Language Development in the Early Childhood - Essay Example

Introduction: Learning to talk is one of the most important achievements in early childhood. During the first few years of their lives, children develop language rapidly. In a very short space of time, children can master many language skills, such as going from a single word to fluent sentences. When a child is able to talk, it means that he or she has opportunities to learn and understand their social environment. The speed of developing speech and language is varies from child to child. There are many children who of ages up to three, yet they can only speak a few words. On the other hand, children who are aged up to two may speak clear and understandable language. This variation in language development can be explained by understanding the factors that affect this evolution, specifically environmental factors. This paper will discuss language development in a boy aged older than six and when and how he started to communicate during the first five years of his life, as well as any environmental factors that affected his development. Language development in normal early childhood: Language development is the process where a child is able to communicate during early childhood and is divided into the following six phases: 1. 2. Pre-linguistic stage: Includes the first nine months of life, and can be divided into three forms: crying, cooing, and babbling (EDUBLOX, 2011). 3. The Holophrase or One-word sentence: 4. In this stage, children are usually aged between ten and thirteen months old. This stage is characterized by where the word has multiple functions, such as news about something, or asking for something, or requesting something. For example, the child could use the word “Daddy” to mean look at me or to give me something (EDUBLOX, 2011). 5. 6. Two-word sentences: 7. At this stage, the child begins to speak phrases consisting of a noun or verb linked with modifier, which forms a sentence that can be declarative, negative, imperative, or interrogative. For example, when the child says “Where Daddy?” (Interrogative), it means that he is looking for his dad (EDUBLOX, 2011). 8. Multiple word sentences: 9. By the end of the second year of a child’s life, the child is able to form simple meaningful sentences consisting of two to three words with the ability to change meanings and tenses. For example, “I hatched it” (EDUBLOX, 2011). 10. 11. 12. Complex grammatical structure: Using more complex grammatical structures such as conjunctions. For example, “Read it, my book” (EDUBLOX, 2011). 13. 14. Adult-like language structure: 15. Children reach this stage by the age of five to six-years old, where the child can use concepts like (ask) or can promise to do something (EDUBLOX, 2011). Personal development: Muhammad is the oldest child in a family of five. He is now aged six years and few months. When he was yet unborn, his parents planned for him to be distinct from other children. Muhammad’s parents began to implement what they had planned during his mother’s pregnancy with him, and, as he was only a fetus, they spent long hours talking to him and reading him stories. Furthermore, because his parents were Muslims, they were reading parts of the Quran, which is the holy book of Muslims on a daily basis. They based this principle on their faith and belief that recitation of the Quran has a positive influential effect on unborn children. Mohammed was born at the end of 2005 and lasted the full term. In general, the first three months of his growth were normal like other children. During the next nine months of his life, he was able to distinguish his parents and was able to communicate well with those around him. This was done using cooing, babbling, or using his eyes or other parts of his body, such as kicking his feet, especially during play time. Moreover, his parents spent a long time talking and responding to his cooing and babbling in order to encourage him to talk more. Muhammad lived in a house with a large extended family, where his grandparents, uncles, and cousins lived together. At the age of 18 months, Muhammad was able to pronounce the names of the majority of adults and kids living with him. In addition, at the age of two, Muhammad was able to repeat passages consisting of two lines of the Quran in just a few days. Throughout the first few years of his life, Muhammad was taught the same process over and over again. In the year 2007, Muhammad’s family migrated to Australia. This was a challenging time for him as he only spoke Arabic at this time. However, he learned English very fast. Surprisingly, by the age of three and a half, Muhammad started to pronounce English words as if he was fluent. Muhammad started to go to kindergarten almost every day. This was a place where he was playing and talking with Australian children as well as listening to English cartoons. As of this moment, Muhammad is in first grade and he is doing exceptionally well in terms of speaking, reading, and writing. Environmental/ Genetic factors: Numerous studies have shown that first-born children reach the 50-word milestone earlier than younger siblings (Lauren, 1998) Muhammad is the oldest child The National Institute for Literacy 2009 declared that “oral language skills start developing in infancy and continue to develop throughout life” (p. 2). Further studies showed an association between infants shared reading at eight months and expressive language abilities at 16 months old (Karrass & Braungart-Rieker, 2005) As discussed on the last page, Muhammad’s parents were talking and reading to him since he was a fetus until early childhood A number of studies have shown that genes and environment correlate with early childhood vocabulary both positively and negatively. In addition, they are both important, especially for the vocabulary of a two-year old (Dionne et al., 2003). Moreover, Hayiou-Thomas (2008) found that differences in speech skills were mostly due to genetic effects, although environment also played a significant role Muhammad has always been surrounded by many family members, who had a positive effect on Muhammad’s language development and social skills. Conclusion: In conclusion, language is an important element for a child’s development. It is the key for a child’s communication skills from infancy through early childhood. In the first five years of life, language improvement occurs in different phases to set the stage of later intentional communication for the child. The quality of an environment generally affects the child’s speech and expressive abilities, especially in the first two years of life. Works Cited EDUBLOX. (2011). Six Stages of Language Development. Retrieved from http://www.learninginfo.org/language-development.htm. Dionne, G., Dale, P. S., Boivin, M., & Plomin, R. (2003). Genetic Evidence for Bidirectional Effects of Early Lexical and Grammatical Development. Child Development, 74(2), 394- 412. Hayiou-Thomas, M. E. (2008). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Early Speech, Language, and Literacy Development. Journal of Communication Disorders, 41(5), 397-408. Hoff-Ginsburg, E. (1998). The Relation of Birth Order and Socioeconomic Status to Childrens Language Experience and Language Development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19(4), 603- 29. Karrass, J. & Braungart-Rieker, J. M. (2005). Effects of shared parent–infant book reading on early language acquisition. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(2), 133-148. The National Institute for Literacy. (2009). An oral language resource for early childhood caregivers. Retrieved from http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/LearningtoTalkandListen.pdf Read More