Child Development- Ages and Stages

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Child Development: Ages and Stages

Communication Development Pyramid

Development of Attention Skills

Comprehension and Expression from birth

Comprehension and Expression from birth (Chart)
Development of Speech Sounds

Development of Speech Sounds
Interactions: Speech, Language and Social Development

Allowance should be made for six months’ variation in all of these areas. The stages are fluid and development may not be equal across the areas.

A lack of development in any aspect of language that lasts six months should be a guide for referral to a speech and language therapist.

Interactions: Speech, Language and Social Development
Language on entry to early years
Most children entering early years' classes can...

understand four to five pieces of information given in one sentence, such as 'Close your book and put your pencil in the tin and stand up'

use utterances of six + words, conjunctions such as 'because', 'so' and reasoning, such as '...so he can get it'

be easily understood by everyone, although there may be some immaturity of speech sounds

take turns

appreciate another person's point of view at a basic level

use their language appropriately to interact

maintain interactions.

Language development starts at birth, but the most noticeable period of development is between eighteen months and four years.
Language development beyond the early years
As children mature, language development continues

".. by the age of five the child has mastered the major building blocks of the system. From the age of five the rest of childhood is spent refining and integrating the system so that language can be used for an increasingly complex range of tasks (reading, writing, debating, arguing, hypothesising, being factual or artistic, or for fantasising etc.)"

(Lees and Unwin 1997)

Language is used for a range of functions in school and in everyday life:
- commenting and directing
- initiation of conversation
- talking about feelings and social context
- questioning
- describing
- relating previous experiences
- reasoning and explaining
- predicting future events
(summarised by Locke and Beech, 1991)
Language development 5+ years
Summary of language development from 5 years

Between 5 and 10 years

3,000 - 5,000 new words are acquired each year; children begin to develop abstract thoughts and understand abstract vocabulary such as 'welfare', 'relevance', 'democracy'.

Non-literal meaning and humour develops.

Children can take a social perspective of others, for example the feelings of others and consequences of their own utterances.

They may develop an extensive vocabulary in a specific area corresponding to a particular interest - football teams, for example.

10 - 12 years

Children begin to use meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive verbs: verbs used to talk about language such as 'infer' and 'conclude'.

They also understand the difference between factive verbs (that imply certainty) for example, 'I know' and non-factive verbs (that imply uncertainty) for example, 'I believe'.

They understand and use ambiguity and sarcasm.

They develop the ability to have extended conversations.

12 years +

They understand and use idioms such as 'he kicked the bucket' and slang terms.

They develop sophisticated language for persuasion and negotiations.

They develop the ability to write in the formal way, for example using literate words such as 'assert' and 'concede'.

(The PEARL Project, 2002)
Guide to typical development from 5-12+ years
Before you can determine whether or not a child may be in need of our assistance, you may like to consider what to expect during 'typical' child development. The following guidelines give examples of typical development over a number of age ranges.

This is a very brief overview of the development of school-aged children, taken from the PEARL Project, 2002.
Between 5 and 10 years.
- 3000 – 5000 new words are acquired each year; children begin to develop abstract thoughts and understand abstract vocabulary such as ‘welfare’, ‘relevance’, ‘democracy’.
- Non-literal meaning and humour develops.
- Children can take a social perspective of others, for example the feelings of others and consequences of their own utterances.
- They may develop an extensive vocabulary in a specific area corresponding to a particular interest – football teams, for example.
10 – 12 years
- Children begin to use meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive verbs: verbs used to talk about language such as ‘infer’ and ‘conclude’.
- They also understand the difference between factive verbs (that might imply certainty) for example, “I know” and non-factive verbs (that imply uncertainty) for example, “I believe”.
- They understand and use ambiguity and sarcasm.
- They develop the ability to have extended conversations
12 years +
- They understand and use idioms such as “He kicked the bucket” and slang terms.
- They develop sophisticated language for persuasion and negotiations.
- They develop the ability to write in the formal way, for example using literate words such as ‘assert’ and ‘concede’.
Language becomes sophisticated
As a child approaches and enters secondary school the expectations of language change and become more sophisticated

language is internalised as thought

internalised language guides behaviour - rules have meaning

meta-linguistic awareness develops - from the age of six to seven years children begin to play with language, such as knock knock jokes

the language understood and used becomes more abstract and decontextualised

language is used to:

plan

explain

instruct

reflect on imaginary events/hypothesise

describe thoughts and feelings

communicate with other people.

(Brock et al. 2001)

Development occurs across all areas:

Receptive Language

Understanding spoken language and written language including:

the literal - the ideas and information explicit in the text

organisation - integrating old and new information, from a range of sources

inference - interpreting significance of information by inference or conjecture

the evaluative - involving personal judgement of the acceptability of information

Concept development:

The understanding of abstract language. There is a developing understanding and a recognition of how to use language to think away from the 'here and now'. Development of thinking skills to internalise ideas and apply them to different situationns.

Vocabulary development:

To include understanding of ambiguity, collaquialisms, synonyms and other language structures requiring inference.

Sequencing information:

To develop analysis of words, sentences and paragraphs.

Expressive language

Expressive skills will mirror the development of more sophisticated understanding and knowledge of the language system. Students will become more proficient in their ability to manipulate complex grammar and a wider range of vocabulary that allows them to engage in an increasing range of linguistic functions.
What can go wrong?
Difficulties can occur at many levels

Attention and listening

Understanding spoken language

Vocabulary and concept development

Use of spoken language: grammar, content, function

Discourse: conversations, explanations, story telling

Conversational skills

Reasoning

Speech sounds
Bloom and Lahey's Model
An outline of speech, language and communication development

How key language skills interrelate

The model developed by Bloom and Lahey (1978) is helpful in showing how the key language skills interrelate. Bloom and Lahey describe three areas:
- 'Form': grammar, shown in word order, word endings, verb tenses. This is the ability to put together a grammatical sentence
- 'Content': picking the right words to get the message across. This involves use of vocabulary and concepts. These are words with meaning. We need to understand the meanings of words and be able to use these words to create what we want to say.
- 'Use': making use of language in a variety of different ways, such as for greeting, describing, arguing. Using language also involves subtle communication such as the use of body language, facial expression, tone of voice and non-literal language as well as knowing how to take turns in talking.
Bloom and Lahey's model (1978) shows how these three areas are connected.

They propose that, if each skill area is not well developed, communication will not be a straightforward process. It should be noted that this model does not include the important areas of attention/listening and memory; and also it does not separate understanding from expression.

Bloom, L & Lahey, M. Language development and language disorders. New York, Wiley, 1978
Stackhouse and Wells Model
This is Stackhouse and Wells' model of speech and language.

Input

'Physical sound wave' - a sound wave, whether speech or non-speech, occurs in the environment.

'Peripheral auditory processing' - the ear notices that a sound has been heard.

'Speech/non-speech discrimination' - the sound heard is classified as being either speech or a non speech sound.

'Phonological recognition' - speech sounds are classified as being part of a known language. 'Like tuning a radio until you reach a channel where you recognise the language.'

(Stackhouse and Wells, 1997)

'Phonetic discrimination' - unusual speech sounds are processed here. This is used when speech sounds differ from the expected 'norm', for example, when processing different accents and dialects.

Representation

'Phonological representation' - whole words are stored according to how they sound.

'Semantic representation' - the meanings of words are stored here.

'Motor programme' - the motor instructions required for speech muscles to produce the necessary sounds for words.

Output

'Motor programming' - allows the production of words not previously known: copying a nonsense word such as 'short'; this enables the learning of new words.

'Motor planning' - allows for factors about how a word will be said, for example, quickly, loudly or with specific intonation.

'Motor execution' - the speech organs are activated and a word is articulated.

This system of language processing enables a child to learn and produce new words. It can be subdivided into three broader processes.

Stage 1 - Input processing

To learn to say a word the child must recognise similarities and differences between words; for example, tea/sea are different at the beginning, back/sock are the same at the end, sack/sock differ only by a vowel sound.

To process these similarities and differences the child needs:

good hearing;

attention and listening;

ability to recognise and process sounds.

Stage 2 - Representations (stores)

A word is stored in our memory as a pattern of sounds; this store is structured and organised, each word has its own place.

Sounds simple! But in fact it is very complex; words are grouped:

words with the same first sounds

words with the same end sounds

words with the same syllable structure

words that rhyme

words with the same vowel

Stage 3 - Output processing

The child must activate the movement of the speech organs such as lips, tongue, palate to produce the sounds required to form a word.

The child must plan the movements in the correct sequence and send accurate messages to the muscles.

The muscles and speech organs must then move in the required order to ensure the correct articulation of the word.

This is a model for single word processing. The child must also do the following:

put a sequence of words together to make a sentence which makes sense and is grammatically correct

understand the social use of language
English Sounds and How They Are Made

For more information on children's development and how you can help, see Building Blocks, from our colleagues in the Bedfordshire Speech and Language Therapy Service.

Stage	Level of development	Characteristics	What it might look like
1 0-12 months	Can pay fleeting attention, though highly distractible	Attention is held by dominant stimulus in the environment	Turns to sound of door banging, or to mum talking.
2 12-24 months	Rigid attention to his/her own choice of activity	Does not look up when name is called. Will look if touched as called.	Does not look up when name is called. Will look if touched as called.
3 2-3 years	Single channel attention. Can attend to adult’s choice of activity if under adult control.	Can shift attention from an instruction, then back to the task as long as an adult helps transfer attention.	Will look up from puzzle if chin is touched, and then back to puzzle when pointed at.
4 3-4 years	Single channelled attention: under child’s control.	Child needs to give full attention, visual and auditory, to instructions, but doesn’t need adult help to do this.	Can listen and then do something, but only one thing at a time.
5 4-5 years	Integrated attention – for short spells.	Two-channelled attention. Child can take verbal direction without needing to interrupt the task and look up. Ready for class teaching.	Can listen to instructions whilst looking down at a book.
6 6 years	Integrated attention	Can maintain integrated attention for a longer period of time, as necessary to concentrate adequately in the classroom.	Will stay at an activity without reminders.