what is the course of language development

by Dr. Fidel Strosin 10 min read

Language development is divided into two stages: early (pre-school period) and late (from 6 years to adolescence). Different levels of language development are reviewed: phonological, lexical, and grammatical. We describe how lexical development begins around the age of 12 months, and grammar develops between the ages of two and three.

Full Answer

What is the process of language development?

Language development is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. Children often begin reproducing the words that they are repetitively exposed to.

What can we learn from language development studies?

Studies of language development have been particularly useful in helping us to understand the emergence of specialization of function and the scale and flexibility of cognitive processes during learning.

What is the significance of the three stages of language development?

The highest significance is placed on the second and third phase, consolidation and differentiation respectively. It could be concluded that children's written and spoken language, in certain respects, become more similar to age, maturation, and experience; however, they are also increasingly different in other respects.

What stage of language development are nouns and verbs?

In this stage of language development, children are able to recognize the difference between nouns and verbs. Generally, the first words in a child’s vocabulary are nouns. 24 Months. At this stage, children begin to recognize more than nouns and verbs and gain an understanding of basic sentence structure.

What is a language development course?

In this course, students will study the normal acquisition of speech and language in infants, children, and adolescents. Speech and language development will be studied in relation to the development of cognitive, perceptual, motor, emotional, and social skills.

What does language development include?

Language Development. The gradual expansion in complexity and meaning of symbols and sounds as perceived and interpreted by the individual through a maturational and learning process. Stages in development include babbling, cooing, word imitation with cognition, and use of short sentences.

What are the 5 stages of language development?

Students learning a second language move through five predictable stages: Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluency, and Advanced Fluency (Krashen & Terrell, 1983).

What are the 7 stages of language development?

Language development - Halliday's 7 StagesStage 1: Instrumental Stage. Child uses language to express needs. ... Stage 3: Interactional Stage. Language used to communicate and form relationships. ... Stage 2: Regulatory Stage. ... Stage 4: Personal Stage. ... Stage 5: Heuristic Stage. ... Stage 6: Imaginative Stage. ... Stage 7: Informative Stage.

What is an example of language development?

For example, when your child says 'Dada', your child is actually calling for dad. In the next few months, your child's vocabulary will grow. Your child can understand more than they can say. They can also follow simple instructions like 'Sit down'.

How many stages are there in language development?

There are four main stages of normal language acquisition: The babbling stage, the Holophrastic or one-word stage, the two-word stage and the Telegraphic stage.

What age is language development?

The first 3 years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing, is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others.

How do you develop language skills?

7 Ways to Quickly Improve Your English Language SkillsWatch movies in English. ... Immerse yourself in English language news. ... Start a vocabulary book of useful words. ... Have conversations in English. ... Practice, practice, practice. ... Curiosity doesn't always kill the cat. ... Don't forget to have fun while you learn.

How do I start learning a language?

The Fastest Way to Learn a New Language in 8 Simple StepsSet language-learning goals. ... Learn the “right” words. ... Study smart. ... Start using the language all day, every day. ... Seek out real-life practice. ... Learn about the culture. ... Test yourself. ... Have fun!

What are the 4 stages of language development?

Stages of First Language AcquisitionPre-Talking. This stage takes place from birth to around six months of age. ... Babbling. The babbling phase occurs from around six to eight months old. ... Holophrastic. ... Two-Word. ... Telegraphic. ... Multiword. ... Fluency. ... Setting.

What are the eight stages of language development?

Stages of language acquisition in childrenStageTypical ageBabbling6-8 monthsOne-word stage (better one-morpheme or one-unit) or holophrastic stage9-18 monthsTwo-word stage18-24 monthsTelegraphic stage or early multiword stage (better multi-morpheme)24-30 months1 more row

What are the six stages of language development?

Pre- production.Early. production.Speech. Emergent.Beginning. Fluency.Intermediate. Fluency.Advanced. Fluency.

What is the main article of language development?

Theoretical frameworks. Main article: Language acquisition. Language development is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input.

Which theory of language development is related to the development of language?

Other relevant theories about language development include Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which considers the development of language as a continuation of general cognitive development and Vygotsky's social theories that attribute the development of language to an individual's social interactions and growth.

What is the relationship between interpersonal communication and the stages of development?

Relationship between interpersonal communication and the stages of development. The greatest development of language occurs in the stage of infancy. As the child matures, the rate of language development decreases. 0-1 years of age: An infant mainly uses non-verbal communication (mostly gestures) to communicate.

How does the environment affect language development?

The environment a child develops in has influences on language development. The environment provides language input for the child to process. Speech by adults to children help provide the child with correct language usage repetitively.

What is statistical language acquisition?

Statistical language acquisition, which falls under empiricist theory, suggests that infants acquire language by means of pattern perception. Other researchers embrace an interactionist perspective, consisting of social-interactionist theories of language development.

How does writing affect children's language?

Children's written language skills become stronger as they use their spoken language skills to improve their writing. Then in turn, when a development in children's written language skills is seen, their spoken language skills have also improved. A child's written language in this phase mirrors their spoken language.

When do children start repeating words?

1–2 years of age: Verbal and nonverbal communication are both used at this stage of development. At 12 months, children start to repeat the words they hear. Adults, especially parents, are used as a point of reference for children in terms of the sound of words and what they mean in context of the conversation.

What are the areas of development that children must develop?

Language development as well as intellectual development, gross motor, fine motor and social emotional development are all areas that must develop. A child may be very strong in one or two of those areas and maybe not as strong or developed in language.

When do kids learn to speak?

At 14-24 months a child will understand many words and follow simple directions. She may use words with gestures to express wants and needs and imitate adult inflections and often times will sound like she is really talking. During this time it is so important to talk to your child constantly.

How many words do kids understand?

Often times, at this age, a child will understand between 10-15 words that are used on a frequent basis. Also, it’s very common for a 12 or 13 month old to start pointing or gesturing with little moans, grunts or whines to vocalize a need. The next phase is when parents might notice a huge difference in their child’s language development.

How long does it take for a child to talk?

This is a common concern. Keep in mind that speech development is a lengthy process and can take, in some cases, as long as seven years.

When should a baby start making sounds?

Watch for your infant to start taking turns making sounds back and forth. At this age a baby’s brain is organizing the sounds of the language he hears around him. By the time an infant is 5½ months-old, she should start to react when she hears her name.

How does language development help us?

Studies of language development have been particularly useful in helping us to understand the emergence of specialization of function and the scale and flexibility of cognitive processes during learning. Novel approaches and technologies for capturing the linguistic environment that the developing child grows up in (Greenwood, Thiemeann-Bourque, Walker, Buzhardt, & Gilkerson, 2011 )—and for capturing what the child is saying ( Oller et al., 2010 )—should allow for more fleshed out theories and models of how language development actually works. Correspondingly, new tools for understanding brain structure ( Dick et al., 2012; Glasser & Van Essen, 2011; Sereno, Lutti, Weiskopf, & Dick, 2013 ), development ( Dosenbach et al., 2010 ), representation ( Huth, Nishimoto, Vu, & Gallant, 2012) and learning ( Wiestler & Diedrichsen, 2013) should allow us to make much finer-grained predictions about when, where, and how language development changes the brain.

How many words can a 12 month old speak?

At around 12 months of age, most children can produce 10 spoken words and can comprehend as many as 50. By their second birthday, children move from the use of one word utterances to communicate through the use of telegraphic speech, which is characterized by two word phrases that only contain important words.

What are the two brain circuits that are involved in human vocal learning?

Initially, the development of speech motor control is examined, emphasizing the two different brain circuits that are involved in human vocal learning: cortico-striatal and the cerebro-cerebellar motor loops.

Why is language development so remarkable?

One of the reasons language development is so remarkable is because it is never explicitly taught to young children. Language is learned primarily through immersion in a linguistic environment. Even before children are born, they are exposed to linguistic information and are learning in utero.

When does a child develop a language?

We describe how lexical development begins around the age of 12 months, and grammar develops between the ages of two and three. At the age of six, the child has acquired a basic language.

Is language fragile?

Some properties of language appear to be robust, and some fragile, across a variety of circumstances and internal states. There may be no greater testament to the resilience of language than the fact that children can invent language in the absence of a model for language.

Is organic variation more severe?

Organic variation can be much more severe and still result in relatively intact language learning. For example, grammar learning in the earliest stages can proceed in a relatively normal manner and at a normal rate even in the face of unilateral ischemic brain injury.

When is it difficult to learn language?

There appear to be critical periods for speech and language development in infants and young children when the brain is best able to absorb language. If these critical periods are allowed to pass without exposure to language, it will be more difficult to learn.

When is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills?

The first 3 years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing , is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others. There appear to be critical periods for speech and language development in ...

What is the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders?

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) sponsors a broad range of research to better understand the development of speech and language disorders, improve diagnostic capabilities, and fine-tune more effective treatments.

How do babies communicate?

The first signs of communication occur when an infant learns that a cry will bring food, comfort, and companionship. Newborns also begin to recognize important sounds in their environment, such as the voice of their mother or primary caretaker. As they grow, babies begin to sort out the speech sounds that compose the words of their language.

How does deafness affect the brain?

A long-term study looking at how deafness impacts the brain is exploring how the brain “rewires” itself to accommodate deafness. So far, the research has shown that adults who are deaf react faster and more accurately than hearing adults when they observe objects in motion.

What are some examples of two word sentences?

Examples of such “sentences” are: “Doggy big” (declarative) “Where ball” (interrogative) “Not egg” (negative) “More sugar!” (imperative) Once again , if the two-word sentence is supported by the situation as well as by nonverbal communication, it could have quite a complex meaning.

What is the prelinguistic stage?

The prelinguistic stage. During the first year of life, the child is in a pre-speech stage. Developmental aspects related to speech would include the development of gestures, making adequate eye contact, sound repartee between infant and caregiver, cooing, babbling, and crying.

What is a two word sentence?

The two-word sentence. By 18 months the child reaches this stage. His or her “sentences” now usually comprise a noun or a verb plus a modifier. This enables the child to formulate a sentence that may be either declarative, negative, imperative or interrogative. Examples of such “sentences” are:

How long does it take for a baby to learn a language?

Six Stages of Language Development. Most parents can hardly wait for their baby to say its first word. This usually happens between nine months and a year. From about two years, the child should be able to use simple phrases, and by three he should be able to use full sentences.

When do children start holophrase?

The holophrase or one-word sentence. The child usually reaches this phase between the age of 10 and 13 months. Although the child tends to utter a single word at a time, its meaning is also supplemented by the context in which it takes place, as well as by nonverbal cues.

When do children start to use multiple word sentences?

Multiple-word sentences. The child reaches this stage between the age of two and two and a half. Grammatical morphemes in the form of prefixes or suffices are used when changing meanings or tenses. Furthermore, the child can now form sentences with a subject and a predicate.

What is the tip of the velum?

Specifically, the tip of the velum reaches or covers with the tip of the epiglottis. As the newborn child develops, the tract bit by bit reshapes itself in the grown-up example. At the very first or two months of life, a newborn child articulates distress with crying.

What is the telegraphic stage of a child?

Telegraphic Stage. At the age of 24 months to 30 months seem to be the telegraphic stage of a child. In this period, children start producing expressions with more than two elements. The expressions of children are longer than two words and meaningful characteristics.

How does a child acquire a language?

A child acquires a language or mother tongue through different stages. After finishing all the stages the child is capable of acquiring his or her mother tongue. Let us see the stages of language development. We mainly analyze the four stages of child language acquisition. The four stages of language development in children demonstrated in ...

What is the stage of babbling?

In the Babbling stage children used to produce random sounds with their speech organ. Vocal play and Babbling both produced by them when they interact with their parents or relative. In this stage, a child randomly produces a variety of sounds. Sometimes these sounds partly matching his or her mother tongue.

What is the two word stage?

The two-word stage begins when a child becomes one year or one and a half-year-old. In this stage children used to pronounce from one word to two words. At the same time, children start developing their sound production capability.

What is the pre-linguistic stage?

Pre-linguistic Stage. The pre-linguistic stage is the core of child language acquisition. This stage begins from a child’s birth to his to her 7 months. During childbirth, the baby vocal tract is here and there more like that of a chimp than that of a grown-up human.

Why is language development important?

The stages of language development are one of the important parts of linguistics. Language plays a vital role to communicate with each other, from one country to another country. Every language has its individual characteristics and objectives.

What languages do children learn?

Researchers have studied children acquiring Luo, Samoan, Kaluli, Hungarian, Sesotho and many others in an effort to understand the process of language acquisition in universal terms.

What is a structure dependent language?

One of the claims made by modern linguistic theory is that the rules of natural languages are "structure dependent," that is, they always refer to structural units, constituents such as "noun phrase" or "auxiliary verb," not to other arbitrary units such as "the fifth word" or "the first word beginning with 'f'.".

What is the role of semantics in learning grammar?

A weaker hypothesis about the role of semantics in the learning of grammar is that perhaps children exploit the correlation between certain grammatical notions, like subject, and certain semantic notions, like agent, to begin parsing adult sentences. The child could then proceed to analyze sentences by knowing already:

When do toddlers start uttering two words?

The first sentence is the transition that separates humans from other creatures. Most toddlers produce their first spontaneous two-word sentence at 18 to 24 months, usually once they have acquired between 50 and 500 words.

When do babies start making sounds?

The first words make their appearance any time between nine and 15 months or so, depending on the child's precocity and the parent's enthusiasm in noticing. That is, the baby begins making sounds that occur fairly

image

Overview

Writing development

Research in writing development has been limited in psychology. In the research that has been conducted, focus has generally centred on the development of written and spoken language and their connection. Spoken and written skills could be considered linked. Researchers believe that children's spoken language influences their written language. When a child learns to write they need to master letter formation, spelling, punctuation and they also have to gain an understandi…

Theoretical frameworks

Language development is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. Children often begin reproducing the words that they are repetitively exposed to. The method in which we develop language skills is universal; however, the major debate is how the rules of syntax are acquired. There are two quite separate major theories of syntactic development: an empiricist a…

Biological preconditions

Evolutionary biologists are skeptical of the claim that syntactic knowledge is transmitted in the human genome. However, many researchers claim that the ability to acquire such a complicated system is unique to the human species. Non-biologists also tend to believe that our ability to learn spoken language may have been developed through the evolutionary process and that the foundation for language may be passed down genetically. The ability to speak and understand h…

Stages

0-1 years of age:
An infant mainly uses non-verbal communication (mostly gestures) to communicate. For a newborn, crying is the only means of communication. Infants 1-5 months old have different tones of crying that indicate their emotions. Infants also begin laughing at this stage. At 6-7 months old, infants …

Gender differences

Language development and processing begins before birth. Evidence has shown that there is language development occurring antepartum. DeCasper and Spence performed a study in 1986 by having mothers read aloud during the last few weeks of pregnancy. When the infants were born, they were then tested. They were read aloud a story while sucking on a pacifier; the story was either the story read by the mother when the infant was in utero or a new story. The pacifier use…

Environmental influences

The environment a child develops in has influences on language development. The environment provides language input for the child to process. Speech by adults to children help provide the child with correct language usage repetitively. Environmental influences on language development are explored in the tradition of social interactionist theory by such researchers as Jerome Bruner, Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, Anat Ninio, Roy Pea, Catherine Snow, Ernest Moer…

Social preconditions

It is crucial that children are allowed to socially interact with other people who can vocalize and respond to questions. For language acquisition to develop successfully, children must be in an environment that allows them to communicate socially in that language. Children who have learnt sound, meaning and grammatical system of language that can produce clear sentence may still not have the ability to use language effectively in various social circumstance. Social interactio…