Language development in childhood studies

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Language in Early Childhood

In order to create a text suitable for a child, it was important to understand how children develop and learn the language at differing stages. The behavioural view as defined within the work done by Skinner , Verbal Behaviour (1957), developed “the idea that parents actively reinforce certain utterances made by children.”(Wyse & Jones, 2007, p: 25) Taking this idea, it was felt that the book should contain vocabulary which does repeat in order to reinforce the child’s understanding of the word and also to encourage pronunciation.

Having had the opportunity to observe children aged three and four within a nursery setting and also at home, it was identified that role play was an important part of the child’s development with regards to language. Again this is also suggested by Behaviourists. Sound patterns which then develop into speech came from listening skills and then repeating through speech. (Wyse & Jones, 2007, p: 25).

Modernists do describe the development of language as a” push-pull game”. “Children are pushed into language by their inner drive to communicate and share meanings, while simultaneously; relationships with their carers who use specific language pull the child into the shared world of language.” (Whitehead M. (2002, p: 2)) With this in mind the aim of the book was to “pull” the child’s language development with regards to playing and also focusing on shapes.

However, behaviourists also explain that children learn the language and speak the language in the same manner. There explanation is that children merely copy what is being said without the understanding of grammatical structures of the language and is part of their programmed behaviour. (Wyse & Jones, 2007, p: 25).

From experiences observing children within the nursery setting it was noted that children did pick up and relay grammatical rules to the language they knew. An example of this was the use of words ending in “ed”. Children used “goed”. It was therefore intended that the language selection within the book would need to be carefully thought.

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The works of Chomsky, set out that the acquisition of language stems from grammatical rules and the manner in which sentences are formed. This was taken into account when writing the sentences within the text to ensure that children develop the correct grammatical methods. (Whitehead M. (2002, p: 12))

In preparing the book, the different theories had to be considered, however, it was also noticed within observations that the children did require the social interaction in order to develop their speech and listening skills.

Speaking and listening is of great importance within the communication process because if ...

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