The Role of Language in Cognitive Development - Literature review Example

What Is the Role of Language in The Development of The Self from Infancy to Adolescence? Student’s name Course Code Date What Is the Role of Language in The Development of The Self from Infancy to Adolescence? It is language and the ability to use it symbolically that makes humans different from other animals. Language allows humans to communicate with others, express emotions, ideas, and thoughts. Gergely & Csibra (2006, p. 237) write that for people to succeed in a collaborative activity, then they must be able to communicate. Hence, language comes before shared intentionality. Therefore, even children must acquire language skills to be able to communicate with their parents, peers, and even grow into social beings that can interact socially with other individuals. This is because language and communicative aptitude present critical tools for emotion and behaviour regulation, learning, and engaging in social relationships from infancy onward. Critical areas of development such as emotional and social growth very much depend on the ability of a child to express him or herself verbally and refine his or her abilities and acquire new skills. As such, a delay in language skills may result in miscommunication as well as cause frustrations for the child who is trying to convey something. Hence, language development in children is critical for meaningful exchange of information. The Role of Language in Cognitive Development Various theorists believe that self-awareness is a product of cognitive growth and social interaction[Roc03]. Through social interaction, children are able to develop a sense of themselves in relation to others. It is only when individuals understand how others view them that they become self-conscious[Roc03]. Language provides the impetus necessary for self-awareness. Physical changes during early childhood are accompanied by rapid changes in language and cognitive development in a child. From birth, children rely on all their senses to make sense of their environment, soon they start to develop a comprehension of case and effect directed by their caregivers. Vygotsky (1986), in his social constructivism theory, believes that language is a critical tool for cognitive development. Indeed, by the age of three, children can speak between 300 and 1,000 words, enabling them to use language to describe their environment. By the age of five, they can use over 1500 words and construct at least seven-word sentences, tell stories from pictures as prompts, and understand past tense[Spr77]. Thus, just as Vygotsky proposed, language is powerful tool that fosters communication and problem solving skills. By the time children are eight years old, they are able to comprehend simple concepts such as money and time, though their reasoning is still concrete and they cannot understand abstract ideas. The ability to reason logically starts from around the age of seven and ends at around eleven years. Here, the child can reason logically, objectively, and understand relationships, hence, able to form ideas of things independently. According to Vygotsky (1986), the acquisition of language is the first stage in developing concept of things because words can help people remember things. Shared Intentionality During Infancy According to Tomasello & Carpenter (2007), shared intentionality encompasses the ability to coordinate and share psychological states. It involves the ability to coordinate and cooperate with others with the intention of achieving common goals or intentions. Thus, the psychological processes collaborators are jointly directed at a common target within a defined timeframe. Bickerton (2005) notes that language provides the spark necessary for shared intentionality to evolve. Thus, when children have difficulty expressing themselves and understanding others, they are likely to have psychosocial and emotional problems. Language skills provide young children with verbal tools with which they can express their mental states[Roc03]. Consequently, during ordinary conversations with adults, children are able to learn about the mental states of other people from how they express their ideas (Tomasello & Carpenter, 2007). The ability to direct collective action and attention on third objects such as food or toys with other individuals evolves early in human ontogeny triggers human cognitive development. Through the use of language, children are able to comprehend the thoughts and words of adults, and learn in the process. Children are thus, seen to be concerned with sharing their psychological states with others from an early age. They provide those with whom they interact with helpful information and in the process, form shared intentions and attention. At the same time, they also learn from demonstrations that emerge during such situations. The role of language in share intentionality is not to create new cognitive skills but to take existing ones such as social learning, manipulative communication, gaze following, and group action and transform them into jointly based matching parts of collaborative action, joint attention, instructed learning, and cooperative communication, which are the foundations of cultural living[Tom07]. How language Shapes Self-Regulation Self-regulation is the first determinant of success in cognitive and socially challenging settings[Val11]. Vygotsky (1986) argues that symbols, mainly words, are metal tools that plat a critical role in self-regulation. It is generally believed that when children possess the right words to express their needs, feelings, or desires, they can control their behaviours to fit the social expectations of the setting[Whido]. This goes a long way in enabling children to adapt effectively to their environments. There are increasingly more findings suggesting the correlation between language and self-regulation in toddlers[Val11]. Research recognises self-regulation as a critical social emotional skill that supports the abilities of children to adapt effectively to new or challenging circumstances, be productive participants in learning activities, and act pro-socially in social interactions[Val11]. Between the formative years of one and three years, self-regulation develops rapidly, though the skills are rudimentary. In the second year after birth, children are able to discern the social expectations and requirements expected of them and can start and end actions so as to comply with these social expectations and achieve physical and social aims. Children start to acquire and develop representational skills in the third year, which reinforces their ability to take charge of their own actions when responding to internal representations, rather than rely on parent’s reminders or prohibitions. Vygotsky (1986) postulate that self-regulation of actions and judgements is developed through the comprehension of thought patterns and cultural symbols by internalising the regulatory speeches of their caregivers. These internalised symbols, which are words according to Vygotsky, are critical mental tools for manipulating one’s behaviour and thoughts. This is an indication that for children to become socially fit, they need language to internalise and express ideas. Caregivers play an important role in the regulation of a child’s emotions and behaviour by use of cognitive manes, which is through the use of language, by providing verbal comforts and prohibitions[Val11]. Therefore, the change from reactive to proactive regulation is enhanced by the continual development of representational abilities, which is facilitated by language. The Role of Language in Shaping Adolescent’s Self Identity A true and meaningful sense of identity begins during the years of adolescent development. It is at this stage that the child develops a desire not just to identify him or herself, but also to define him or herself. Narrating life experiences help adolescents understand emotional and social impairment. Pennebaker & Chung (2007) posit that written language can be used as a learning tool for the adolescent in the struggle to meaning in life’s experiences, resulting in improved social, biological psychological, and behavioural measures. Adolescents want to identify themselves as unique from others. Unlike, infants, they are not just concerned with other people’s view of them but also what they think about themselves. According to Damasio (2003), the concepts that identify the self are found within the brain networks that represent the body. This implies that self-reflection that children experience in adolescence begins to develop much earlier in life. Thus, thought is retained in the mind of individuals in the form of narrative. Comparable to the unceasing story of child’s imagination, humans spend their lives narrating and recreating their narrative selves. As such, humans become embedded in the story structures they have created over years[Bol05]. When children tell narratives, the stories are constructs of their past experiences, making an important element in understanding those experiences. Thus, narratives form the frame through which adolescents bestow meaning to their world. During the transition from childhood to adolescence, children gain an elevated sense of self-understanding: their thoughts begin to become more abstract and idealistic. In the process, they acquire a keen sense of self-awareness which fosters the development of a more integrated self-identity. To an adolescent, self-understanding underpins self-conception, providing the lucid foundations of self-identity. Through narrative language, human thoughts are understood in the form of texts, from which they are interpreted. Narrative give meaning to personal experiences, making it critical for memory systems, understanding, and communication. Since language is at the heart of adolescents’ intellectual, social, and emotional world, its influence is wide. By the time children reach adolescence, they are able to delve deep into language and use it, understand, play with and shape the narrative of their life’s experiences. Linking past experiences with the narrative language helps free emotions because language enables the narrator to construct the meanings of his or her feelings, thoughts or actions. At a complex level, the adolescent provokes the thought that he or she possesses the mental process occurring in the mind. With the backing of past memories of events and objects, Damasio (2003) argues that the adolescent can use language issue an autobiography, and recreate his or her identity and character continually. As Reese, et al. (2010) state, without narrative, it would be difficult to achieve self-understanding. From an early age, children learn about themselves through the stories they tell to others about themselves and from what they hear about themselves from others. Over time, these stories fuse into a life story. Reese, et al. (2010), thus, define an autobiography as a collection of individually important memories forged into a narrative form and can be organised into significant lifetime phases. From this definition, the conclusion is that not any individual has a definitive life story but rather the chapters in ever individual’s life are organised throughout the life course. It is the individual that decides what to include, what to omit and what to modify depending on the circumstances and the audience. The ability to be conscious of the autobiography begins from the onset of adolescent of a bit earlier, and that is the point at which the individual starts becoming selective with the content of the life story [Fiv11]. During the early years of adolescence, the individual starts to realise that he/she is a master of his/her identity and can shape it through narrative language. Thus, for the adolescent, language is not just a means of understanding one’s identity but also for shaping one. Several skills develop merge at the onset of adolescence that enable an individual to shape their autobiographical narratives. Fivush, et al. (2011), during adolescence, the child develops the cognitive ability to handle complex perspective-taking: this enable the child to understand others’ perspective and integrate those views into their interpretations and at the same time be able to link their views with the past, the present and project it into the future as well. Reese, et al. (2010), when investigating childhood development discovered that as opposed to 20% of 8-year olds, over 75% of children between the ages of 12 and 20 were able to connect their current personality to distant past events. This connection is vital in finding meaning from life events. Related to this is the ability of the adolescent to analyse and integrate contrasting emotions and cognitively express events in a different way that enables emotional regulation. Personal narratives are indeed critical for the development of the self-concept which begins in early childhood but can only be constructed factually from early adolescence. This is due to the development of cognitive and social skills that emerge during this critical stage of childhood which form a new way of understanding oneself as well as others. Personal narratives, therefore, a reflection of how adolescents are understanding their past and current experiences and projecting them to future experiences in larger familial and social contexts. Conclusion Children start responding to stimuli from a very early age. Research has shown that when children reach the age at which they can unravel informative object-choice, they can use shared experience to determine who is familiar with certain objects such as toys. Some theorists have argued that children could actually be born with rudimentary cognitive abilities as opposed to them developing in early childhood [Dam03]. However, what stands out is that language plays a critical role in the development of cognitive abilities. Hence, children who have language problems often have difficulty learning. The first instances of forming the concept of self begins with the initial interactions between the child and the caregiver or the mother. It is here that the child starts to identify what is expected of him or her from scaffolding offered by the caregiver. Through language, children learn how to engage in collaborative activities by identifying the role of the self in such settings. They also become aware that they need to regulate their emotions and actions; however, the understanding of why they need to do so is acquired later during adolescence. When children reach adolescence, they start to gain a sense of autonomy and they must learn to rely on their own intuitions to forge an identity for themselves and understand who they are in the perspective of other people. Adolescence is a period in which many physical, psychological, and biological changes take shape in the life of a child. The reaction to these forces is normally portrayed through emotions; hence, it is important for adolescents to be able to understand themselves during this stage. Language offers a medium of self-reflection and understanding, which later leads to the understanding of self and the formation of self-identity. List of References Roc03: , (Rochat, 2003), Spr77: , (Sprinthall & Sprinthall, 1977, p. 127), Roc03: , (Rochat, 2003, p. 726), Tom07: , (Tomasello & Carpenter, 2007), Val11: , (Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011), Whido: , (Whitebread & Basilio, Profesorado), Bol05: , (Bolton, 2005, p. 105), Fiv11: , (Fivush, et al., 2011), Dam03: , (Damasio, 2003), Read More