Language Development

in
preschool and late childhood
 The early years of life are critical for speech development.
During this time the foundations for later speech development
are laid. Children gain control over the muscles needed for the
various communication mechanisms.
Many people use the words ‘speech’ and ‘language’
interchangeably. However, they are not synonymous.
Language encompasses every means of communication, in
which thoughts and feeling are symbolized so as to convey
meaning to others. ‘speech’ is a form language in which
articulate sounds or words are used to convey meaning.
Speech is a tool for communication:
Communication means an interchange of thoughts and
feelings. This interchange can be carried out with any form of
language- gestures, emotional expression, speech or written
language but it is most commonly and most effectively done by

speech.
How children learn to speak:
Speech is skill and like all skills it must be learned.

Speech consists of motor and mental aspects.

Motor aspect: It involves the coordination of different

teams of muscles of the vocal mechanism and the ability to
produce certain sounds in combination that are recognizable
as words.
 Mental aspect: the ability to associate meaning with
these words. Not all sounds made by children are
considered as speech. Until they gained enough control
over the neuro- muscular mechanism to produce clear,
distinct and controlled sounds, furthermore, until they
learn to associate meaning with these controlled sounds.
Common methods of learning skills:
•Trial and error learning: Having no guidance and no model to
imitate. This usually results in child tries out different ways to
learn. This usually results in a skill below the child capacities.
•Imitation: learning by imitating or observing a model is faster
than learning by trial and error, but is limited by faults in the
model. A child will not learn to speak well, if a poor speaker is
imitated.
•Training: learning under guidance and supervision. In
training, children are not only given a good model to imitate
but they also receive guidance and help in following the model
Essentials in learning to speak:
There are certain essentials in learning to speak.
•Physical readiness to speak: The ability to speak
depends upon the maturation of the speech mechanism. At
birth, oral canal is small, the palate is flat and the tongue is
too large for oral cavity. Until they take on a more mature
shape, the nerves and muscles of the vocal mechanism cannot
produce the sounds needed for words.
•Mental readiness to speak: It depends on the
maturation of the brain, especially the association areas
of the brain. This readiness usually develops between
the age of 12 and 18 months and is regarded as the
‘teachable moment’ in speech development.
A good model to imitate: If children are to learn to
produce words correctly and later to continue them into
correct sentence, they must have a model of good speech to
imitate. This model may be people around them, speakers on
radio, television, actors in the movies etc. If they lack a good
model, learning to speak will be difficult and the end result
below their potential.
Opportunities for practice: If deprived of
opportunities to practice speaking for whatever reason,
children become angry and frustrated when they
cannot make others understand them. This often
weakens their motivation to learn to speak.
•Motivation: If young children discover that they can get what
they want without asking for it and if substitutes for speech,
such as crying and gestures serve their purpose, there incentive
to learn to speak will be weekend.

•Guidance: The best ways to guide learning to speak are

1) to provide good model
2) to say words slowly and distinctly, so that children can
understand them well
3) to provide help in following the model by correcting any
mistakes children may make in imitating the model.
Conditions contributing to variations in
learning to speak:
•Health: Healthy children have a stronger motivation to
learn to talk. To communicate with the members of the group.
they learn to talk sooner than those who are unhealthy.

•Intelligence: Children with high IQ learn to talk sooner and

show a marked linguistic superiority over those of lower
intellectual levels.
•Socio-economic status: Due to more encouragement
and proper guidance children from higher SES group
learn to talk earlier compared children from other group.

•Sex: Boy lag behind in learning to talk. At every age boy

sentences are shorter and less grammatically correct.
Their pronunciation is less accurate than girls.
Desire to communicate: The stronger the desire to
communicate with others, the stronger will be the child’s
motivation to learn to talk.

•Stimulation: If children are stimulated more, and

encourage more, they will learn to talk early and better the
quality of speech will be.

•Size of family: Only child is a child from a small family

usually speak earlier and better than children from large
familiar because parents can give more time to teaching them
to speak.
•Ordinal position: Speech of first born is superior to
that of later borns in the same family. This is because,
parents can spend more time in teaching and encouraging
them to talk, than they can for later born children.

•Child training methods: Authoritative child training,

which emphasizes that children should be ‘seen but not
heard’ is an obstacle to learning. While permissive and
democratic child training encourages learning.
•Multiple births: Children of multiple birth are generally
delayed in their speech development because they associate
mainly with one another and learn to understand their own
jargons. This weakens their motivation to learn to speak.

•Contact with peers: children having more contacts with

peers are more anxious to be accepted as member of the peer
group, the stronger will be their motivation to learn to speak.

•Personality: Well adjusted children learn to speak better

both qualitatively and quantitatively than those who are
poorly adjusted.
Major tasks in learning to speak:
Learning to speak involves three separate and yet
interrelated processes –
• learning to pronounce words
• building a vocabulary
• forming sentences
these three are interrelated - failure to master one of them
will disturb the whole speech pattern.
Pronunciation: The first task in learning to speak is
learning to pronounce words. Pronunciation is learned by
imitation.
Due to plasticity of the vocal mechanism and the absence
of well developed habits of pronunciation children can
develop many kind of words in new environment. Early
childhood is the proper time to begin learning a new
language.
Correct pronunciation depend partly upon the rate of
development of the vocal mechanism but mostly upon the
guidance young children receive in combining sounds
into meaningful words.
Variations in accent results from imitating models whose
pronunciation differs from that in general use, as in case
of bilingual families.
Vocabulary building: In vocabulary building children must
learn to associate meanings with sounds. Since many words have
more than one meaning and some words that sound alike- bear,
sun, and sea have different meaning. Vocabulary building is far
more difficult than pronunciation.
Children learn two kinds of vocabularies

a) General vocabulary: consists of words which can be used

in a variety of deferent situation (such as, man, nice and go).

b) Special vocabulary: consists of words with specific

meaning that can be used only in certain situation.
Since words in the general vocabulary are the ones that are used
most, they are learned first. At every age, the general vocabulary
is larger than the special vocabularies.
Increase in vocabulary comes not only from leaning new
words, but also from learning new meaning for old words. for
eg. Children may first use word orange to refer to the fruit.
Later they discover that the word ‘orange’ also refers to a colour
and still later, that is a complex colour, made up of a
combination of red and yellow.
A child at the end of 6 years knows about 20,000-24,000 words.
Individual differences in vocabulary size at every age are due
to differences in intelligence, environmental influences,
learning opportunities and motivation to learn.
Girls on the average, have larger vocabularies at every age
than do boys.

Sentence formation: The third task to learning to

speak, combination of words into sentences that are
grammatically corrected can be understood by others.
Children use single word sentence from approximately 12 to
18 months of age.
Two years old combine words in to short incomplete
sentence containing one or two nouns, a verb and
occasionally an adjective and adverb are used. They simply
omit preposition, pronouns and conjunctions.
Hold doll, Go bed, Go bye, etc.
By the time children are 4 years, their sentences are
complete and a year later, all parts of speech are used in
their sentences.
Content of speech: The content of speech has been
classified in to two major categories. Egocentric and socialized
speech.
•Egocentric speech: Children talk either for their own
enjoyment or about themselves, their interest their family and
their possessions. Egocentric speech is pseudo conversation or
monologue.There is no real conversation present.
•Socialized speech: Towards the end of early
childhood socialized speech begins, children talk about
others as well as about themselves.
As they grow older and as their desire to be
accepted member of the peer group strengthens they
tend to shift to more socialized speech.
When older children, shift from egocentric to socialized speech
they tend to present their thoughts and feelings in more
dramatic, attention getting methods. As a result, their speech
turns to be unsocial than social.

Some of the common unsocial forms of speech are.

Exaggeration: Exaggerate the things, to seek attention and
approval of others.

Boasting: is a form of exaggeration makes the statements

more colourful- more between 8-12 years.
Name calling: is a form of boasting- is most common
among older children. To gets attention, or to impress
others- they use some derogatory names like idiot, loose,
fatty etc.

Criticism: critical comment about others- mainly on

behavior, appearance and personality- the children who
feel inferior or to call attention to themselves, they
criticize others.
Speech improvement in late childhood:
As children’s social horizons broaden, they discover that speech
is an essential tool for gaining acceptance in a group. They also
discover that simpler forms of communication such as crying
and gesturing are socially unacceptable. This gives them an
added incentive to improve their speech.
In late childhood speech improvement mainly comes from 4
sources.
1. Motivate the children to speak better by correcting faulty
pronunciation and grammatical errors and by encouraging
them to participate in general family conversations.
2. Radio and TV provides good models for speech, they also
encourage attentive listening and ability to comprehend what
others are saying.
3. Motivate them to read and to add to their vocabularies and
become familiar with correct sentence formation.
4. Mispronounced words and wrong meaning associated with
words are quickly corrected by teachers / adults.
Areas of Improvement:

• Vocabulary building

• Pronunciation

• Improvement in comprehension

• Content of Speech

• Amount of Talking
•
Vocabulary building: Though out the late childhood
children’s general vocabularies grow from
• their studies,
• their reading,
• their conversations with others
• their exposure to Radio and TV.
They build up vocabularies which they use in their speech
and writing.
This to known as “general vocabulary” because it is
composed of words in general use.
It has been estimated that average first graders know
between 20,000 and 24,000 words or 5-6% of the words in a
standard dictionary. By the time they are in the sixth grade,
most children know approximately 50,000 words.
Girls build up larger vocabulary than boys.
In addition to this, children build up ‘special
vocabularies’- vocabularies made up of words special
meanings and limited uses.
The most common special vocabularies learned by older
children are:

1. Etiquette vocabulary: Children who have had training

at home in using such words as ‘please’ ‘Thank you’ and
‘sorry’ as have large etiquette vocabularies as those of the
adults in their environments.
2. Colour vocabularies: Children learn the names of all the
common colours and many of the less common ones shortly
after they enter school and began to have formal training in
art.

3. Number vocabularies: From their study of arithmetic at

school, children learn the names and meaning of numbers,
odd, even, prime, whole, rational / irrational.

4. Money vocabularies: learn the names of different coins

and they understand the value of various denomination of
bills.
5. Time vocabulary: Time vocabularies of older children are
as large as those of adults to whom they come in contact. hr,
min, sec, AM and PM

6. Slang word and swear word vocabularies: Children

learn slang words and swear words from older children or
neighbor using such words make them feel ‘grown up’.

7. Secret vocabulary: Used to communicate with their

intimate friends. These can be written, consisting of codes,
formed by symbols or the substitution of one letter for another.
Most children start to use one of these forms at the time when
they enter 3rd grade and their use reaches a peak at puberty.
Pronunciation: Errors in pronunciation are less common
at this age than earlier. A new word may be incorrectly
pronounced the first time it is used, but after hearing the
correct pronunciation once or twice, children are generally
able to pronounce it correctly.

But children of lower socio-economic status and bilingual

homes had many mispronounced words.
Improvement in comprehension:
With increased interest in groups, increases the
interest in desire to communicate with group members.
Children soon learn that, meaningful communication
cannot be achieved unless they understand the meaning
of what others are saying to them. This provides
necessary incentive to improve their comprehension. It is
also aided by training in concentration in school. Soon
they discover that they must pay attention to what is
going on in the class in order to get well with their
lessons.
Concentration also improved by listening to the radio
and watching television and this, inturn improves
comprehension.
Improved comprehension comes from the shift that
normally taken place from egocentric to socialized,
when their speech becomes more socialized, there is a
greater incentive to play attention to what others say
and as a result comprehension is greatly increased.
Content of speech:
• Children when they are with the peers, they may talk
about anything – their favorite topic of conversation,
their own experiences, their homes, games, sports,
movies, TV programs and about their gang activities
• When they are with adults, it is the adults who
usually determines the topic of conversation.
• When older children talk about themselves, it is
usually in the form of boasting- about their superior
skills and achievements.
Boasting as a rule, is very common between the ages
of 9 and 12, especially among boys.
Older children also like to criticize and make fun of
other people,
• for adults, they may criticize openly or sometimes at
their backs.
• for other children, their criticism includes name
calling, teasing or making derogatory comments.
How much improvement is there in the content of
older children is depends upon their intelligence
and their level of socialization, children who are
popular have a strong incentive to improve the
content and quality of their speech.
Amount of talking:
Talk of the older child becomes more controlled and

selected of speech. No longer do children talk just for the sake

of talking as they do in pre school. Instead they use speech as a
form of communication,
when children enters to school, they often continue the
meaningful chattering, but soon they discover that this is no
longer permitte d. They may speak only when the teacher gives
them permission to talk.
When they are with peers, they discover that, endless
talking annoys their peers and that is the quick way to
lose social acceptance.
Some children talk less, because they have been
ridiculed by peers their ‘funny pronunciation’ if they
are bilinguals or unsocial content of their speech.
Throughout late childhood, girls talk more than boys. Boy
discover that too much of talking is regarded as sex
appropriate.
Children from upper SES class talks more than those from the
lower class. Because, they afraid of being ridiculed because of
poor quality of their speech.
Some children talk less, to draw attention this may be the
withdrawal syndrome that is characteristic of the puberty
period.
Children who grow up in homes where discipline tend to be
very strict they talk less.
Hazards in speech Development: Speech hazards in
early childhood.
There are many hazards in the speech development. Unless
hazards are recognized, speech will fall below the child’s capacity.

1. Excessive Crying: means crying more than normal for a

child’s age and level of development. Normal cry in babies-
needed for muscles growth and coordination it stimulates their
appetite and encourages sound sleep- it is a outlet for emotional
tension. In contrast, Excessive crying- damages the babies both
physically and psychologically.
Physically- depletion of energy and upsets the body balance.
Psychologically: It interferes with normal eating and sleeping,
become hysterical, cannot stop cry even the cause for crying to
solved.
2. Difficulties in comprehension: Children who cannot
understand what others are trying to communicate to them
will be handicapped socially. They often feel socially isolated,
which leads to the feeling of inadequacy, inferiority, their
academic achievements face below their intellectual capacities.
3. Delayed speech: when the level of speech development falls
below the level of children of the same age in quality, as shown by
no of words used and accurate use.
Delayed speech not only affect children’s personal and social
adjustments but also it affects their academic adjustments -
ability to read, ability to spell.

4. Defective speech: defective speech is inaccurate speech. It differs

from delayed speech. Most speech defects can be categories in to three.

i. Defects in word meaning: defects in association of the

wrong meaning with a word. Number of meanings are associated with a
word that sounds alike. If child makes any wrong association- it is said
to be defective.
 ii. Defects in pronunciation: is due to
• faulty learning
• due to malformation of parts of the speech
mechanism -such as teeth, palate, lips or jaw,
• or it may also caused due to impaired hearing.

iii. Defect in sentence structure: is grammatical errors,

young children face major problem in sentence structure and
use of pronounce and verb tenses.
5. Speech Disorders: It refers to disorders in
pronunciation. It differs from a defect in pronunciation,
because
1) it is not caused by faulty learning but by some defects
in vocal mechanism or by persistent emotional tension.
2) it cannot be corrected by learning correct
pronunciation rather the cause of the trouble that has
led to the disorder must be removed.
Some common speech disorders that developed during
preschool years are,
1. Lisping: lisping consists of letter - sound substitution the
most common substitution are ‘th’ for ‘S’ or 'Z’ sounds and ‘W’
for ‘R’ as in ‘wed wose’. Lisping is usually caused by deformation
of Jaw, teeth or lips.

2. Slurring: is indistinct speech due to inactivity of the lips,

tongue or Jaw, or sometimes caused by paralysis of the vocal
organs. When child is emotionally upset or excited, he may rush
through words without pronouncing each one distinctly- common
during preschool years.
 3. Stuttering: It is hesitant, repetitive speech accompanied
by spasms of the muscles of the throat and diaphragm. It
usually accompanied by stammering- a deadlocking of speech
in which child is unable to produce any sound.
4. Cluttering: It is rapid and confused speech. It usually
occurs in children whose motor control and speech
development are delayed. It is an exaggeration of the errors
of speech.
6. Bilingualism: bilingualism is the ability to use two
languages. For some children bilingualism is a serious
obstacle to learning to speak correctly. This is hazardous
to child’s personal and social adjustments. Because, it
makes communication with others more difficult.

7. Socially unacceptable speech: A child’s whose

speech is socially unaccepted makes a poor impression
and often acquires an unfavorable reputation. It affects
personal and social adjustments –egocentrism, boasting,
tattling, criticisms etc.
There are four common speech hazards in late
childhood.
1. Low vocabulary: A smaller than average vocabulary
handicaps children in their school work as well as in their
communication with others.
2. Speech errors: Mispronunciation and grammatical
mistakes and speech disorders such as, stuttering or
lisping may make children so self conscious that they will
speak only when necessary.
3. Bilingualism: children have difficulty in speaking with
language used in school may be handicapped in their efforts
to communicate and may be made to feel that they are
different.
4. Socially unacceptable speech: makes poor impression,
egocentric speech, critical and derogatory comments and
boasting, antagonize their peers.
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