Do you know what is the most important part of a child’s overall development? Language development. It is an ability through whose support the child can communicate, express, and understand feelings. It also helps the child’s thinking ability by developing and maintaining relationships.
Language development basically refers to children’s abilities to understand and use language to communicate ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Their language ability affects learning and development in all aspects of their lives, especially literacy. The foundation for the reading and writing skills in children is laid through language development as they enter and progress through school.
Whether it is to connect with their peers and teachers, or throughout their lives in general, children need language for all aspects of their education as they grow into adulthood. Language development skill is absolutely important for a child’s progress not just at the school level, but for the overall life span as it prepares them to become better social being and also, in case, they wish to pursue higher education.
Language Development and Literacy are Closely Linked Together
Based on the vast research done, it has been proven that early literacy is closely related to language development in children during the early years of school. The link between the two is quite obvious as the earlier the child learns to read words and recognize symbols, the early the skills required to understand how the language works are honed and get developed.
Children, by the age of eight, discover that speech has patterns and symbols and their meaning is understood by them as the foundation for language and literacy gets developed by the same age. And that’s how language development is a vital part of growing up years.
Although it is a common observation that some children tend to learn language skills a little late due to different reasons that lead to inefficient vocabulary and cause them to stay behind their peers. However, if children, during their formative years, are exposed to proper exposure to structured and age-appropriate instruction, the gap between language and literacy can be bridged easily.
Some of The Strategies that can Support Language Development and Literacy:
- Building diverse and varied vocabulary.
- Increasing linguistic awareness.
- Encouraging story comprehension skills.
- Supporting letter-sound relationship knowledge and skills.
- Leveled literacy intervention to help struggling readers achieve grade-level competency.
Effective Teaching Practices
The effective teaching practices that help language development among students follow teaching pedagogies that are broadly categorized into interactions, environment, and individualization. These practices support domain and sub-domains goals for children. That’s why language development must be focused upon from the beginning of early education.
What Happens if There is Delayed Language and Literacy Development
If a child shows signs of developmental delay or if they are late talker adopting a wait-and-see attitude could prove to be a huge mistake. This is because there are many negative consequences of improper language development.
As per many research studies, delayed language development has been associated with the following risks:
- Learning disabilities.
- Academic difficulties.
- Shyness and Social. Difficulties.
- Anxiety Disorder.
- Behavioural Problems and ADHD.
Seek professional help if you are concerned about your child not keeping up with typical development with regard to language and literacy.
How do Schools Encourage Language Development and Literacy in Students?
The best method to encourage and boost a child’s speech and language skills is to do a lot of talking about things that interest the child. Schools, nowadays, offer lots of debate, elocution, and such kind of activities to students that it becomes easier for them to come out of their shells and speak and talk. These activities also help the educators to find out if the child is facing any problem while speaking so that early diagnosis of language development difficulties.
As parents, you should also interact with your child regularly about things that interest him/her and keep responding to them so that they are encouraged with the communication. The moment your child starts using words, repeat the words and build on what he/she is saying. Talking about each other’s day-to-day life, it is a great way of increasing your children’s vocabulary. Use different words in different contexts during your conversation. All of this surely helps the overall language development of your children.
Having regular interaction with your child can help you find out if the child is facing any language development problems or not. Timely detection can help the child in getting rid of these problems and make them ready for the world in a confident manner.