Children’s Language Development- 0-2 years

Children respond to language from birth. They become aware of sounds in their everyday environment and tend to cry when they hear an unfamiliar sound.

 

0-3 months babies can recognise known voices, which will comfort them. At this age they will turn their heads when they hear voices to face the person communicating.

 

4-6 months babies can respond to certain words they become familiar with. For example, when a baby hears the word 'no' they will recognise and respond to it. Babies at this age will also recognise changes in the tone of a person's voice; therefore understand a person's mood.  Babies can recognise other sounds at this stage, other than speech. They can enjoy music and rhythm and other interesting sounds such as the toaster.

 

7-12 months is when a babies language becomes exiting. Babies at this age can look at you when you call their name; therefore recognise their name. Games such as 'round and round the garden' and 'pat-a-cake' become discovered and enjoyed by babies at this age. Babies can now recognise familiar objects such as: 'phone' 'keys' 'Mummy' etc. They can also respond to requests such as: 'Give it to Daddy' for example.

 

1-2 years is when a toddler can follow simple commands such as: 'push the button.' The toddler enjoys listening to songs and rhymes and usually like them repeated many times. At 18 months toddlers are known on average to have a vocabulary of around 5-20 words. They use a lot of jargon with emotional content.

 

2 years a toddler will understand contrasting concepts such as: 'hot/cold'. The toddler will notice sounds such as the telephone or doorbell ringing and become exited and attempt to answer. At this age words will gradually become short phrases. The toddler will manage to use two pronouns and the vocabulary level has risen to around 150-300 words.

 

In the first few years of a child's life, they need to learn and acquire a set of new skills, which are learned through interaction with other people. Main skills include: taking turns, waiting, anticipation, listening, paying attention and interacting with others.

 

Lack of communication between parent and child will lead to problems in speech development. This may have an effect on the child for life. Parents communicating with their child allow a social and emotional relationship to develop, which will minimise potential problems in the future.

 

It is said that children do not develop language through imitation. Children work through linguistic rules on their own, which is proven when children say phrases such as: 'I see your feets.' Children eventually learn themselves the rules of English syntax; parent's constant correction is said to be unproductive. Learning to talk requires time for development and practice in everyday situations.

 

References:

The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language- David Crystal P. 230 +

http://speech-language-therapy.com/devel2.htm

 

By Mia Hopkinson