Page 11 - LESSION 7.pmd

Domains of Development

I Pre-Speech Form of Communication

(i) Crying
Notes
(ii) Cooing and babbling
(iii) Gestures
II Speech Form of Communication

(iv) Comprehension

(v) Pronunciation
(vi) Vocabulary
(vii) Sentence formation

Children learn to comprehend language before they can themselves produce it.
You may have noticed that in the early years of life, children’s speech is not clear
but soon, their pronunciation becomes clear. Children’s vocabulary increases
with age. In the early years of life, the number of words that children add to their
vocabulary is tremendous. They acquire new words rather quickly and become
Good at generalising newly acquired words. Initially, children combine two to
three words to make meaningful phrases (for eg. ‘give me food’) and later they
combine more than three words to make short sentences. Gradually, the child
develops language competencies sufficient enough for forming complex
sentences. Along with these, in middle childhood, they also acquire social rules
of language usage. They understand that language used with different persons
can be different and the language used in different places can also differ. They
become skilled at using certain kind of language with their parents, teachers and
adults and use another kind of language within their peer groups.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 7.5
1. Fill in the blanks.

(a) .................... develops before the children use words.

(b) Children’s interaction with people starts with .................... .

(c) Early years of life are considered .................... periods for language
development.

(d) Language occurs both .................... and .................... . .

2. State whether the following statements are true or false.

(a) Comprehension develops before use of words by children.

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION 99