The Progression of Language Development

• Social interaction is critical to what happens when concerning language development.
  
  
• Interactions, the opportunity to imitate, and the maturation of innate abilities, combine to move language forward.
  
  
• Receptive Language (0 to one year) is the time in which infants take in, organize, and understand experience.
  
  
• Expressive Language (end of the first year to beginning of first words) is the time in which young children refine and send more specialized sounds and words.
  

What Language Allows a Child to Do: The Cognitive Link

• Label experiences, indicate object permanence, enter into a symbolic realm.
  
  
• Reason and develop the ability to order experiences, expand adaptation and coping skills.
  

The Brain and Early Language Development

• Language development is dependent on early neural connections (synapses), which become more permanent pathways as frequently heard sounds are "mapped" in the brain.
  
  
• Two events that are critical to brain development (and to language development) happen in the first two years—myelinization and attachment.
  

Fostering Language Development

• Guidelines for language growth focus on interactions with young children, not at them.
  
  
• Interesting, relevant experiences give young children a variety of things to listen to and talk about.
  

Early Literacy

• Young children learn early literacy skills much the same way they acquire language skills—all developmental areas work together in a meaningful, relationship-oriented context.
  
  
• Guides related to early literacy revolve around sensory-rich experience in which young children see adults engaged with and sharing language and print.
  

Cultural Differences and Bilingualism

• Bilingualism exists when a child has been exposed to and has learned two languages right from birth.
  
  
• Establishing a "language relationship" requires sensitivity, understanding, and respect; quality verbal communication in caregiving is the goal.
  

Children with Special Needs: Communication Disorders

• Communication disorders tend to occur in two major areas—language production and speech patterns.
  
  
• Early intervention programs usually involve helping adults create play experiences for young children with lots of opportunities for appropriate verbalizations and vocal practice.