What is meant by langauge development?

Question

What is meant by langauge development?

Answer 1

In a nutshell,  language development is the process by which words(vocabulary) , meanings, enunciation, pronunciation and comprehension are learned in a "building blocks" method.  

Language development pertains to both written, spoken and sign language.

Answer 2

Check out the website http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/...

A part of the US Depart. of Ed.

There is a lot of good info.  This particular link will take to to the typical language development of children birth to 6 yrs.

Hope it helps!

Answer 3

Basically its the development of the ability to communicate through written, verbal and gestural means.

Children develop the ability to listen and to respong in some way to get a meaning across.

The Foundation Stage curriculum (3-5 yrs) says children develop language to communicate, to link sounds and letters, to read, to write and learn handwriting.

Birth to Three-says skillful communicator give meanings, listen and respond, and connect ideas.

Look at people like Piaget, Vygotsky and Sheridan for more developmental stages and ideas on learning.

Answer 4

I think what you're probably looking for to answer both your questions is the development milestones eg. from birth a baby will respond to the sound of its mother's voice, at three months it will imitate sounds etc etc. You can find these in lots of child development books, Helen Bee's Child Development is a good one and shows you what should be happening in each age range, you could also look at the new Early Years Foundation Stage guidance which gives mile stones for age groups from birth up to 5 years in each area of development. Good luck :-)

Answer 5

Wow I wish you gave a little more background to this question. Language development encompasses so much, not sure exactly what your looking for. Do you want to know what happens neurologically, psychologically, educationally ? I guess in its simplest form it refers to the process that an infant goes through to acquire the language skills necessary for communication. Its so complex ! The child has to aquire a sound system aka phonology of a language. From that information they hypothesis about the correct placement of these new sound units to create meaningful word units aka semantics and to some degree syntax. Through some form of reinforcement the child will figure out which word units are meaningful and which ones are not, thus developing a vocabulary for the initial stages of one word communication at approximately one year of age. This development continues well into the school years so I would be typing for hours telling you EVERYTHING about language development. Narrow your question a bit, exactly what do you want to know ?

Answer 6

It's a pretty vague question, but there is an identifiable progression of language development, which begins with the ability to make eye contact as a baby and the natural attraction to faces which babies have (faces communicate), through to the development of protoconversations, turn taking, right through to babbling, telegraphic speech, holophrases and the production of grammatical sentences.