My slideshare presentation for my human development class.

1. By: Candace Tieland
SLideShare Presentation
Language Development
in Early Years

2. Early Development
A child's communication development begins long
before the first word. In the first few months after birth
babies learn to understand what you are saying and
begin to make sounds of their own.

3. Early Milestones
Each of the following milestones contribute to the language skills healthy children achieve.
1. Cooing - Vowel sounds appear at about one month.
2. Babbling - Vowel and consonant sounds develop at about six months.
3. Sound-gesture combination - Emerge at about 10 months.
4. Expressive language - Ability to produce and slowly learn words. At about 12 months babies begin
to say first words.
5. Word-gesture combination - Learned between between 12-18 months
6. Telegraphic speech - Uses two word sentences; expressive vocabulary of about 100-200 words.
Learned between 18-20 months. Child will hit a threshold vocabulary.

4. A child’s early language development is a reflection of the
language they have heard.
The quality or style of the child’s language is partially a
response to the mother’s speech quality or style.
The first 3 years of life is most critical time for growth. The
ability to communicate with others is the foundation of a
child’s social, emotional, and educational development.

5. Theories
Behaviourist Theory:
B.F Skinner
Believe infants learn language through parental reinforcement of word-like
sounds and correct grammar
Example: While babbling, babies will accidentally make sounds that
resemble a real word. Parents will respond with praise and encouragement,
leading to the baby to slowly resemble more words.

6. Theories con’t
Nativist Theory:
Noam Chomsky
Believe that a language acquisition device guides children’s comprehension
and production of language
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)- an innate language processor that
contains the basic grammatical structure of all human language.
The LAD tells infants what two types of sounds, vowels and consonants, to
look for so they can properly divide the speech they hear into two categories
leading them to analyze and learn the sounds.

7. Theories con’t
Interactionist Theory:
Lev Vygotsky
Believe infants are biologically prepared and that language development is
a subprocess of cognitive development, and that social interactions are
critical to language development.
Believe the child’s intent is to communicate and share ideas in his head
doing his best with gestures and words they know. Striving to learn new
words to help him communicate his thoughts and feelings.

8. Signs of Delayed Speech
or Language Development
Although every child develops at different rates, here are a few signs of
delayed development:
* No change in your child’s speech and language skills for two to three
months.
* Inconsistent or missing reaction to speech and other sounds.
* Marked frustration in trying to communicate.
* Your child doesn’t imitate language he hears in his environment everyday.

9. Speech and language delay can be caused by:
▪ Hearing loss;
▪ Intellectual disability;
▪ Neurological problems- Ex: autism;
▪ Prematurity; and
▪ Bilingualism

10. My Goal
My goal is to become a Speech and Language
Pathologist. A lot of people ask me, "What is that?
and what do they do?". Well their practice is quite
broad and learning about language development ties
in extremely well.

11. Speech and Language
Pathologist
Speech and Language Pathologist practice in these areas:
Speech delays and disorders- Ex: articulation and motor speech disorders;
Language delays and disorders- Ex: expression and comprehension;
Fluency disorders - Ex: stuttering;
Voice and Resonance disorders;
Swallowing and feeding disorders;
Cognitive-communication disorders - Ex: Social-communication disorders, problem solving, and
reasoning;
Pre-literacy and literacy skills- Ex: Reading comprehension and writing;
Disorders related to other issues, ex: hearing impairment, traumatic brain injury, dementia,
developmental, genetic, and intellectual.

12. How it pertains to me
When I was a child I had fluid build up in my ears
throwing off my balance and leading me to rarely
speak, because I couldn’t hear how to properly
pronounce specific sounds (s,t,r). After I had surgery
to remove the fluid I started seeing a Language and
Speech Pathologist to improve my speaking abilities
and to catch up to the abilities of the other children my
age. Because of this experience I am interested to
work within this field and help others improve and
develop communication skills.

13. References
Lifespan Development 5th Canadian Edition
http://www.everydayfamily.com/identifying-delayed-
speech-and-language-development/http://
www.everydayfamily.com/language-development-
milestones-from-0-3-years/
http://sac-oac.ca/public/children