Normal Speech and Language Development: An Overview

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
James Coplan

Normal Speech and Language Development Language consists of any symbol system for the storage and exchange of information. It commonly is described in terms of auditory expressive and receptive ability (speech and listening comprehension, respectively). However, language also is conveyed visually. Normal infants attend to gestures and initiate various gestures to make their needs known; visual language development in deaf infants exposed to a formal sign system, such as American Sign Language (ASL), parallels the stages of oral language development in hearing infants;1 and reading and writing are obvious manifestations of visual language in older children and adults. Precursors to auditory and visual language are readily observable from earliest infancy. Because these precursors lack symbolic value, they are termed prelinguistic. AUDITORY EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE Human infants produce a uniform sequence of prelinguistic utterances, regardless of the language spoken by their adult caretakers. The earliest of these utterances is cooing, which consists of musical, open vowel sounds. Cooing should be well established within the first 4 to 6 weeks of life. This is followed in the first few months of life by bilabial sounds: blowing bubbles or the "raspberry." By 5 months, laughing and a variety of monosyllables appear, such as "ba" or "ga." Between 6 and 8 months, infants produce polysyllabic babbling, which consists of the same syllable repeated over and over: "lalalalala," "mamamamama," "dadadadada," and so forth.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-354
Author(s):  
Martin Bax ◽  
Hilary Hart ◽  
Sue Jenkins

A clinical method of assessing speech and language development in preschool children is described. Sixty-two 3-year-old children were assessed by a pediatrician, a speech therapist, and a psychologist. In 55 children there was agreement between all three examiners. Three children with articulation problems were rated as having normal comprehensive and expressive language by the psychologist. Three children were rated as having normal speech and language development by the pediatrician and speech therapist but delayed by the psychologist; all three had behavior problems. One further child rated as having a speech and language problem by the pediatrician was rated as normal by the speech therapist and psychologist. It is concluded that pediatricians can make reliable assessments of speech and language development.


1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 1105-1106
Author(s):  
Betholyn Gentry ◽  
Lynn Hall ◽  
Jess Dancer

16 parents of infants and toddlers (9 girls, 7 boys) with sickle cell disease reported normal speech and language development in their children but perceived slow physical development. Such perceptions may be related to the smaller physical size of children with this disease.


Author(s):  
Pooja Pallavi ◽  
Aarti P. Waknis

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Parents of children with hearing impairment who are aware of normal speech-language development play an effective and active role in the early detection, diagnosis, and habilitation of these children. Hence this study was aimed to explore the level of awareness about normal speech and language milestones in parents of children with hearing impairment.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> Questionnaire assessing the parents’ awareness of speech-language development in children from birth to 3 years was administered on 80 parents of children (birth to 5 years) with hearing impairment. These included 40 parents of children recently diagnosed with hearing impairment (group 1 HI-R) and 40 parents of children with hearing impairment who were fitted with appropriate hearing devices and enrolled in a speech and language habilitation program (group II HI-T).  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Results indicated that the level of awareness was moderate for both the groups for semantic and morphosyntax domains as well as total scores, but was low to moderate for the pragmatic domain. There was no statistically significant difference in the level of awareness between the two groups.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Moderate awareness levels indicates that parents of children with hearing impairment need to be made aware about the normal speech and language development so that it can guide them in the habilitation process. This information although important does not appear to have been provided to the parents of children already undergoing habilitation. Thus, there is need of including this as a goal in parental counseling.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy R. Osborne ◽  
Carolyn B. Mervis

AbstractThe Williams–Beuren syndrome (WBS) locus on human chromosome 7q11.23 is flanked by complex chromosome-specific low-copy repeats that mediate recurrent genomic rearrangements of the region. Common genomic rearrangements arise through unequal meiotic recombination and result in complex but distinct behavioural and cognitive phenotypes. Deletion of 7q11.23 results in WBS, which is characterised by mild to moderate intellectual disability or learning difficulties, with relative cognitive strengths in verbal short-term memory and in language and extreme weakness in visuospatial construction, as well as anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and overfriendliness. By contrast, duplication results in severely delayed speech and expressive language, with relative strength in visuospatial construction. Although deletion and duplication of the WBS region have very different effects, both cause forms of language impairment and suggest that dosage-sensitive genes within the region are important for the proper development of human speech and language. The spectrum and frequency of genomic rearrangements at 7q11.23 presents an exceptional opportunity to identify gene(s) directly involved in human speech and language development.


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