Speech and language development disorders can lead to major social problems. Social problems can affect other aspects of a child’s development. If language and speech development is not going well, people can experience problems even in adulthood. In order to prevent these kinds of problems, child day centers and schools in the Netherlands pay a lot of attention to the language development of (young) children.
From passive to active language
Language development is gradual but smooth and always according to a fixed sequence in healthy development. During the first six years of his life, a child learns the basics of language to build on in his later life. A child learns language in interaction with his or her environment. Passive language development starts when the baby is in the mother’s womb. At the end of the pregnancy, the child starts to recognize sounds and voices, even if this is still unconscious. From the moment the child starts babbling, the first step to active language development has been taken.
Stimulating language development
As with other development areas, you can also support the child in the field of language development. This is often done in child day centers with the help of VVE programs, but even when you do not use these programs, there are plenty of games and possibilities to come up with to support and stimulate the child in his language development. It is always important that the activity matches the level of the child.
Language development proceeds according to the following stages:
- pre-language phase
- early stage
- differentiation phase
- stage of completion
In this text we are only talking about the pre-linguistic and early-language phase. The two phases in which a baby starts to acquire language up to the first words of the toddler.
Pre-language phase
When a baby is just born, the baby only communicates by crying, after a few months the baby will also make other sounds. Unconscious cries, we also call this crows. The first voices of children arise by chance. They move the tongue, lips, palate and vocal cords and accidentally make a sound. Until they realize that they are causing this themselves.
When a baby is about three months old, it consciously imitates others and starts babbling. The baby is not really trying to make anything clear yet, but discovers that his cries get a reaction from others. Once he has discovered this, he would of course like to try it again and again. He waits for a response from the other, so it is as if you are already having a real conversation with the baby. In these first conversations you also lay the foundation for a relationship of trust, the child learns to trust that you respond to him.
First, a baby learns to recognize sounds, he tries to imitate these sounds. These are usually the vowels. After about six months it is also possible to imitate the consonants. After about eight months, the baby understands that certain sounds belong together and together form a word. Understanding words, but not being able to say it yet, is called passive language knowledge. A well-known example of this is when you call a baby its name. The baby recognizes the name and responds, but is not able to pronounce its name yet. Another example is a search game where is the ball? Where’s Pip? The baby will look at the ball or the stuffed toy Pip.
When the baby is about eight months old, he can usually already pronounce a number of two syllable fantasy words. Active language knowledge starts here. He understands a little bit more what you mean. The first word of purpose is often a word that the child has heard many times and associates with something pleasant.
Around the first year of life, the baby enters the second phase of language development.
Games, activities and tips for language stimulation in the pre-language phase
- To talk with the baby, not alone against the baby talking.
- Ask the baby questions and wait for it to respond with crowing or babbling. The baby learns to recognize the question through the intonation, among other things.
- Read aloud, don’t assume the baby will understand, but he will learn to recognize sounds.
- Using different tones, most babies prefer high tones, the baby indicates this by his response to your voice.
- Listen.
- Imitating the baby (imitating the baby).
- Always use the same song / verse for certain rituals. For example, a poem while changing. Or a song before going to sleep.
- Making connections between words and movements, for example during songs.
- Always associating the same words with objects.
- Respond to body language with words.
- Giving the child time to respond, young children respond later. They only realize later that something was directed at them.
- Name the things around you, including during care times such as changing and putting to bed.
- Look at the baby’s gestures and body language.
- Use lap, clap, and movement verses.
- A fun game with a baby from 3 to 7 months is the baby makes sounds and you imitate his sounds. Instead of the other way around. Watch what happens.
- Reading a book with the baby, crisp books, bath books, sound books, feel books.
- A fun game for a baby of 8 months or older is the imitation of animal sounds.
- From five months you can always repeat nursery rhymes to practice sounds. It is also nice to rhyme with the babble of the baby.
- A game where you take turns reacting such as: peek-a-boo.
- Sing songs.
Early language phase
When the baby turns a year and we almost speak of a toddler, the child enters the early-language phase. Body language still played the biggest role in the baby, now this role is somewhat smaller because the child is actively communicating in spoken language.
The baby discovers that the things around him can be described with words and that words have a certain meaning. We call this the semantic aspect of communication. This means that the child now also gives meaning to words. Previously, he sometimes called something without meaning. The child acquires active language knowledge. He can now also use the words he knows himself. In the first instance, it will concern objects and actions known to him. Such as: food, mommy, grandma, playing, drinking, daddy and sleeping. In this way he can call his parents or others and indicate if something is wrong.
In this phase we also see so-called symbol thinking. Anything with four legs is a cow or a dog. Or, anything with four legs is called boo. We are now talking about a child of about thirteen months. Small children already understand many more words than they can say themselves. Over time, the child will learn to pronounce the words better and better and will learn to say more and more words. An 18-month-old child knows an average of 30 to 50 words and that number will increase considerably in the months that follow. A child between 18 and 23 months learns an average of 6 new words per day. The child can combine a few words into a short sentence.
Games, activities and tips for language stimulation in the early language phase
- To talk with the toddler, not alone against the toddler talking.
- Ask the toddler questions and wait for him to respond with babbling or a word.
- Read aloud and have things pointed out in the booklet. “Where’s the bear’s ball?”.
- Using different tones, most toddlers prefer high tones, the toddler indicates this himself by his reaction to your voice.
- Listening to the toddler.
- Imitating the toddler (imitating the toddler).
- Always associating the same words with objects.
- Respond to body language with words.
- State what the child does and what you do.
- Giving the child time to respond, young children respond later. They only realize later that something was directed at them.
- Name the things around you, including during care times such as changing and putting to bed.
- Look at the child’s gestures and body language.
- Do not speak in childish language. Note: at a child level! Use good words and phrases, don’t use diminutives, but feel free to use intonation.
- Sing songs with accompanying movements and gestures. Do little dances.
- Guess pictures, the child has to say what is in the picture.
- Interactive reading. Have the child participate in the story.
For example, if the child says a word wrong ola instead of grandma, don’t go along with that at length, the child will not learn what is right. You don’t have to say it’s wrong either. What you can do is repeat the word, but in the right way.
Example:
Bart comes home from kindergarten and says to his mother: “mama Bart noep.”
Mother repeats, “do you want a candy Bart?”
“Yes, Bart noep.” the child answers.
“I’ll get you a candy.”