The Development of Language Formation
Language is defined in our text book, Psychology Tenth Edition in Modules, as spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning. Language is the staple of our humanity. It makes us what we are as a species. Our ability to communicate has allowed us to advance and rise to the top as a species, and is one of the most essential and important we posses as a species.
With in four months of our birth we begin our journey of learning our own individual language. At four months babies can recognize differences in speech, and and they can also read lips. Around four months infants also begin the babbling stage. Infants naturally are able to move their mouths and form an assortment of random consonant vowel pairs such as da-da or ma-ma. Many times this is mistaken for imitation of a language spoken in the house hold.
The next step in children's speech development comes around their first birthday. They learn that sounds are associated with certain things, and can be conditioned to understand certain sounds go with certain objects. At the beginnings of this stage the words they form are usually are only one or two syllables such as ma or pa. This is why many children's first words are mama or papa.
After the one word stage comes the two word stage. This stage starts to occur around 18 months. During the two word stage short little two word sentences begin to come out such as "want cookie" or "need juice". At this stage the native language really stars to become evident in the way the children speak. For example English speaking children tend to put the adjective before nouns (big dog) apposed to Spanish speaking children putting the noun before the adjective (perro grande).
After the two word stage ends children begin to mutter more complex sentences. This occurs sometime shortly after their second birthday. If the child gets a late start on learning a particular language their language develops in the same way as a child who was born hearing a language at birth. These children who get a late start often learn the language at a much quicker pace. By the time a child enters elementary education they understand complex sentences and begin to understand double meanings. Below is a funny little cartoon demonstrating the idea of humans developing and being able to construct more intelligent and complex sentences.
With in four months of our birth we begin our journey of learning our own individual language. At four months babies can recognize differences in speech, and and they can also read lips. Around four months infants also begin the babbling stage. Infants naturally are able to move their mouths and form an assortment of random consonant vowel pairs such as da-da or ma-ma. Many times this is mistaken for imitation of a language spoken in the house hold.
The next step in children's speech development comes around their first birthday. They learn that sounds are associated with certain things, and can be conditioned to understand certain sounds go with certain objects. At the beginnings of this stage the words they form are usually are only one or two syllables such as ma or pa. This is why many children's first words are mama or papa.
After the one word stage comes the two word stage. This stage starts to occur around 18 months. During the two word stage short little two word sentences begin to come out such as "want cookie" or "need juice". At this stage the native language really stars to become evident in the way the children speak. For example English speaking children tend to put the adjective before nouns (big dog) apposed to Spanish speaking children putting the noun before the adjective (perro grande).
After the two word stage ends children begin to mutter more complex sentences. This occurs sometime shortly after their second birthday. If the child gets a late start on learning a particular language their language develops in the same way as a child who was born hearing a language at birth. These children who get a late start often learn the language at a much quicker pace. By the time a child enters elementary education they understand complex sentences and begin to understand double meanings. Below is a funny little cartoon demonstrating the idea of humans developing and being able to construct more intelligent and complex sentences.
Below I have posted two links. The first is a link to website talking about identifying if your child has a speech problem and ways to help your child learn to speak quicker. BBC offers us a great explanation how children develop, and learn to master language. It provides an explanation from both a physiological and psychological stand point.
Links:
http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler-development/toddler-language.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i1z37nYMrM
Links:
http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler-development/toddler-language.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i1z37nYMrM