Stages in language adquisition

Stages in language adquisition

1. In order to adquire language, the child will have to go through a series of phases, in each of which he will develop skills, which will lead him to a domain each more efficient use of language:

   • Pre-linguistic stage: up to 12-15 months
     • This stage runs from birth to approximately 12 to 15 months. This stage can be analysed from a double perspective:
       • The perception
         • Perception in the pre-linguistic stage is analysed from the auditory, visual and tactile point of view. Auditory. The child captures the sounds of its environment and reacts to them: 1. From the very first moment, a distinction is made between verbal and non-verbal sounds. 2. A month later he can identify his mother's voice. 3. Slowly distinguishes the timbre of his mother's or father's voice.
       • Visual
         • The baby does not profile the shapes and colours until the month and has difficulty in differentiating the faces. In fact, he does not start to distinguish visually until he is six months old
       • Tactile communication
         • In this aspect, great importance is given to physical contact for the safety and affection of the baby.
   • Expressive creation in the pre-linguistic stage
     • crying
       • At first, crying is instinctive and only responds to the manifestation of these needs, but soon after it becomes an intentional sign to provoke a response from adults.
     • The first vocalizations
       • babies begin to emit other vocalizations different from crying. These are articulations made in the velar or guttural zone, which alternate with mouth openings, this is what is called gurgling.
     • Babbling
       • Babbling is the emission of a combination of vowel and consonantal sounds, usually accompanied by some intonation. Three phases can be distinguished in this process:
         • Vocal games: Corresponds to the beginning of babbling and usually occurs between three and six months. - Reduplicative babbling: Usually occurs between six and nine months. More vocal consonant. - Non-reuplicative babbling: This phase predominates from about the ninth month until the production of the first words. It consists of the emission of chains of syllables of the most vocal consonant.
   • Non-combinatorial language stage : from 12-15 months to 24 months
     • The articulation of the words: there is mainly a difficulty of the articulation of the words so in the children there is a simplification of the words that is divided in five parts:By substitution. The more difficult phonemes are replaced by easier ones. - By assimilation . Phonemes are assimilated - By default . Some sounds are omitted - By reduplication . Syllables that are more easily pronounced are repeated - By shortening . Simplification is achieved by shortening the word.
     • The meaning of words: children are not able to delimit the generalization of the meaning of a word and they accommodate it to their way of seeing the world. There are usually two phenomena:- The over-generalization or extended use of the meaning of a word. - The sub-generalization or reduced use of the meaning of a word.
       • Combinatorial language stage: from 24 months to 72 months
         • Phase I. The joining of individual words ● Around the age of two, children begin to put more than two words together to form sentences, giving rise to telegraphic language. ● Telegraphic language consists of the use of linguistic structures composed almost of nouns, verbs and adjectives, which are the words with the greatest lexical value.
         • Phase II. The construction of the first sentences 30-32 months It is divided into six parts: - The use of morphemes and flexions will help to improve the accuracy of your expressions. Generally the bending that is introduced in this phase is ►►Uses of the plural and the participle ► ► Some prepositions. ►►Articles . ► ► Auxiliary verbs. - Increasing the lexicon: importance will be given to the environment and the ability to differentiate meanings will be learned
           • . - Use of negation: a progressive knowledge of negation is created - Formulation of questions : a progressive mastery of the questions is given - Learning syntactic rules: the child will start to use simple and complex sentences and will gradually start to use subordinate ones. - Mastery of the concept of relativity: it will be used depending on the comparison
         • STAGE 3 : Towards adult language (3 - 6 years) The transition to adult language will take place in six parts: ► ► Phonics: all phonemes are acquired and pronunciation is greatly improved. ► ► Expanding your viewpoint: you will start to refer to events that are not physically present and to people. ► ► The distribution of time in the present, past and, later, future. ► ► The ability to distinguish real time from unreal time, there is a difficulty in the use of the subjunctive. ► ► Dialogue: becoming aware of different points of view ► ► The subordination: a progressive control will be originated.
     • The intentionality of words: As far as the intentionality or pragmatic use of language is concerned, the first words basically fulfil two functions: one is referential and the other is expressive. But their vocabulary is still incipient and reduced. A holographic language is given based on the use of simple words that carry different meanings.