Windows 11 Home (all Languages)
Agathe Thies
Parents of young children and professionals working with young children watch with anticipation the developmental milestones indicating a child is picking up the skills expected at a certain age. In the first year of life that focus is typically on motor skills, in the second year attention shifts to language development.
Neuroscientists tell us that a baby is born with millions of brain cells, all he or she will ever need. Each brain cell has branching appendages, called dendrites, that reach out to make connections with other brain cells. The places where brain cells connect are called synapses. When electrical signals pass from brain cell to brain cell, they cross the synapse between the cells.
Also, babies need a lot of sleep, because their brains need to experience both deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep for proper development. Establishing routines for eating and sleeping are among the most important things parents can do to assist healthy brain development in their child.
While critical periods are prime times for the development of specific neural synapses, skills can still be learned after a window of opportunity has closed, but with greater time and effort. It is during these critical periods that lack of stimulation or negative experiences can have the most impact.
One of the first windows of opportunity for language comes early in life. We know that infants start out able to distinguish the sound of all languages, but that by six months of age they are no longer able to recognize sounds that are not heard in their native tongue. As infants hear the patterns of sound in their own language, a different cluster of neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain responds to each sound. By six months of age, infants will have difficulty picking out sounds they have not heard repeated often.
Windows of opportunity for language development occur throughout life. The window for syntax or grammar is open during the preschool years and may close as early as five or six years of age, while the window for adding new words never closes completely.
Brain development information simply reinforces much of what early childhood experts have been suggesting for years. The development of language is tremendously influenced by parent-child interactions. In the first year, it is important to talk, sing, and read to the baby often so he can learn the sounds of his native language.
In the second year of life, the brain organizes the connections for language when the child sees pictures in a book and hears the parent give names for the pictures simultaneously. Parents and other primary caregivers can help language development at this age by reciting nursery rhymes, songs, and poems throughout the day. Activities such as using a mirror to point out and name facial features are also helpful at this age. Ideal times for story telling and reading are quiet, relaxed moments before naptime or bedtime.
Between 24 and 35 months of age the brain is getting better at forming mental symbols for objects, people, and events. This is directly related to the growing ability to use many more words and short sentences.
Hearing two languages spoken at home is a real advantage to the child. If a child hears two languages from birth, he or she will maintain the ability to hear the sounds of both and be able to speak each language with the accent of a native speaker.
If parents each speak a different language, it is helpful if the child hears the same language consistently from the parent who is its native speaker. If, for example, the mother is a native English speaker and the father a native Spanish speaker, it will be less confusing for the child to hear each parent speak in his or her native language.
The child may mix the languages in his or her own speech initially, but will typically sort it out by approximately two and one-half years of age. Then he or she will separate the words belonging to each language and know which language to use with which parent. By seven years of age, the child is likely to be able to cope with the two language systems without a problem, using both vocabulary and grammar appropriate for his age.
If a child enters a pre-school and is first exposed to a second language after the age of three, she will still be able to acquire the second language easily because she knows the rules of communication. In three to seven months the child will begin to understand the second language. After about two years she will be able to carry-on a fluent conversation.
Young children learn a second language more easily than adults because the window of opportunity for learning language is still open for them. Helping the child build her self-confidence during the time she is learning a second language is very important.
Music is a great way to help the child learn words and phrases in the new language. Talking slowly, clearly, and simply is also helpful. It is also important for parents to continue speaking to the child at home in her native language because it continues to lay the foundation for the second language by providing the basic rules of communication. Also, the parent-child interaction might suffer if the parents speak less to the child in an attempt to use the second language.
Elaine Shiver, M.S.S.W., is a program director for the Mental Health Association in Texas where she coordinates training and technical assistance for Parents As Teachers programs in the state. Comments and questions may be directed to IDRA via e-mail at feed...@idra.org.
[2001, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the April 2001 IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]
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