Language Development
What is language development?
Language development is the support and ability for you and your child to communicate. So that they can express themselves and you can clearly and vividly understand what they are saying, and vice versa. Child language development is important because it supports your child’s thinking ability and helps them make relationships and maintain them.
Why is language development so important?
For children to be able to act independently in the world and learn new
things their language has to become more fluent for their age so that they may adjust to the higher material they begin to learn in school that's a basic necessity, such as knowing how to read, write and do math.
Examples of child language development
- Gestures are one example of child development and normally the first development. For example, making eye contact, crying and using sounds for certain reasoning.
- While in the womb children are hearing words and sounds. The first voice an infant understands is their mother as they've been carrying them for almost 9 months. Hearing words repetitively used in different sentences, and similar context helps children develop an understanding about the words that are being used. They create a meaning and generalization for these words and add them to their vocabulary.
- Being read to helps them comprehend what is being said and the meaning behind it.
- For children with exposure to a secondary language in their household delays in language development sometimes occur in vocabulary. By elementary school they should be able to have more control over which language they speak as they interact with educators and classmates.
5 Stages of Language Development
As children grow older comes the development of more words that
are significant to their age. It is important for family, teachers, and other peers around the children to help them learn the language and culture surrounding them. Some kids will be further along than others and that is the sign of their learning network. Peers in the child’s life are to encourage them as they share new vocabulary through play and conversation. Parents and educators can encourage language development through language and speech classes or word games. According to qualified speech therapist Lauren Crumlish, there are 5 stages of child language (and secondary) development.
- The first stage is Pre- Production. During this stage is where children are silently listening to new words trying to comprehend them.
- The second stage is Early Production. During this stage is where the child are pronouncing words. They begin to learn 1,000 + words to use and play around with. Once they can pronounce them fluently they can comprehend the meaning and understand what sentence to use them in.
- The third stage is Speech Emergence. During this stage the child has built lots of different vocabulary and has started to expand over 3,000 + words. In this stage they are starting to use bigger words and speak with longer, more connected sentences and phrases. The most important part of this stage is the fact they begin to start reading and writing.
- The fourth stage is Intermediate Fluency. During this stage children begin to use examples and their prior knowledge to complete homework and conversate about topics of interest. By this stage they have learned over 10,000 new words and phrases. The child has more than likely improved a lot in their writing and reading skills. This is a critical stage for children that are bilingual where they may be capable of thinking in their second language while communicating in their primary language.
- The fifth stage is Advance Fluency. During this stage children will continue to learn new words everyday and use them in their everyday lives. It has become natural and normal to the child. They may continue to expand their vocabulary and adapt to new language trends.
Learning Impairments
Sometimes children are born or faced with learning and sensory impairments. These impairments may cause delays in language development but there are specialist and problems to help children keep up. Be observant of your children and students as they develop. Be sensitive to what these delays may cause them to feel and behave. Find creative ways to help them transcend what they may feel like are limitations or differences that make them feel inferior to their peers.
Useful Resources
5 Stages of Secondary Language Acquisition
https://bilingualkidspot.com/2018/09/19/5-stages-of-second-language-acquisition/
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