Children are
not born with one or another particular language. They acquire it with the help
of other people in their environment. Every child is most likely to go through
5 different stages of the first language (L1) acquisition from basic biological
noises, cooling and laughing, babbling to melodic utterance. L1 language
acquisition process of an ordinary child develops within these 5 stages (Yule,
2010). However, about 15%-25% of children might be “late-talking” due to some disorders or other reasons depending on the environment and
his/her personal character.
Most children are like monkeys repeat everything they hear. But what if
they do not respond? One of the reasons of children’s indifference to the
sounds and voices around him/her can be new technologies like entertaining
gadgets. Unfortunately, many parents today have no time or desire to
communicate with their children. It is easier for them to give a child a gadget
and get back to their own things. No wonder that then the child does not seem
to enjoy shaking a rattle and ringing bells as he/she finds it more interesting
to watch video or play a game on a tablet. If parents continue to ignore the
“late-talking child” it might bring to sad consequences. As an example, I can share experience with my
nephew who was introduced his mother’s iphone when he was 7-8 months. He is now
two and a half years old. He makes different kind of noises, sometimes he
produces words which he learned by himself through the gadget but he does not
say “mum” or “dad” and does not react to his name. He does not point to (when
asked) or say simple objects around him. However, when he needs something, he
takes you by your hand and shows what he wants. Through my nephew I learned
that communication of children with their parents is indispensible. Simple
communication and saying out each actions and words of child’s environment by
his/her parents builds a vocabulary of the child. Even a “late talking child”
can produce 50 words by the age of my nephew if parents pay attention to it
earlier.
So for creating an effective environment to make a child speak there is
no need on special methods: parents simply should not be lazy and talk to their
children about anything. All the actions and objects should be commented. What
is more important, I think gadgets for children should be restricted till at least 4
years old.
Reference
Yule, G. (2010). The study of
language. USA. Cambridge University Press. New York.
You raised a very important issue of children’s overexposure to technology. Unfortunately, today kids spend more time in front of TV or a gadget rather than playing outside. Long time spent with a gadget consequently leads to a number of psychological difficulties, attention deficit, physical delay, language delay, sleep deprivation, and even aggression. I agree that modern gadgets are not necessary in child development. In contrast, they need one-on-one communication with parents. Parents are also the first people responsible for the development of children’s literacy.
ReplyDeleteLike your post Dina! I have also faced the problem of “late-talking” of a child. My nephew, as well as your, at the age of two cannot produce any word except "da". In my case the problem is child's confusion on which language he should talk. His parents and all relatives try to speak with him in Kazakh. However, with each other they speak Russian. The child hears them and doesn't really understand different words and sounds. So I believe, that a child, at the period of first language acquisition, should be raised and spoken to only in one language.
ReplyDeleteDina, it is so vivid example of overusing technology by children. Nowadays, parents are not involved in bringing up their children. It is easier for parents to give the children smartphone that can entertain kids rather than read books or look through pictures with children. Unfortunately, it happens very often.
ReplyDeleteDina, while I was reading this post, it was like you were describing my nephew's situation. Due to my studies, only this year I got to know my relatives here in Astana. One of my nephews will be 3 soon.He talks, but in his foreign language! He doesn't say anything in a proper way. He can just repeat and pronounce the words explicitly, but he does not take an initiative to talk first or to ask by formulating a clear word or sentence. First, I think, this is because the other members of the family talk in Russian, while they want this child to speak in Kazakh. And when parents themselves have very poor Kazakh, I guess the situation is clear.
ReplyDeleteAnd, to be honest, I didn't think that gadgets can be a cause for late-talking.