Innate and learned
Language is partly innate and partly learned, as children interact with other people and the environment.
The symbolisation of thought
Language has been called the symbolisation of thought. It is a learned code, or system of rules that enables us to communicate our ideas and to express our wants and needs. Reading, writing, gesturing and speaking are all forms of language.
Language falls into two main divisions:
- receptive language: understanding what is said, written or signed;
- expressive language: speaking, writing or signing.
Pragmatic skills
Pragmatic skills begin to develop in the early weeks of life, with tiny babies “turn taking”, and initiating communicative interchanges, and “talking” (non-verbally, of course) to their caregivers.
Language Learning
How is language learned?
Whether they speak early or late, are learning one language or more, are learning to talk along typical lines or are experiencing difficulties, the language acquisition of all children occurs gradually through interaction with people and the environment.
Your role in language learning
Maybe you are a couple raising your baby, or you might be a sole parent or caregiver. Whatever your family structure, you are the most ‘significant other’ your baby interacts with communicatively. The way you engage with him or her will determine the path that language development takes in the vital first five years.
Be natural
Enjoy this exciting period in your child’s development. Talk in a natural way about what he or she is doing, seeing and hearing. Listen to the sounds, and later the words he or she says, and respond, so that your child knows you are listening. Read stories together from an early age, and make communicating fun and interesting.
Pragmatic skills include:
- knowing that you are expected to answer when a question has been asked;
- being able to participate in a conversation by taking it in turns with the other speaker;
- the ability to notice and respond to the non-verbal aspects of language;
- awareness that you have to introduce a topic of conversation in order for the listener to fully understand;
- knowing which words or what sort of sentence-type to use when initiating a conversation or responding to something another person has said;
- the ability to maintain a topic;
- the ability to maintain appropriate eye contact, with not too much staring, and not too much looking away during a conversation;
- the ability to distinguish how to talk and behave towards different communicative partners.
A rough guide to development
- Expect first words between 12 and 18 months.There will probably be a “spurt” of language development before 2 years.
- Anticipate hearing 4 to 5 word sentences by 4 years.
- Grammar should be correct most of the time by 4 years.
- “Other people” will understand almost everything your child says by the time
Progress should be steady
Children learn at different rates. Some are fast language learners and some are slow, so it is best not to compare one child’s language development with another’s. The important thing to watch is that language development proceeds steadily, not whether it is fast or slow.
Language Milestones
Ages and Stages charts for speech and language development and speech intelligibility criteria can be worrying if they are interpreted too rigidly. Remember that children vary quite considerably with regard to the rate at which they reach the various speech and language ‘milestones’. So there is no need to put out an SOS for a speech pathologist if your child does not do the things itemised at precisely the ages stated! When you see language ages and stages and read an age like ’12 months’ say to yourself, ‘twelve months or so’.
The first three years
By 12 months (or so!) most children have one or two words that they say with meaning and can comply with simple requests (e.g., ‘Can I have your cup?’) or commands (e.g., “Don’t touch!”) and understand little questions (e.g., ‘Where’s your tummy?’).
By 2 to 3 years of age your child should be able to follow two-part instructions (‘Get he or she is 4!. Isn’t that amazing?
Late talkers
- For some time developmental specialists have used the general rule-of-thumb that ‘late talkers’ have a spoken vocabulary of fewer than 50 words on their 2nd birthday. Recent studies suggest this estimate is on the conservative side. It is probably better for parents to err on the side of caution and seek the professional opinion of an SLP/SLT if their toddler has fewer than 50 words between 18 and 24 months.
- Late talking may signal speech and language difficulties that fall in the clinical range.
- This does not mean that the 50 words will be pronounced perfectly – two year olds are supposed to talk baby talk!
Child-like speech
This may sound strange, but expect your child’s speech to be child-like.
This is normal…
ALL children sometimes misunderstand what is said to them, utter oddly worded sentences, and put speech sounds and syllables in the wrong spots (or omit them) when they are learning to talk.
…and this is not
STUTTERING
Stuttering is not a normal part of your teddy and put it on the chair’) and string two or three words together to talk about and ask for things.
More detailed information
You might be interested to read the section here about Brown’s Stages. It provides an account of the development of the first ‘sentences’ children say, and the grammatical rules (morphemes) they apply. There is also information on this site about the way SLPs collect and analyse small children’s language samples.
If progress seems too slow
If ‘first words’ have not emerged by 18 months make a concerted effort to spend half an hour a day just playing and interacting one-to-one with your baby. This can be difficult to organise in larger families, but it often does the trick! How to set these times up and maximise their usefulness can be discussed with an SLP/SLT, who may suggest and demonstrate various activities.
When to seek help
Even though they are concerned that their child’s speech and language development may be unusual or slower than normal, people may hesitate to seek the professional advice of a speech-language pathologist. Sometimes this is because they are advised against it by reassuring friends, family and others. But sometimes it is because they think the child is too young
