Factors of Language Development

Common wisdom tells us that children imitate what they see and hear. Parents regularly witness the inopportune repetitions. Quality communicative interactions during the first two to three years of life foster language development and make a difference in how quickly children's cognitive language processing progresses. Second language develops in the same way as a first language. Young children̵7;s uninhibited nature helps them learn quickly, although the self-consciousness of age can interfere with older learners.

  1. Frequency

    • From infancy, babies absorb the language in their immediate environment and begin to develop a mental structure for communication. The frequency and quality of communicative interactions with family and peers gives children a framework for language development, even before they can speak. During this silent period of language acquisition, children still understand spoken language and are able to respond to verbal requests and commands. Parents who regularly talk to their babies and children--playing word games, reading to them, actively involving them in family communications and providing opportunities for interactive play with other kids--raise the odds of their children developing rich vocabulary and language skills through exposure.

    Environment

    • When we have real world experiences, we develop descriptive language to help us process and categorize our acquired knowledge. We may hear the words and know theoretically that things exist outside our personal experience, but we will not develop a deep contextual understanding that speaks to all our senses. Parents can greatly increase their children's language development by going places and participating in activities--at home and in the community or on vacation--that provide fodder for communication about the new things the family is seeing and doing. This also sets the stage for future academic success.

    Emotions

    • Many people lose the desire to communicate when they feel stressed, worried, angry or vulnerable: retreating into a protective silence. Children are the same way. If there is a great deal of stress or insecurity in their environment, young children may unconsciously decide that speaking poses too great a risk and delay their language production. Ridicule and shame make children and adults alike self-conscious and hesitant to use the language tools at their disposal.

    Second Languages

    • There are no shortcuts for learning a second language. Second language learners, if they do not learn their languages simultaneously, must restart the language learning process from the silent stage. The more opportunities the learner has to hear and speak in the new language, the faster he will achieve age-appropriate second language development. A student who is secure in first language development has a distinct advantage in second language learning. If she does not have a real world experience with the topic in her first language, it will be doubly difficult to master the concept and a new language at the same time because the framework for understanding is missing. Additionally, older learners face the challenge of overcoming their self-consciousness about being less communicatively proficient than they have become accustomed to in their first language.

    Developmental Issues

    • Parents worry about children who do not appear to be developing language at the same rate as their age peers. Many physical issues can cause this delayed language development. Poor motor coordination of the lips, tongue and larynx, hearing loss--whether chronic or due to a correctable medical condition, learning difficulties and congenital mental disabilities--all factor into the rate and achievement level of an individual's language development.

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