Information for teachers and other professionals
Language is used by adults in a variety of ways to help children develop social awareness and contain their behaviour. This can be done through:
- instructions: 'Come one', 'Hold my hand'
- praise ('well done'): to encourage the behaviour to be replaced
- admonishments: 'Stop it', 'Leave it alone'
- explanations: 'Try doing it this way'
Children's behaviour can also be influenced by the development of their own language skills. As children mature they begin to develop private speech. This goes from vocalisations which accompany actions to the production of verbal plans which will guide the action. When language becomes more internalised, behaviour is brought increasingly under the control of a child's self-guided speech, which becomes verbal thought.
Through the use of language, behaviour becomes more rule-governed and under conscious control: children learn that, within a certain context, running will not be permitted. They also become aware of the type of behaviour which will support future goals; for instance, delaying a response until the teacher has finished the question. As children mature, self-regulation should play a greater part in their development.
The presence of conscious control, together wtih self-guided speech, allows an individual as described by Barkley (1997) to:
- plan how to respond to a situation in a flexible, adaptable way
- take past experiences into account
- separate feeling from actions, thereby reducing the possibility of impulsive actions
Vygotsky (1962) has suggested the possible stages in the development of self-guided speech, which will enable self-regulatory behaviour. These stages, together with the activities appropriate for their development, are shown in the accompanying table:
STAGE ONE : Children begin to label objects and actions.
Group practical activity such as colouring/sticking.
Encourage vocalisaitions about the shared activity using the appropriate names for objects and processes.
Conversation about preferred topics while engaged on simple tasks.
STAGE TWO : Children begin to expand utterances into simple sequences.
Small group practical activity, including mathematics, science activities.
Children:
- describe what they are doing using appropriate verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives
- answer simple cause and effect questions and task-relevant questions
- recap and recall the sequence of actions and the outcomes
Verbal commentary accompanies actions.
STAGE THREE : Children able to use simple sequences and link ideas together. Beginning to predict consequences from initial actions.
Small group activity.
Facilitator encourages the use of language to plan:
- the task
- the equipment needed
- the process/sequence
- timing for the elements, outcomes, evaluations
STAGE FOUR : Children able to problem solve, but do this out loud, especially when they find a task difficult.
Facilitator encourages children to think through problems.
When asked, children should be able to use language to explain what was done and why.
(adapted from Ripley et al. 2001)
It is at Stage 3 that greater reliance can begin to be placed on verbal strategies to control behaviour. Before this stage, asking questions such as 'Why did you do that?' would not be helpful. This will be especially true if the child has limited understanding of:
- a 'why' question
- cause and effect
- the language of feelings.
It will be evident that, for a child with verbal processing difficulties, many language-bound rules will prove problematic. Children with language problems can at times be described as impulsive, reactive, unable to follow the rules of the classroom. Additional consideration may be required for these children to enable them to grasp key instructive words and to develop their self-guided speech.