Language is one of the most important elements in the development of infants and young children. The development of language in children, also known as “language acquisition,” refers to the development of the ability to understand and express the native language, i.e., primarily the development of the child’s ability to listen and speak in the spoken language.
(i) Pre-language behavior in infancy
The period from the birth of an infant until the production of the first real word is generally referred to as the prelinguistic stage. During this stage, infants’ speech perception, articulation, and comprehension of language gradually develop, with the emergence of “babbling” and nonverbal mumbling and gestural communication. The latter is called “pre-verbal behavior”.
1.Speech perception of articulation
The first stage: 5-8 months of gestation, the fetus has the initial auditory response and primitive auditory memory ability.
Stage 2: Neonatal period, the infant can spatially locate sounds, identify the nuances of various sounds, and show a fondness for the mother’s voice
Stage 3: 2-4 months of infancy, infants begin to understand some of the interactional information in speech activities and are able to play “imitation” articulation games with adults.
Stage 4: Infancy 5-9 months, learning to recognize several different verbal messages
Stage 5: From 10-12 months of age, the child is able to identify various elements of the native language and recognize the meaning of phonological representations.
2. Pre-verbal development of speech
Pre-verbal development of phonology refers to the fact that phonology is the sound of language and that phonological development is a prerequisite for speech development.
The first stage: infancy 0-4 months, monophonic stage
Stage 2: 5-10 months of infancy, the polyphonic stage Imitation of the ma sound, babbling.
Stage 3: 11-13 months of infancy, the budding stage of learning speech
(B) Development of infant speech
1.Development of comprehension ability
9 months stone infant speech comprehension ability real time. Expressed in the ability to do the corresponding actions as instructed by adults; 11 months, immediately respond to the adult’s words or corresponding scenarios.
2.The occurrence of speech
9-16 months to utter the first word with a specific meaning. It has obvious expressiveness and revelation; at the same time, some occasion-limited words are mastered; around 15 months, the first words begin to be mastered and some word sentences are spoken. 19-20 months enter the stage of two-word sentences
Between the ages of 2 and 6, children’s language development enters a period of basic mastery of spoken language. This period is a critical time for the continuous enrichment of language, the development of complete oral language and the gradual development of coherent language. It is mainly manifested in the development of phonology, vocabulary, grammar, oral expression and pragmatic skills.