Language Development

How a Baby Learns to Communicate

By: lee
Published February 24th 2010, in Baby Years, Development, Language Development

The ability to communicate with your child through language opens up a whole new world of relationship enriching opportunities to parents.  Parents battle to understand the needs of a crying baby, but through language they can understand exactly what the problem is.  Developing the ability to use language is a complex and creative process that takes time.

Before a baby can speak, they are able to understand language.  In the process of acquiring language, a baby goes through different phases of vocalization:

  • Undifferentiated crying (from birth to one month): During this phase the baby uses crying as a call for attention.  The cry is undifferentiated, because the listener cannot differentiate between a cry indicating hunger, thirst, fear, discomfort or pain.  This tyope of cry is seen as a reflex.
  • Differentiated crying (from about 2 months): During this phase the parents are able to distinguish between the different types of crying.  The baby uses different pitches and sound patterns to indicate their needs.
  • Cooing and Babbling (from about 2 to 6 months): Cooing refers to the throat sounds babies make when they are happy and content or even excited.  Babbling refers to the repetition of simple vowel and consonant-combinations, for example “da-da-da” or “ma-ma-ma”.
  • Seven to Eight Months: The baby repeats words and sounds that he hears. This repetition is accidental or incorrect, but forms a necessary foundation for communication.
  • Nine to Ten Months: This is the phase where you find repetition of words and sounds.  Here the sounds and words are more correct and purposeful.
  • Single word sentences (from one year onwards): During this phase the baby starts saying understandable words.  He uses these words to communicate with others.  Single words are often meant to communicate complex ideas or requests, for instance the word “bottle” can mean “I am hungry” or even “I finished my bottle of milk”.
  • Use of Sentences: This is the final stage of language development.  Two word sentences is the first  sentences used, for example “Baby hungry” or “Mamma gone”.  Baby starts using more words in sentence construction, but often with grammatical mistakes.  Gradually the child becomes able to use more complex sentences to communicate with those around him.

A child of two years generally have a vocabulary of about 300 words.  At three it increases to 1000 words, at five  2000 words and when going to school he can use 3000 words accurately.  Girls tend to acquire language faster than boys, as well as children of higher social economic groups.  Intelligence also plays a role in language development.

When your Child Stutters

By: admin
Published October 20th 2009, in Emotional problems, Language Development, Stuttering

Many parents become concerned about stuttering when their children are between 2 and 5 years old. Children will often repeat syllables or use speech filters like “um”, “er” or “uh”. The good news is that this is often just a sign of learning and the speech problem will disappear by itself.  Most children outgrow this phenomenon by the time they turn 5 years old. For the small percentage of people who do not outgrow it, stuttering becomes a communication handicap that they will have to learn to manage and overcome.

Stuttering or also known as stammering, is a speech disorder where sounds, syllables or words get repeated or prolonged, which in turn have an impact on the fluency of speech. Children who stutter often experience blocks which are periods of silence whilst he is struggling to make a sound.  During blocks children seem to be trying to force the word out.  This might be with an open mouth or his lips squeezed together.

Examples of prolongations are:

  • Aaaaaaaaaask our teacher.
  • Pu…………….put the pencil back.
  • This is y………….yours.
  • Give it to mmmmmmm-me.

Examples of repetitions are:

  • B-b-b-b-b-b-but not now.
  • Bu-bu-bu-bu-but not now.
  • But-but-but-but not now.
  • But not – but not – but not – but not now.

In mild cases of stuttering the child repeats sounds more than twice, eg. “li-li-li-li-like” with visible tension in the facial muscles.  Their pitch tends to rise with repetition and sometimes they can experience blocks.  Disfluencies in their speech is regular.

In severe cases of stuttering more than 10% of their speech is affected by stuttering.  Great effort and tension is visible in effort to vocally communicate.  These children avoid stuttering by using other words instead of the ones giving them problems, they experience complete blocks, have many repetitions and prolongations.

What parents can do:

  • Do not put pressure on your child to speak correctly at all times, it will only lead to increased levels of anxiety and add to the stuttering.
  • Use meal times as a conversation time with your child where there are no distractions, for instance the TV.
  • Avoid trying to correct your child of finish a word for him, it will only lead to an increase in self consciousness.
  • Do not interrupt your child or ask him to start over.
  • A calm atmosphere in the house will help to address anxiety and stress that can contribute to stuttering.
  • Do not tell your child to think before speaking.
  • Always speak slowly and clearly to your child.
  • Maintain natural eye contact, even when your child is struggling to verbalize a word.
  • Allow your child the opportunity to speak for himself and finish his own sentences.

Aligned Thinking