Qualification: Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Educator
Unit: Unit 3.10: Develop the speech, language and communication of children
Learning outcome: 1 Understand theory and current frameworks which underpin children’s speech, language and communication development.
Assessment criteria: 1.2 Describe theoretical perspectives in relation to speech, language and communication development
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- Behavioural – children are conditioned to imitate and learn by language by their environment, such as by receiving praise and encouragement from adults, which motivates them to practice and repeat. However, this theory does not explain why children will talk to themselves, with no external reward.
- Nativistic (innateness) – humans are biologically wired to be receptive to learning language, hence it is a natural or innate ability. Chomsky put forward the idea that the human brain has a Language Acquisition Device (LAD), which provides the function for humans to pick up languages naturally. He proposed that this area of the brain provides a database of ‘Universal Grammar’ which is common to all languages, however, critics argue that this idea is implausable.
- Semantic-Cognitive (Constructivist) – children work out the meaning of words through the cognitive process or deduction. For example, when a child’s mother is referred to by others (and by herself) as ‘mummy’ the child will associate the word with the caregiver. With enough exposure, a child is able to infer patterns and meanings in language and grammar.
- Social-Pragmatic (Sociological) – children learn language as part of their social development (e.g. to make requests or demands, to build relationships with peers etc.)
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