Child development: theories, stages, and milestones

Language Development

Please make sure you have completed this unit's readings before coming to Seminar, especially the article, "The Language Use Inventory for Young Children: A Parent-Report Measure of Pragmatic Language Development for 18-47-month-old children" by O'Neil. Be prepared to answer the following questions:

Notes from O'Neil Article (O'Neil, 2007):

Researchers studying young children's pragmatic development have focused on a wide range of topics and ages. Longitudinal studies that have concentrated on children's earliest gestural and verbal communicative intents have demonstrated that children begin as early as 9 to 10 months of age to use their gestures and vocalizations for such pragmatic functions as requesting, labeling, answering, greeting, and protesting

No standardized test (observational or stand-alone parent report) is currently available that is specifically designed to assess toddlers' and preschool children's (i.e., under age 4 years) pragmatic language competence.

How does screening link to follow up assessments?

The LUImay also provide a measure to equate children for overall pragmatic language development when investigating environmental or cognitive correlates of language use such as theory of mind reasoning or social competence (O'Neil, 2007). However, a child's language ability can develop variably and quickly during this development period. Therefore, follow up assessments to monitor progress are an essential part of the equation. Even if a child shows some language difficulties during development, they can later progress rapidly as each child develops on different time frames.

Explain the steps that you would take to prepare and hold a meeting with a parent to discuss the results of a recent assessment.

With respect to assessing language competence in younger children, and especially pragmatic competence, structured tests have been criticized as providing only a limited picture of the richness and complexity of the child's communicative behavior and revealing little about the child's language as it occurs and is used in everyday communication (O'Neil, 2007). Therefore, it is important to put any results communicated with parents in context and not to give them a false idea that there is some problem when there may not be.

Why would you not want to use subjective statements in the documents you share with your parents? Please give examples of objective statements that can describe a child's language use.

Sharing subject statements can mislead parents into thinking there is a problem with their child when there may not be any cause for major concern. Using objective statements as opposed to subjective ones can facilitate more accurate communication between parties. A few examples that can be objective from the LUI could be:

A: How your child uses gestures to ask for something the child's imperative use of gestures. e.g., lifts arms to be carried; points to something wanted

B: How your child uses gestures to get you to notice something the child's declarative use of gestures. e.g., points to something of interest; shows you something of interest

Using such objective measures can add more clarity to a situation that a subjective judgment of a child's language development.

UNIT 8 SEMINAR

In this Seminar, you will discuss communicative disorders and the specific characteristics found in autism, cleft palate, hearing loss, stuttering, and tongue tie. Please be prepared to use the chart on page 376 of your text for links to the field trips that you will take together as a class. You will discuss your role as an early childhood professional in meeting the needs of children with communicative disorders.

Autism and Communicative disorders

Cleft lip and Cleft Palate and Communicative disorders

Hearing Loss and Communicative disorders

Stuttering and Communicative disorders

Tongue tie and Communicative disorders

Also, be prepared to discuss the following:

Describe the behavior of a child with a hearing impairment.

A child with a hearing impairment may watch other children and mimic what they are doing rather than follow instructions. They might not reply when spoken to or have difficulty understanding what people are saying. Other clues such as turning up a TV really loud can help identify hearing loss.

What did you learn from your field trip about the techniques that are most appropriate to work with a child that has a communicative disorder relating to autism? Cleft palate? Hearing loss? Stuttering? Tongue tie?

It is important to provide structure and safety for a child with autism which includes items like rewarding good behaviors and sticking to a schedule. It is also more challenging but important to look for nonverbal cues as these might indicate a child's needs not being meant. Often a tantrum will have some cause that may be identified.

There is specific speech therapy techniques that can be used with children who have been born with a cleft palate that can help the child learn how to communicate better with a caregiver. Hearing loss can be treated with the use of mechanical devices, medical procedures, or ASL can be used to communicate with these children depending on their specific situation. Both stuttering and being tongue tied have many associated factors. Speech therapy can help reduce or even alleviate the symptoms that are associated with these conditions. It can be important for caregivers to use alternate communication techniques with these children such as eye contact and phrasing.

How will the information you have learned about communicative disorders prepare you for a career as an early childhood professional?

Being able to recognize various disorders in their early stages can be an invaluable tool for both the child and their parents. Thus being exposed to these various conditions has helped me to be able to identify them earlier and with greater accuracy which in turn will add a level of professionalism to a career in childhood development.

UNIT 9 SEMINAR

Seminar

Career Opportunities and the Early Childhood Professional

In this Seminar, you will focus on your career opportunities and your role in developing language and literacy skills in young children from birth to age eight. Please come to Seminar prepared to discuss the following: