Free English Language Dissertations - It Is Through Language That They Communicate With Others And Share Their
It is through language that they communicate with others and share their experiences. It is also through language that they are able to represent and express new ideas as well as complex matters. Children are in difficulty when they are not able to put their feelings into words or express then in any way (Whitting 1992). This has a damaging impact of the development of their self-esteem. Talking about feelings is just as important as talking about idea, and children who cannot express their feelings often have tantrums or show other kinds of challenging behaviour.
Language is also important for a child from the point of view of talking to oneself. Children find it helpful to think through different ideas and they like to talk about their feelings. They also need to talk through their frustrations when things are not going according to plan. They need to organise their thoughts and plan what they are going to do. Just as many adults talk to themselves when they think things over, so too do children. When we look at language development, we can see that a young child thinks from their own point of view. Some psychologists have suggested that thinking is not possible without language, and language and thought are often considered to be particularly closely linked (Lee et al 1995).
Language development is part of symbolic behaviour and is often called the period of symbolic development. Language development is deeply linked with the processes of representation and communication which means it makes is easier to represent (keep hold of experiences) and to communicate (to share these experiences with others). Richard Dawkins, the biologist, refers to language as part of the social evolution of human beings. The desire to communicate starts at birth. Babies learn quickly how to get their needs met by cooing, crying and making eye contact with their primary carers. Language and the ability to communicate can radically affect nearly all areas of a child’s overall development. Language is considered to be the main tool by which a child is able to develop their thought processes. Words are often the tool by which they store information. Being able to use language allows children to express themselves and communicate in a variety of ways and because of this, there is a strong link between children’s social skills and their language skills. The need for language and communication skills in everyday life means that in practice, where children have some communication difficulty, their social development may be affected (Walley 1994).
So how do infants accomplish the feat of learning to speak, which is so important for the rest of their cognitive development? Primarily through verbal interactions with the parents. Infants especially respond to human stimuli. A baby imitates its mother’s voice although, interestingly, babies do not imitate all sounds.
Dissertations - Free English Language Dissertations
