Language and

development
PARTS THAT MAKE LANGUAGE

• Phonology: is the study of sounds in language or can be described as how we

produce meaningful sounds. Phoneme is the basic unit of sound.
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• Morphology: the second part of language to develop is morphology. It is the
study of words how they relate. A morpheme is the smallest unit of language.
This entails grammar and using words that form sentences. At an early stage,
children learn smaller, more common words while beginning to form sentences.
As the child grows the level of syntax improve to where the child can combine
more compressors and sentences, including punctuation and adding root words,
prefixes and suffixes.
• Semantics: the branch of linguistics with the nature, the structure and the
development and changes of the meanings of speech forms or with contextual
meaning. It can also be described as the study of word meaning and how we
acquire vocabulary.
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• Syntax: refers to how we learn the rules of language or the order of words and
phrases to form proper sentences. Correctly formed sentences improve with
one’s age and vocabulary. Whereas a child would not know about sentence
structure (subject, noun, verb) format, it is through speaking that they can
realize if something doesn’t sound correct. An older person would be able to do
the same as well but may have a better understanding of the parts of a sentence
and speech, along with the order in which words are used.
• Pragmatics: is the study of how words are used or the study of how we use
language to achieve communicative goals. It deals with intentions behind the
utterances of an individual. E.g. one word can mean different things in different
settings.
• VOCABULARY: a set of words within a language familiar to an individual
which develop with age and are the tool of communication for an individual. It
can also be described as the store of words a person has.
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EARLY LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

• Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the

capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and
communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse
capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary.
Language acquisition forms a critical stage in development of
children. Thus, examinations of various theories that are used to
explain language development among children remain of great
importance not only to teachers but also to parents and caretakers.
These theories can unveil, though not wholly, the mysteries
surrounding language development.
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CONT…….
• What is First Language Acquisition (FLA)Actually, refers to infants’
acquisition of their native language. They acquire language through a
subconscious process and are unaware of grammar rules. Children do
usually not require explicit instruction to learn their first language. They
just pick up the language, the same way they learn how to roll over, crawl
and walk.
• Moreover, children may acquire more than one first language. For example,
children who grow up in a house where parents speak only English
language will acquire only English. However, children who grow up in a
bilingual household (say French and English) will learn both languages
• Second language acquisition (SLA) is learning a second language after the
first language is already learned. Anyone can learn a second language,
but children usually find it easier. In fact, this is a process of learning;
learning occurs actively and consciously through explicit instruction and
education.
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STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• Language development is a process that develops in stages depending

on the age and developmental state of a child. It starts at birth as
even new -born babies are aware of the sounds in the environment.
The following are the stages in their order of language development:
• The prelinguistic stage
• The prelinguistic stage ranges from birth to approximately to 9
months. 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.
Examples of such prespeech sounds would be dadadada,
mamamama and waaaah. Since these noises do not fit within the
definition of language,. It is, therefore, the prelinguistic stage.
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

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 clues.(Is also accompanied by the situation)
• For example, the child may say "go" to mean "I want to leave now," or
"mine" to say "This is my toy and I don't want you to play with it."
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• The two-words 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 which may be either declarative, negative,
imperative or interrogative. 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
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• Multiple-word sentences
• The child reaches this stage between the age of two years. Grammatical
morphemes in the form of prefixes(e.g ant means against.bi means two or twice) or
suffices (e.g ate means become or regulate or ish means high quality or flendish) are used
when changing meanings or tenses. Furthermore, the child can now form
sentences with a subject and a predicate. Using the examples which were
listed in the previous stage, the sentences could now be the following:
• “Doggy is big”
“Where is ball?”
“That is not egg”
“I want more sugar”
“I catched it”
“I falling”
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• More complex grammatical structures

• Children reach this stage roughly between three years of age. They
use more intricate and complex grammatical structures, elements
are added (conjunction), embedded and permuted within sentences
and prepositions are used. Wood gives the following examples in
this regard:
• “Read it, my book” (conjunction)
“Where is Daddy?” (embedding)
“I can’t play” (permutation)
“Take me to the shop” (uses preposition of place)
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• Adult-like language structures
• The five to six-year-old child reaches this developmental level.
Complex structural distinctions can now be made, such as by using
the concepts “ask/tell” and “promise” and changing the word order
in the sentence accordingly. Examples are:
• “Ask her what time it is.”
“He promised to help her.”
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FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
●
Function ●
Description ●
Age

●
Instrumental Function ●
A child uses it to express their ●
Most prevalent before the age of
needs and desires, e.g. a child one year.
crying to show that they are
hungry or uncomfortable
because of a full nappy.

●
Regulatory function ●
A child uses this to control adult ●

behaviour, e.g. crying to make

an adult stop what they are
doing and give them all the
attention.
 FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
●
Personal function ●
This function a child uses to ●

express their views, feelings and

attitudes.
●
Heuristic (tell me why) ●
After the child distinguishes ●

itself from the environment, they

use this function to explore and
understand the environment.

●
Imaginative (let’s Pretend) ●
The child uses this function ●

when they want to escape reality

and wants to go into the universe
(a universe of its own).

●
Informative ●
Informative function (I have ●

something to tell you) this

function children use to inform
or share what they know about
someone.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN

• PARENTS: Before the child goes to school, he/she learns language at home
through interaction with parents. Parents have positive/ negative impact on the
child’s language development. Parents who spend time playing and teaching
their children they develop language very fast. Parents who ignore /neglect to
interact with their children, they may hinder the language development of their
children.

• LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: It is important that developing children be immersed

in a language rich environment. Children who are spoken to and read to are
more likely to want to speak and learn to read. Social environment can be a
hinderance to language development when there is a lack of example on which
children can base their understanding of language and all that it entails.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN
CHILDREN

• TEACHERS: It is important for the teacher to take time listening to the

children e.g. when the child come to school in the morning, he/she
should greet them Good morning g/hello. This encourages children
to talk to the teacher. The teacher’s tone of voice can influence the
child’s language either positively or negatively. A harsh voice can
irritate and embarrass them while soft voice can help or make them
feel so comfortable to talk to the teacher
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 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN

• HEALTH: Illness can affect hearing which, in turn, will cause problems with
understanding spoken language or other auditory cues. Hearing problems
can, in turn, effect speech development. Children who are ill also lack
enthusiasm to speak and communicate non-verbally. This can hinder
development of language and communication. In addition to illness,
physical development can influence language. Vocal cords and speech
related facial muscles must be developed for a child to orally
communicate effectively. Fine motor skills are also necessary to write or
draw letters and symbols.
• SIBLINGS: Some doctors and scientists suggest that children who come
from one-child homes tend to have a stronger grasp on the
understanding and use of language. This is because there is no
competition for the attention of parents or caregivers, and adults tend to
communicate with single children in a more fluent manner, thereby
setting a better example. Others argue, however, that the opposite is
true. More siblings can mean more opportunities for language use, which
can result in quicker and stronger language development.
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 ACTIVITIES THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE
• Riddles. Riddles are fun ways to use words and paint pictures of scenes or
situations. Read or say riddles aloud to each other and explain to your children
the different definitions of a single word e.g. school as in a place of learning or
school as in a group of fish to help them understand the riddle better.
• Rhymes. The repetitive chanting, reading, writing, or hearing of rhymes promotes
good listening skills and memory retention, aside from developing speech. You
can also narrate what you do at home with rhyming words or let your children
tell you about their favourite toys using rhyming words. E.g Humpty Dumpty
sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Could not put Humpty together again
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again
Humpty Dumpt…
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 ACTIVITIES THAT INFLUENCE
LANGUAGE

• Poem: A piece of writing arranged in patterns of line and of sound

which often rhyme, expressing thoughts, emotions and experience in
words and excite your imagination
e.g. Baa, baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir
Three bags full
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ACTIVITIES THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE
• Storytelling: While storybooks provide ample entertainment, sharing
stories – whether real or make-believe – can provide a good bonding
time with your children while helping develop their communication skills.
Exchange stories about daily events. Broaden their imagination with
fantastical stories and let their creativity grow as you make up stories
about anything and everything around them.
Values of story telling
• Promote a feeling of well-being and relaxation.
• Increase children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings.
• Encourage active participation.
• Increase verbal proficiency.
• Encourage use of imagination and creativity.
• Encourage cooperation between students.
ACTIVITIES THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE

Teachers’ role in story telling

• A teacher should select a story with simple events,
• The story should not have many characteristics at least 2-3
• Most of the words should be repeated in the story
• A teacher should vary his/her voice for the story to become real to
various characters in the story
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 ACTIVITIES THAT INFLUENCE
LANGUAGE
• Songs. Aside from harnessing their musical abilities, songs also help children
learn new words. Lyrics have a sense of rhyme and rhythm so it will be easy and
entertaining for them to sing along. In addition, simply putting a tune to an
activity can be a fun game that you can play with your children.
• Tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are an excellent and fun way to teach children
correct pronunciation and enunciation of words. It is a fun way to train their
tongue to pronounce words. Start with simple ones and work your way up.
• Examples: Betty beat a bit of butter to make better batter.
• -a peck of pickled pepper peter piper pickled.
• If peter piper pickled a peck of pickled pepper, where’s the peck of pickled
pepper peter piper pickle
• -A rat-a-tat-a-tat, tat-a-tat, tat- a-tatto.
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 ACTIVITIES THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE
• Puppet show: a small-scale figure (as of a person or animal) usually with a cloth
body and hollow head that fits over and is moved by the hand. A puppet show,
performed for an audience, is a kind of theater — with puppets instead of actors.
Hand puppets' arms are controlled by the puppeteer's fingers, while marionettes
have many more nuances of movement due to the strings attached to various
parts of their bodies. These complex puppets can appear very human-like.
Sometimes puppet means someone who is controlled by others: "He was
president, but he was just a puppet for his political party.“
Values of puppet show
• Stimulates imagination
• The most obvious benefit of puppet-play is encouraging the child’s imagination
and creativity. We have seen children coming up with stories involving their
dolls, from giving them names, to elaborate scenarios with their other toys; be it
a Barbie or a Transformer! With puppets, the play becomes more personalised
and fun, with the ability to manipulate them, move their limbs and head.
• Parents can also read or tell fairy tales and other stories to their children and ask
them to recreate these stories using puppets. This reinforces what they have
retained from the stories they have just heard and parents can take delight in
watching their kids’ versions of the tales.
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• Drama: a drama is the portrayal of fictional or non-fictional events through
the performance of written dialog (either prose or poetry). Dramas can
be performed on stage, on film, or the radio. Dramas are typically
called plays, and their creators are known as “playwrights” or
“dramatists.”
• Values of Drama
• Drama builds confidence
• Even the shyest of children take just a few weeks to gently build up their
self-esteem and before long they are confident to take a full and active
part in sessions. A few weeks is all it takes.
• Drama helps concentration
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• Drama helps concentration
• In every session, children are encouraged to listen to each other's ideas and
thoughts and to take turns. These activities allow children to recognise the
value of concentration; a skill that is vital in the world outside their home.
• Drama helps develop language and communication skills
• Learning new songs, playing new games and participating in pretend play (when
children must take on the language of the role they are playing), all contribute
to a child's developing vocabulary. They are encouraged to express themselves
both verbally and through facial expression and body language; the key to
making them better communicators.
• Drama encourages children to cooperate
• Every activity in Pyjama Drama, from playing drama games to improvisation to
singing together, requires cooperation. Children quickly realise that to get the
best out of sessions, cooperation is a much-needed skill!
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• Drama supports numeracy skills
• In Pyjama Drama children don't ever guess they are learning. Counting the
number of beats in a song, counting the number of stars on a camping trip or
working out how many eggs to put in a cake are just a few examples of how
being involved in a drama can help to develop essential numeracy skills.
• Drama helps children to understand the world around them
• We explore a range of different themes and introduce children to a variety of real
and imaginary situations each week, sparking their interest in the world in
which they live and making them more inquisitive (and therefore more
interesting!) little people.
• Drama develops emotional intelligence
• By encouraging children to 'act out' a range of emotions in the safe and
supportive environment of a Pyjama Drama class, children are better able to
understand their feelings and develop empathy for others.
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