LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Language Development and the Young Special Needs Child

Language Development and the Young Special Needs Child

Introduction

The prerequisites of language acquisition and language development remain disputed in the field of language studies. Most children go from uttering their first words in their first years, to fluent readers and writers of their native language, which usually occurs at school entry. However, it is viewed that language skills begin to develop in children's first years, when the home is the main environment in which they thrive. (Hunt, 1994)

The theories of Special Needs Child language acquisition and development will be reviewed; an emphasis will be on the socialization perspective, in which it is viewed that children adopt the immediate behaviors of their culture, and therefore the language which is reflected there within.

Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is perhaps one of the most debated issues of human development. Throughout history, scholars and researchers have attempted to solve the mystery of how people acquire their first language and develop their language skills.

Numerous theories have been proposed in this field of research, each one differing from the next, mainly due to the divided emphasis on the nature vs. nurture. Some may say children are born with no language skills. Most children begin developing their capabilities at an early age, which further evolve as the child matures. (Trevarthen, 2010)

Some young special needs children, however, do not become sufficiently able readers and/or speakers of their native language, nor any other language, for that matter, despite receiving proper training and education. Due to these individual differences the matter of 'abnormal' language development has been a heated subject within the field of research, mainly for scholars who have attempted to establish and comprehend the prerequisites of 'normal' language acquisition (Trevarthen, 2010). These prerequisites are constantly being explored, as well as the question of whether people are born with some innate quality enabling us to acquire language, a perspective shaped by Chomsky's innateness hypothesis, or whether we acquire language as a result of frequent language exposure, initially from our caretakers, and later from teachers. Consequently, research has differed substantially on the importance of the social environment as a part of child's language development from the nursery to the classroom. (Niccolai, 2004)

The first years of a young special needs child's life can be considered as being a critical time for the child's development. The home is the predominant environment in which children thrive, solely interacting with their caretakers, family members and/or sibling

Activities in which children are engaged within the home vary across cultures but throughout history, in Western cultures, a tradition of storybook reading has prevailed, an activity which is considered as a major part of home literacy and therefore a substantial part of the child's first language experiences. Much of the debate within the field of child language development revolves around the question of whether early language experiences, such as home literacy activities, may have an essential effect on children's language skills, and what exactly those effects ...