What is language development?

Development of language is attainment of verbal skills to be able to link

thoughts in a coherent fashion. It helps children to convey their intentions and
maintain conversations essential for social interaction.

Learning to communicate follows a predictable pattern and parallels child’s

general cognitive development.

Genetic factors also play a major role in children’s language learning process.
Ability to communicate and development of language skills go hand in hand.

Communicative skills in ones native language is believed to be acquired

naturally. Yet language learning is a gradual process that starts right from
birth and continues well into teenage years.

Development of language is incredibly complex. Normal language delivery

involves interconnected neural networks’ synchronization in different areas of
the brain.

Components of language development

 Communication, which involves combination of several cognitively

learnt behaviors and skills.

 Phonology implies the ability to produce specific sounds for specific

words: Speech development.

 Semantics refers to the correct use of the words to express specific

thoughts.

 Syntax is the appropriate use of grammar to make sentences.

 Pragmatics defines the ability to communicate effectively with the skills

that go beyond the basic understanding of the words and the rules of
grammar. It demands child’s awareness of the social aspects associated
with effective communication, such as -
 i. ) Relationship with the partner one is conversing with.

ii. ) Social context in which the conversation is taking place.

iii.) The environment at large.

Requirements for language development

1. Language includes expressive and receptive functions:

 Vocabulary.

 Molding the words into their root forms.

 Sentence formations with understanding of grammar application.

 Modify the sentences depending on the situations.

2. Speech, the ability to produce intelligible sounds:

 Articulation effectiveness comes with well coordinated movements of

the tongue, lips, and jaw muscles.

 Phonation: The voice production depends on effective functioning of

vocal cords.

 Fluency of speech requires timely synchronization of phonatory and

articulatory muscle groups with efficient interaction between speech
and language skills. Its compromise leads to stammering/ stuttering in a
child

What is receptive language development?

 Receptive language includes hearing and understanding.

Right from time of birth, newborns demonstrate preferential response to
human voices over inanimate sounds.

 Over the first 3 months infants begin to recognize the parents’ voice,
which has a noticeable calming effect on a crying baby. The preference
 to human voices points at the infant’s efforts towards development of
receptive language.

 At 9 months of age the infant begins to participate in few verbal

exchanges that are directed towards him.

 The progress continues and by 4 years of age, children can follow adult
conversation. They can also answer simple questions from a recently
heard short story.

 At 5 years of age, children develop receptive vocabulary of more than

2000 words and are able to follow 3-4 steps commands.

 What is expressive language development?

 Expressive abilities include talking, writing and other forms of symbolic

expressions.

 Cooing sounds

 Cooing sounds that an infant makes in the second month of life is

infant's first step towards development of expressive language.

 Symbolization

 Symbolization of a 3 months old infant’s different vocal sounds are

interpreted by parents as pleasure, pain, fussing, tiredness, and so on.
Thereby, 3 months of age onward most infants can maintain social
interaction by vocalizing in a reciprocal fashion.

 Infants at 5 months of age laughs expressively in response to a pleasant

interaction and may even respond with monosyllables.

 Vocabulary development

 Over the next several months, infants learn 1 or 2 words that represent
common objects used in their day to day life.

 Pronunciations
  Children readily adopt adult pronunciations. They imitate words used
by their parents, siblings and others. One year old child begins to make
spontaneous corrections to his own pronunciations and aligns them
with that of his language experts. After a lot of practice over a period of
time the child establishes a stable 10 or more words vocabulary.

 Interactive language development

 The parents who reinforce their children’s attempts to communicate and

are sensitive to their current interests enable them to more readily
associate verbal symbols with their external referents.

 Learning grammar

 Children intensely observe the pragmatic principles and learn the

conventions for language use. Thus their expressive skills steadily
increase and mature.

 By 4-5 years of age, children are able to carry on conversations using

grammatically correct sentences that are descriptive enough to provide
the necessary details.

Factors Affecting

Language Development in Children

Shyness slows 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.

Socio-economic status

Socio-emotional problems and lower quality of life can lead to receptive and
expressive language delays and disorders.
Parent–child shared reading

 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.
 Written language
Written language during early childhood development is not affected by shared reading habits of
preschool years.

Besides vocabulary, written language depends on development of various facets

ofcommunication skills. It also depends on child's
fine motor skills and cognitive development.

Nevertheless, early
verbal language competence is known to be strongly linked to
the development of child’s literary skills and reading abilities.

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 impairment

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.

Neurological disorders
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.

Teenage mothers

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 providers

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.

Home literary environment

The home literary environment supports receptive and expressive vocabulary

growth during the second and third years of life.

Language videos

The videos that make educational claims for development of infants’ and
toddlers’ language are found to be of questionable value.

The studies that were conducted have highlighted the co-occurrence of

onscreen print for infants as the target audience, who cannot read