselves too. Piaget interpreted this as egocentric speech or a practice engaged
in because of a child’s inability to see things from other points of view. Vygotsky, however, believed
that children talk to themselves in order to solve problems or clarify thoughts. As children learn to
think in words, they do so aloud before eventually closing their lips and engaging in private
speech or inner speech. Thinking out loud eventually becomes thought accompanied by internal
speech, and talking to oneself becomes a practice only engaged in when we are trying to learn
something or remember something, etc. This inner speech is not as elaborate as the speech we use
when communicating with others (Vygotsky, 1962)
3). Egocentric speech
At the beginning childhood the speech of children is egocentric because it center on themselves or
things that have to do with themselves for ex : toys clothing , activities , family members and
animal etc.
10. 4). Socialized speech
Toward the end of early childhood socialized speech begins and children talk about other people as
well themselves. But much of this early socialized speech is unsocial because children criticize other
and complaining they also engage in name calling especially when they are angry. boasting about
material possessions is very common at this stage.
5). Skinner: Operant Conditioning
B. F. Skinner believed that children learn language through operant conditioning; in other
words, children receive “rewards” for using language in a functional manner. For example, a
child learns to say the word “drink” when she is thirsty; she receives something to drink, which
reinforces her use of the word for getting a drink, and thus she will continue to do so. This
follows the four-term contingency that Skinner believed was the basis of language
development—motivating operations, discriminative stimuli, response, and reinforcing stimuli.
Skinner also suggested that children learn language through imitation of others, prompting,
and shaping.
11. Speechdevelopment during2-5 years
(2 years )
The child has a vocabulary of more than 50 recognisable words and average
being 272 word
He can join 2 words and make a phrase.
His speech is more or less telegraphic.
Join in nursery rhymes and song.
He uses only noun and verbs but no preposition.
Inflections are also absent in his speech.
12. (2 ½ years)
Every day the child learns new words.
Know full name.
Stammering not common.
Enjoys listening simple stories.
He becomes frustrated when other fails to understand him
He uses sentences consisting of 2 or 5 words.
The child repeats adult language that is called as echolaliac speech.
Sentence and phrases have characteristics of child grammar.
The child at this age seems to understands that is said to him.
Child speech is not very intelligible by this age.
13. (3 years)
Vocabulary of children at this age is about 1000 word, average vocabulary is 896 wrds.
Nearly 80% of what children say are understood by other.
Grammatical mistakes continue.
Uses plural and pronouns.
The child begins to use copular (is, are).
He is still monologues.
Asks what ,where, who questions.
(4years)
speech generally intelligible but not perfect.
Can give account of recent experiences.
Average vocabulary is 1540 words.
Ask why when how question.
(5 years)
Speech fluent and generally correct with only a few confusion.
The average vocabulary is 2000 words.
Can tell age and home address.
14. Factor affecting of language development in children
1) . Shynessslows language development
Temperament differs. Shy children have significantly slower development of expressive
and receptive language.
Shyness limits vocabulary and other language skills development. The reticent nature of
shy children also limits their participation in social interactions and practices of the
acquired skills.
2). Socio– economice status
Socio-emotional problems and lower quality of life can lead to receptive and expressive
language delays and disorders.
15. 3). Parents – child sharedreading
Spoken language:
Effects of shared reading have been studied in relation to receptive and expressive
language development. Early book reading enhances the spoken language skills of
the toddlers.
Phonation and vocabulary development:
The language skills are found to be more advanced in children who shared reading
experiences from 14 months of age. These children are reported to develop 14
percent of their subsequent language within the following 4 months.
16. 4). Attitude of child
Child’s attitude towards school and the peer group can affect his written language as
reflected by his tendency towards faulty spellings.
Children with early language development
Children with early language often impairment continue to have difficulty in
communication. This jeopardizes their scholastic achievements and social image
Children with persistent difficulty in learning a language should be investigated for
difficulty in listening, remembering, and understanding complex language.
5).Neurological disorder
Children with simple or complex partial seizures are likely to suffer from language
disorders. Distorted speech during early development stage, as in cerebral palsy, is
usually perceived as delay in language development.
17. 6). Teenager mother
Children of teenage mothers qualify poorly for expressive language development and
language comprehension.
This highlights the importance of mother–child interaction in development of children's
language proficiency, which is noticeably compromised in the parenting pattern of teenage
mothers.
Teenage mothers are usually find it difficult to carry out effective verbal communication with
their children
Verbal interaction with child care provied
Parents and babysitters who provide rich verbal interaction stimulate child's language
and psychosocial development. Studies show that melodies in caregivers' speech provide a
species-specific guidance towards language and speech development.
18. 7). Home literaryenvironment
The home literary environment supports receptive and
expressive vocabulary growth during the second and third
years of life.
8). Languagevideo
The videos that make educational claims for development of
infants’ and toddlers’ language are found to be of questionable
value.
19. Reference
Laura E. BERK 9TH edition ,language development of early childhood and theories of language
development retrieved pearson education 23 march 2017.
Benefits of health language development retrieved ,June 2008 www.healthofchildren.com
Theories of language development in early childhood, retrieved January 2018
www.psychologynoteshq.com www.courses.lumenlearning.com