language_development.docx

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8081 Part1 Wk 3 Assignment

Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date

8081 Part1 Wk 3 Assignment

Introduction

Home Life and Family

Amanda is a girl, she was born in Nigeria. She is the firstborn in the family. She has no siblings. Her family was very excited when she was born. Since the day she was born, the parents have become child-centric and don’t want to be away from the child for long. The support network is strong. The parents understand the biology of bonding. The bonding between mother and child develops due to the production of the hormone oxytocin. During pregnancy, the level of oxytocin rises. When the mother and the child touch, the level of oxytocin rises which makes the mothers want to be close with the child almost all of the time. ( Craig, 2021). 
Amanda lives with her two parents but most of the time she spends with her mother when the father is at work. The father doesn’t get much time with the child because most of the time he finds her asleep. The father’s involvement in the first stages of the child is increased. The father would take off from work just to spend time with the child. In the first stages of child development, fatherhood and motherhood are as deep. The more the father spends time with the baby, the more the and becomes strong. There are times when the mother goes to work and the father is left to take care of the baby. The mother usually takes primary care of the child. When Amanda cries, the mother is the first to take her. The mother is more vigilant in taking care of the baby than the father. ( Nabuzoka, & Empson, 2009). 
Amanda is very noisy and likes to scream. To distract her, the caregiver has to use something noisy. The curiosity of Amanda is stimulated by the parents to enhance the coordination of the hands and the eyes. From a period of 6 weeks to three months, Amanda starts making vowel sounds and becomes more social, and will enjoy seeing faces and smiles when touched. The type of parenting for this period is attachment parenting. Amanda is the dearest of the parents. The parents of the child become child-centric and they both want to spend some time with the baby. The support network of the baby is very strong. The father’s involvement at the early stages of the child’s development is being increased. The father is connecting with the baby through touch. Most of the time off work will be spent with the baby. The hygiene of the infant is more emphasized by the person taking care of the baby. The baby will be cleaned regularly. Sickness hygiene of the baby will be observed where the mother will be careful to keep the environment around the baby clean from any germs that may cause sickness.
During this stage, Amanda learns to bond and trust her primary caregiver who is her mother, she seems to have mastered the sound of her mother, every time her mother talks she loos in the direction. There are times when she is crying and she hears her mother talk she pauses her cry. This is unlike with her father. She enjoys playing with her mother, listening to music, and simple games. ( Whitehead, 2009). 
The parental experience of Amanda’s parents has been fascinating, they have enjoyed it every step of the way. The parents like to tickle the child and watch her smile. At the age of three months, Amanda had learned to respond to her parent’s smile. She had learned to track objects with her eyes. In the fourth month, Amanda had earned to manipulate the environment around her and use various tools, her parents had bought her a cuter princess doll that produced sounds when squeezed. She learns to make certain sounds as she plays with her favorite toy. Her favorite game that she enjoys playing with her parents is peekaboo.
When Amanda was 12 months old .she seems to understand some of the common words that her parents used often. She often uses the same words to refer to different things. as time goes by she learns new words.

Community and Culture

The child lives in Nigeria, Africa. The common language that is spoken is the area where Amanda was born and lives in Hausa. Hausa is a language that is spoken in the Northern side of Nigeria. Other languages are spoken in the community where Amanda libs sis Yoruba and Igbo. Her mother seems to be very dedicated to helping the child learns to speak. Amanda’s mother is dedicated to helping her child thrive despite the development challenges. Her parents invest a considerable amount of time and effort in helping their child in her developmental stages.t home, Amanda’s parents usually speak English and they have been interacting with her using English since she was born. However, there are times that they use some words in mothering but it is often rare. The home language that is often used in Amanda’s home is Hausa. This is the language that the parents use to communicate while at home. When they are interacting with the child, they like shifting to English.
The family experiences and receives a lot of social support from the community. It is the tradition that young mothers be visited often and be helped with different chores. The child interacts with different people speaking different languages. The language that is spoken by most people is the Hausa language. People usually interact with the child with the Hausa language. The parents of the child strongly believe in learning the English language. they believe that English is the official language and learning English will give the chod an added advantage. English is the dominant language in Nigeria. It is the language that is used by the government, the schools, and the community. The parents of the child do not want their child to be in a dilemma of not understanding the English language. they want their child to be bilingual. By being bilingual, Amanda would understand and be able to express herself in two languages, English and Hausa. The parents believe that by their child learning to speak English, she will be more creative and will also have an easier tie when trying to learn the languages. The opportunities that are available for language literacy for Amanda is that her parents are engaged and committed through encouraging conversations to assist their child to learn the languages. ( Kümmerling-Meibauer, 2011). 

Section 2:Parental and Infancy

Amanda’s development aligned with the milestones of typically developing children. The developmental milestones and physicals were portrayed by Amanda in her physical stage as she was growing. Her parents had a watchlist calendar that included the developmental milestones to check if their children were developing normally. Amanda did not need a more detailed checkup because she was normal. Between 8-12 months, Amanda was paying increasing attention to the speech, she was able to easily respond to simple verbal requests. She understands when he is told no. She was able to use simple gestures such as shaking her head when saying “No”.She was able to babble with inflection. At 12 months she was able to say “Mama” and “Dada”.She also tried to imitate some of the words that she heard often. Unlike when she was few months old when she was friendly with strangers, at 12 months, she is anxious and shy when she is held with strangers. She cries when she is left with strangers and her parents leave. She had certain preferences for toys and certain people. She repeats certain sounds and gestures that are positively reinforced for attention. The developmental alignments that did not align include that she was not able to stand when supported, some of the gestures took long to learn such as waving her hand. ( Meier, 2004). 
The factors that supported language acquisition and development for Amanda were the relationship that she had with the family members. Amanda receives proper parenting from her parents which reduces anxiety. The child felt more secure to spend more time with her parents which facilitated mo faster language acquisition and development. Amanda being a girl had an added advantage. Girls are better at mastering speech and being fluent as compared to boys. The other factor that supported language acquisition and development for Amanda is motivation from the parent. She also received a lot of support at home. She had a lot of exposure from her parents which contributed to he comprehension and acquisition. The family speaks more than one language. The primary caregivers of the child usually speak more often to the child hence stimulating the child to speak. When the adults speak to the child they increase the scope of language development and acquisition.
The domains overlapped with Amanda’s acquisition of language by the parents of the child meeting the emotional cognitive and social needs. The parents especially interacted with the child often by talking t her, singing, playing games with her. The mother of the child often read to the child. This helped stimulate the language skills of the child. Reading is a key to introducing the child to the language. Infants learn new sounds daily. The physical domain was very important for the child’s language acquisition. The caregivers provide a lot of spoken language. ( Meier, 2004). 
The child’s environment that supports the connection between the domains is the social environment which involves the relationship of the child with the parents and the people in the community. Language and social-emotional domains. Language development is dependent on other developmental domains. The environment of the child supports the language development where the parents read and talk to the child even before they could speak their first word. Infants can acknowledge when somebody is conveying something for their advantage and along these lines to understand data uniquely in contrast to when they only observe it. At the point when grown-ups utilize the eye to eye contact, call a child’s name, and point for the child’s advantage, these signs lead children to perceive that somebody is showing them something, and this mindfulness can influence how and what they realize. ( Plural Publishingrporated. 2018). 
Language acquisition was strongly impacted by physical and social-emotional development. The child experienced significant and obvious change none domain at a time. For example, when the child was learning to walk, which is in the physical domain, their ere no progress in language development. During language development and acquisition of the child, other domains experienced less change and were less prominent. Cognitive development includes the intellectual development of the child develops the ability to pay attention and to process thought. The social and emotional domain is where the child grows to understand and control their emotions. they understand what others want and feel. The child in this domain also learns to interact with others. Interacting with others helps in language development and acquisition. The language and the literary skills of the child develop at different stages. It starts with creating sounds of speech to understanding the syntax of the language where the child understands the grammar and can put sentences together.
The family and cultural influences that impacted the child’s language acquisition was the input that the child received from her environment. Culture affects the parenting style. From the early stages of infancy, parents talk to their children differently which affects their language development and acquisition. Parents prepare children on how they interact with others. Culture molds the behavior of the children and their thinking patterns which affects their language development and acquisition. ( Wang, 2014). 
The caregiver of the child provided opportunities for language acquisition and development by talking, reading, and sing to the child even before she could speak her first words. The frequent interaction with the child played a huge impact on language development the language that the parents were using when they were interacting with the child provided a great opportunity. The interaction with the child creates an environment where the child can learn and begin to talk. In the early stages of child development, the child undergoes different changes in different domains. The language exposure from parents and caregivers provides an opportunity for the child to learn a language. Caregivers who respond to their children through verbal descriptions and questions make children more receptive to language. The culture that influenced the child’s language acquisition is her mother talking reading and singing to her. The book that she often read was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” She also liked to watch “Sesame Street”.( Becker, & Deen, 2020). 

Section 3: Amanda as a Toddler

Amanda at this stage is able to communicate with her parents. When compared with other children in terms of language development, Amanda’s life follows a general developmental milestone. She cannot be termed as having delayed her language development. By the time she was 12 months old, Amanda would look for and find out and identify where sound is coming from. She would respond to her name when called by her parents and other people both relatives and neighbours. Often, when a ‘goodbye’ is said to her, she would wave back. Her parents and caregivers, told her to look at something, she looked at the place pointed. Amanda began speaking with intonation where she would raise and lower her voice as if she is speaking in sentences. Another remarkable milestone was the capacity of Amanda to take turns in speaking (Mary L. Gavin, 2019). Amanda would be spotted listening an paying attention to hr parents and in return, she would babble.
Amanda just began to say da-da to imply dad and ma-mama for mom. She then began to say words, singly and point at items that she needed when they are out of reach (Mary L. Gavin, 2019). Amanda often would point at things while making sounds.
Between the age of 1 and 2, Amanda denoted further language development. She started to follow simple commands. The sequence followed was that when an adut spoke and demonstrated with gestures, Amanda understood and responded. Later on, Amanda began to understand commands issues through words alone (Supporting Language and Literacy Skills from 12–24 Months, 2021). For instance, she would be sent to bring her toy from a box, she would also say yes or no when asked if she wanted something. Amanda advanced her language acquisition such that she would be sent to get something from a diferent room and she could easily name a few of her body parts. She would touch and say head, eyes, ears, mouth, nose.
In addition, Amanda had her favorite songs (itsy bitsy spider) and cartoon, when aired, Amanda would often point at them, calling mom to get her to lok at them. she would again go to her room and pick her favorite dress and bring it to her mom to dress her. Due to her interaction with smartphones, Amanda would disntinguish a locked phone from an unclocked one. When she needed to use the phone, Amanda takes the phone to her mother and says ‘open’ to mean unlock. Notably, Amanda would play her favorite music in the phone and try to repeat the words and the rhythm (Association, 2021).
Another rimportant observation that may be said to have contributed to amandas language acquisition, was her unique manner of asking question. Often, Amanda would bring things to he rparents or caregivers and ask them to say what it is. For instance, she would bring a book, a pen, or anything and show her caregiver waiting to hear what name it would be given. Amanda learnt to anme fruits through this strategy and her inquisitive nature. Amanda’s parents also acquired some boks that had pictorial illustration og common objects such as fruits, utensils, clothes, toys etc. Amanda would read the book together with the caregiver. She got opportunities to name the objects and associating names with pictures (Rachel Cortese, 2021). This was facilitated through questioning by caregivers who read the book by asking Amanda ‘what is this?.
Amanda as a toddler acquired her language further through pretence. Amanda spent most of her time with her mother and at other instances with her female caregiver. Hence, she would imitate cooking and pretend to be making her favorite dish. She would also mimic the role of a mother and pretend to be cleaning and feeding her dolls. This way, Amanda learnt the food vocabulary and child care vocabulary such as sorry, eat, cry, laugh, smile, sick, hungry. Learning these words did not occur instantly, ech week, Amanda would add a new word to her vocabulary and it continued to get richer and richer.
By the age of two years and some months, Amanda had developed really rich vocabulary. She began to name her body parts and common objects. She also started to understand commands issued as a sentence (Gallagher, 2013). For instance, she understood phrases such as ‘take your tea’, ‘bring your shoes’, ‘put the doll on the couch’, ‘lets go out and play’ amng other things. She also started to make two-word phrases such as ‘give water’, ‘want mom’, ‘daddy go’. Slowly by slowly, she increased the length of her sentences from two words to three or four words. For instance, she would say ‘ I want water’, ‘bye bye mom’, ‘I want to play’. In other words, Amanda started to have conversations and be understood by adults.
At this stage, communicating with Amanda became one of the most pleasurable and rewarding moments for the parents and caregivers. It was evident that Amanda was absorbing new information everyday through her own experiences and through intercations with other children, her parents and through the television (Gallagher, 2013). Family members were the most commonly involved in cmmumicating with Amanda. It became necessary that amanda’s parents initiated more interactive and play like conversations so as to trigger Amanda to speak more and more. There were scheduled periods for reading books, singing, playing word games nd simply speaking with Amanda (Rachel Cortese, 2021). These strategies are used to help toddlers to build more amd more of their vocabularies. They also teach listening skills and comprehension.

Amanda’s parents would often be found angaging Amanda through talking to her about what she is doing, what she is planning to do, what she thinks about something or simply asking her about the day. The books bought for Amanda were read repeatedly over and over again and parents would often pretend to be reading so that Amanda reads the familiar words. It was evident that Amanda was making huge steps in language acquisition. she successfully followed two steps instructions and increased her sentences. For instance, she would understand pharces such as ‘ go outside and bring the ball to mom’, or ‘go to the bedroom and bring me your sandles’. Amanda’s vocabulary was more than 50 and near a hundred. By the time Amanda was nearing 3 years of age, her vocabulary was more than 200 (Rachel Cortese, 2021). She would string together upto four words to form a sentence. Notably, Amanda would understand more than she spoke. Some words would not come out clearly, but she understood nearly all instructions. About 80 percent of Amanda’s language could be understood by her parents and those who interacted with her in one way or another (Rachel Cortese, 2021). Amanda by this time could use her language feely as can be seen in the way she engaged in question and answer sessions with her family and caregivers.
Amanda made an additional huge steps. She understood numbers and culd count upto three objects. she also started to tell stories. For instance, she would tell what she has done during the day. She understood meaning of playing, sleeping, eating, going to mention but a few. Amanda then developed huge interest in learning her two names. She also developed interest in learning the names of her parents and the new sibling who had just joined the family. Although words are the predominant way through which Amanda communicated, her parents did not overlook the value of non-verbal communication. In orde to increase amanda’s chances of learning to communicate. For example, her mother would frown when Amanda made a mistake and smile broadly when she did something right.

In summary, there are a few notable strategies that amanda’s parents used to increase and expand amanda’s language acquisition; they imitated her words and sounds so that she could also imitate theirs, interpreted what she pointed by saying words aloud, they expanded and recasted her already acquired vocabulary, they often commented and described what they were doing with Amanda, responded instantly to her, ensured tey took turns when speaking with Amanda and labellled praises (Rachel Cortese, 2021). These are just a few ways through which Amanda’s parents helped expand Amanda’s vocabulary and language acquisition.

References

ASHA. (n.d.). Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development. Retrieved from ASHA Organization: Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development
Association, A. S.-L.-H. (2021). Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development. Retrieved from Reading Rockets: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/activities-encourage-speech-and-language-development
Becker, M., & Deen, K. U. (2020). Language acquisition and development: A generative introduction. MIT Press.
Craig, M. (2021). The young reader: A game plan for parents to teach their little ones how to read and problem solve. Basil Sun Publishing.
Gallagher, N. G.-N. (2013). More than baby talk: 10 ways to promote the language and communication skills of infants and toddlers. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute., 1-24. Retrieved from https://fpg.unc.edu/sites/fpg.unc.edu/files/resource-files/BabyTalk_WEB_2015.pdf
Kümmerling-Meibauer, B. (2011). Emergent literacy: Children’s books from 0 to 3. John Benjamins Publishing.
Mary L. Gavin, M. (2019, June). Communication and Your 2- to 3-Year-Old. Retrieved from Kids Health Organization: https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/comm-2-to-3.html
Meier, D. R. (2004). The young child’s memory for words: Developing first and second language and literacy. Teachers College Press.
Nabuzoka, D., & Empson, J. (2009). Culture and psychological development. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Plural Publishingrporated. (2018). The role of the speech-language pathologist in RtI: Implementing multiple tiers of student support. Plural Publishing.
Rachel Cortese, M. C.-S. (2021). Helping Toddlers Expand Language Skills. Retrieved from Child Mind Institute: https://childmind.org/article/helping-toddlers-expand-their-language-skills/
Rowland, C. (2013). Understanding child language acquisition. Routledge.

Supporting Language and Literacy Skills from 12–24 Months. (2021). Retrieved from Zero To Three Organization: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1285-supporting-language-and-literacy-skills-from-12-24-months
Wang, X. (2014). Understanding language and literacy development: Diverse learners in the classroom. John Wiley & Sons.
Whitehead, M. (2009). Supporting language and literacy development in the early years. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).