Tag: communication development

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1.3 Communication: Development in Early Elementary

How Development in the Early Childhood Years Affects Development in the Elementary School

Communication Development: How Development in the Early Childhood Years Affects Development in the Elementary School1

Children will need to use oral language and make themselves understood by others by the time they start elementary school. They will need language in order to communicate their needs and wants with others―both peers and adults. They also need to understand what others want or expect from them. This also refers to non-verbal language, like understanding gestures. These are known as  non-verbal communication cues because communication happens without any words. Developing these skills will help children to be effective communicators, and will give them the tools to learn how to read and write. It’s important to note that language skills are needed for all areas of the elementary curriculum, not just reading and writing.

Children need language skills that are well-developed so that they can learn the subjects taught at school, for example, math, science, language arts, home economics and even physical education. This is because children will need to follow the directions of their teachers in all areas of the curriculum. The need to develop language and communication skills extends beyond the early childhood years. In fact, as children grow older, the communication and language demands that are placed on them will be higher. A solid language and communication foundation in the early years will provide children with the tools they need to understand and be understood by others.

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1.3 Communication: Pragmatics

Pragmatic Language

Communication Development: Pragmatic Language1

Pragmatic language is the social reason we use language, or the “practical’ aspect of language. We use language to communicate our thoughts and ideas to those around us. We also use language to explain and wonder about things, and try to make sense of the world around us.

Some pragmatic milestones include the following:

  • making eye contact with others (unless not culturally appropriate)
  • learning to take turns
  • using a tone of voice that mirrors that of adults (e.g. using different intonation when telling something, when asking a question, when excited , upset or scared)
  • modulating intensity of voice as needed (e.g. inside vs. outside voice)
  • using language to label things (e.g. it’s a dog)
  • using language to protest something (e.g. it’s not fair)
  • using language to express emotions (e.g. I feel happy/sad)
  • using language to express opinions (e.g. well, I don’t like it one bit!)
  • answering questions (e.g., it wasn’t me…)
  • telling others about experiences, briefly at first, then in detail (e.g., I saw that movie; I went to the movies with my older brother and his girlfriend)
  • staying on topic in a conversation (e.g., brings examples or ideas on the same topic)
  • moving to a different topic in a conversation (e.g., understands that topic of conversation has changed)
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1.3 Communication: Articulation

Articulation

Communication Development: Articulation1

Articulation refers to how a child pronounces the different sounds when they speak their language. Children develop the ability to pronounce certain sounds before others, simply because some sounds are more difficult to pronounce than others.

Babies’ first sounds are usually vowel sounds. This is called “cooing.” A baby will say, for example, aaaaa, uuuuuuuuuuu….

After that, comes the production of simple consonant sounds. Most children by the time they are 18 to 24 months old, can produce the following consonant sounds: p (papa), b (baba), d (dada), and the m (mama) and n (nana) sounds. After that, come the k (kaka), g (gaga, gugu), t (tata). The “r”, “l” and “s” sounds are a bit more difficult to pronounce and some children do not master the production of these consonant sounds until they are five or six years old.

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1.3 Communication: Expressive Language

Expressive Language

Communication Development: Expressive Language1

Expressive language is what we use in order to get our message across to someone. This can be done verbally (e.g. by saying something) or non-verbally (e.g. by waving bye-bye to someone). Children develop their expressive language gradually and sequentially. In order to become experts in the expressive language domain, children will have to develop and master the following non-verbal, verbal and written language skills:

Nonverbal expressive language includes:

  • crying
  • smiling
  • laughing
  • frowning
  • waving bye-bye
  • pointing
  • throwing something (like a toy on the floor, in protest)

Verbal expressive language includes:

  • cooing (i.e. saying vowel sounds, over and over again: e.g., aaaaaaaaaaaa, uuuuuuuuuuuuu, eeeeeeeeee…)
  • producing guttural sounds when happy and content
  • babbling (i.e. saying consonant/vowel sound combinations, over and over again: e. g. bababa, dadada, badaga…)
  • imitating sounds and facial expressions
  • saying “mama” and “dada”, when referring to primary caregivers
  • repeating what others are saying
  • saying one word phrases (or “holophrases”): for example, “up” could mean “pick me up, please” or “see birdie up there”
  • labeling objects, animals, or people (e.g., “car,” “ouwee,” “cat,” “baby”, while pointing at these
  • saying please and thank-you
  • asking questions
  • answering questions
  • putting two words together (e.g. Mommy go, Daddy shoe)
  • using negatives (e.g. “no”)
  • using qualitative concepts (e.g. big/small, short/tall…)
  • using quantitative concepts (e.g. a lot, a little, all, none…)
  • using the present progressive (e.g. he is walking)
  • using pronouns (e.g. I, you)
  • using possessives (e.g. my, mine)
  • using prepositions (e.g. in, on, under, over)
  • using the regular and irregular past tense (e.g. walked, gave)
  • using the future tense (e.g. will walk, is going to walk)
  • putting three and four words together (e.g. I want milk, daddy go here)
  • putting more than four words together in a full sentence (i.e., I can read this book)
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1.3 Communication: Receptive Language

Receptive Language

Communication Development: Receptive Language1

Receptive language refers to a child’s ability to understand language. It usually develops earlier than expressive language. That is, children, and some adults, usually understand more language than they can produce. Receptive language can be divided into non-verbal, verbal and written language.

Non-verbal receptive language includes:

  • understanding others’ facial expressions, body language and hand signs

Verbal receptive language includes:

  • understanding what someone is saying
  • understanding qualitative concepts (e.g. big/small, short/tall…)
  • understanding quantitative concepts (e.g. a lot, a little, all, none…)
  • understanding and following simple directions (e.g. give me the book)
  • listening to stories
  • understanding and following complex directions (e.g. go to your room, pick up the book from the floor and bring it back to me)
  • understanding someone’s questions

Written receptive language includes:

  • recognizing letters (lower case)
  • recognizing letters (upper case)
  • recognizing numbers
  • reading and understanding simple sentences
  • reading and understanding complex sentences
  • reading and understanding paragraphs
  • tracing, copying and writing letters
  • tracing, copying and writing numbers
  • copying simple (e.g.,”mom“) and complex words (e.g., “truck“), from an example
  • writing letters together, in sequence to form words (from memory), e.g., m-o-m-m-my
  • writing words next to each other to form sentences, e.g. I-love-my-puppy
  • putting sentences together to form paragraphs, e.g., I love my puppy. One day I will take my puppy to school. I will show my puppy to my friends and to my teacher

 

Receptive language skills are extremely important for the development of expressive and pragmatic language skills. They are also crucial for the development of cognitive and social/emotional skills. In fact, receptive language, expressive language, pragmatic language, cognition and social/emotional skills are all related. Any delay or difficulties in one of these areas is likely to result in delays or difficulties in the other areas.

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1.3 What is Development: Communication

Communication Development: A Brief Overview

Language/ Communication1

Language and communication refer to the ways children get their message across to others and understand what others are saying to them. Communication takes place  either verbally, by using words, or non-verbally, through the use of gestures. Verbal communication includes oral and written language, such as reading and writing. Non-verbal communication includes waving bye-bye and smiling.

Language is one way of communicating with others. It can be oral, written or signed (for example, American Sign Language).

Young children usually learn to communicate with others long before they learn how to talk. When young infants cry, they are trying to tell their caregiver that something is wrong. At this early stage, the only way they know how to express this is through crying. Babies who smile at their caregiver are telling the caregiver that they are glad to see them!

Children will continue to use non-verbal language, long after they have learned how to talk. Adults do the same thing. A two year-old who is speaking in two and three word phrases will still stomp his/her foot on the floor, when protesting something, even though he/she can talk. Children and adults alike use verbal and non-verbal language to communicate with others and get their points across all the time.

Language usually has four components: Expressive language, receptive language, pragmatics and articulation (see full Glossary).

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