By: Candace TielandSLideShare Presentation

Language Developmentin Early Years

Early DevelopmentA child's communication development begins long before the first word. In the first few months after birth babies learn to understand what you are saying and being to make sounds of their own.

Each of the following milestones contribute to the language skills healthy children achieve.

Early Milestones1. Cooing - Vowel sounds appear at about one month.

2. Babbling - Vowel and consonant sounds develop at about six months.

3. Sound-gesture combination - Emerge at about 10 months.

4. Expressive language - Ability to produce and slowly learn words. At about 12 months babies begin to say first words.

5. Word-gesture combination - Learned between between 12-18 months

6. Telegraphic speech - Uses two word sentences; expressive vocabulary of about 100-200 words. Learned between 18-20 months. Child will hit a threshold vocabulary.

A child’s early language development is a reflection of the language they have heard.

The quality or style of the child’s language is partially a response to the mother’s speech quality or style.

The first 3 years of life is most critical time for growth. The ability to communicate with others is the foundation of a child’s social, emotional, and educational development.

Theories Behaviourist Theory:

B.F Skinner

Believe infants learn language through parental reinforcement of word like sounds and correct grammar

Example: While babbling, babies will accidentally make sounds that resemble a real word. Parents will respond with praise and encouragement, leading to the baby to slowly resemble more words.

Theories con’tNativist Theory:

Noam Chomsky

Believe that a language acquisition device guides children’s comprehension and production of language

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)- an innate language processor that contains the basic grammatical structure of all human language.

The LAD tells infants what two types of sounds, vowels and consonants, to look for so they can properly divide the speech they hear into two categories leading them to analyze and learn the sounds.

Theories con’tInteractionist Theory:

Lev Vygotsky

Believe infants are biologically prepared and that language development is a subprocess of cognitive development, and that social interactions are critical to language development.

Believe the child’s intent is to communicate and share ideas in his head doing his best with gestures and words they know. Striving to learn new words to help him communicate his thoughts and feelings.

Signs of Delayed Speech or Language

DevelopmentAlthough every child develops at different rates, here are a few signs of delayed development:

* No change in your child’s speech and language skills for two to three months.

* Inconsistent or missing reaction to speech and other sounds.

* Marked frustration in trying to communicate.

* Your child doesn’t imitate language he hears in his environment everyday.

Speech and language delay can be caused by:

▪ Hearing loss;

▪ Intellectual disability;

▪ Neurological problems- Ex: autism;

▪ Prematurity; and

▪ Bilingualism

My GoalMy goal is to become a Speech and Language Pathologist. A lot of people ask me, "What is that? and what do they do?". Well their practice is quite broad and learning about language development ties in extremely well.

Speech and Language Pathologist

Speech and Language Pathologist practice in these areas:

Speech delays and disorders- Ex: articulation and motor speech disorders;

Language delays and disorders- Ex: expression and comprehension;

Fluency disorders - Ex: stuttering;

Voice and Resonance disorders;

Swallowing and feeding disorders;

Cognitive-communication disorders - Ex: Social-communication disorders, problem solving, and reasoning;

Pre-literacy and literacy skills- Ex: Reading comprehension and writing;

Disorders related to other issues, ex: hearing impairment, traumatic brain injury, dementia, developmental, genetic, and intellectual.

How it pertains to meWhen I was a child I had fluid build up in my ears throwing off my balance and leading me to rarely speak because I couldn’t hear how to properly pronounce specific sounds (s,t,r). After I had surgery to remove the fluid I started seeing a Language and Speech Pathologist to improve my speaking abilities and to catch up to the abilities of the other children my age. Because of this experience I am interested to work within this field and help others improve and develop communication skills.

ReferencesLifespan Development 5th Canadian Edition

http://www.everydayfamily.com/identifying-delayed-speech-and-language-development/http://

www.everydayfamily.com/language-development-milestones-from-0-3-years/

http://sac-oac.ca/public/children