When it Comes to Language Skills, the Early Years are Crucial

Children’s core language skills are more malleable during the early stages of development. As children reach adolescence, their language skills appear to be more fixed; therefore, improving older children’s core language skills becomes increasingly difficult.

The results, published in Child Development, further highlight the importance of early intervention to improve children’s language skills. The longer parents wait to seek help for their child’s language skills the more challenging it becomes to alter lower language proficiency.

In the current long-term study, researchers examined a child’s core language skills at 20 months then at 4, 10, and 14 years. In doing so, this helped researchers to better understand the issue of stability in language development from early childhood to adolescence.

Researchers obtained video-recorded speech samples of the 324 participants at ages 20 months and 4 years. Additionally, at all four points in time, researchers assessed children’s language abilities from reports given by their mothers and standardized language assessments.

The findings revealed differences in children’s core language skill from the end of infancy to adolescence. As children reached the ages of 10 and 14 their language skills were more stable and less likely to change; however, children’s language abilities did shift between the age of 20 months and 4 years.

Based on these results, researchers suggest children’s early years are crucial to language skills development. Language skills are essential for learning, communicating, and building relationships with others.

Here are some activities for encouraging speech and language development in young children:

• Read aloud to your children.
• Use gestures such as waving goodbye to help convey meaning.
• Expand upon the words your child uses.
• Use good speech that is clear and simple for your child to model.
• Ask your child questions that require a choice. “Do you want apple juice or orange juice with your breakfast?”
• Sing simple songs and recite nursery rhythms to show the rhythm and pattern of speech.

NeuroNet note: NeuroNet programs consist of movement exercises that incorporate rhythmic movement, listening, and talking. As children progress through the program levels they improve their ability to learn and automate new exercises, a key step in the process of developing learning readiness.

Peer-reviewed journal reference:
Bornstein, Marc H., Chun-Shin Hahn, Diane L. Putnick, and Joan T. D. Suwalsky. 2013. “Stability of Core Language Skill from Early Childhood to Adolescence: A Latent Variable Approach.” Child Development (early release).

Photo credit: Tom Carmony via Flickr CC