Communication Difficulties

Kara Morrison

Communication Difficulties

Assessment outcome 1

Language development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood. From birth up to the age of five, children develop language at a very rapid pace. The stages of language development are universal among humans. However, the age and the pace at which a child reaches each milestone of language development vary greatly among children.
Question 1
Briefly describe the normal development of language acquisition.
Language development is a process starting early in a humans life, people begin to acquire language by learning it as it is spoken and by mimicry from others around them. Children 's language development starts from simple then continues until it is complex. Infants start without language, however by four months of age, babies can read lips and discriminate speech sounds. The language that infants speak is called babbling.
Usually, language starts off as recall of simple words without associated meaning, but as children grow, words acquire meaning, with connections between words being formed. As a person gets older, new meanings and new associations are created and vocabulary increases as more words are learned.
Infants use their bodies, vocal cries and other ways to communicate their wants and needs. Even though most children begin to vocalize and eventually verbalize at various ages and at different rates, they learn their first language without conscious instruction from parents or guardians. Research has shown that the earliest learning begins in uterus when the fetus can recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother 's voice.
There are three main theories of language development:
The behaviorist theory, proposed by B. F. Skinner suggests that language is learned through operant conditioning (reinforcement and imitation). This perspective sides with the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate.
The nativist theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky, argues that language is a unique human accomplishment. Chomsky says that all children have what is called an innate language acquisition device that allows children to produce consistent sentences once vocabulary is learned. His claim is based upon the view that what children hear - their linguistic input - is insufficient to explain how they come to learn language.
The empiricist theory suggests, contra Chomsky, that there is enough information in the linguistic input that children receive, and therefore there is no need to assume an innate language acquisition device. This approach is characterized by the construction of computational models that learn aspects of language and/or that simulate the type of linguistic output produced by children.
Question 2
Explain using examples, the difference between speech and language and language development.
Definition of speech:

The faculty or act of speaking, The faculty or act of expressing or describing thoughts, feelings, or perceptions by the articulation of words, Something spoken; an utterance and Vocal communication; conversation.

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:
Articulation
How speech sounds are made (e.g., children must learn how to produce the "r" sound in order to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit").
Voice
Use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., the voice can be abused from overuse or misuse and can lead to hoarseness or loss of voice).
Fluency
The rhythm of speech (hesitations or stuttering can affect fluency of speech).

An example of speech would be a child learning how to Read a book out loud to a teacher.

Language
Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols, such a system including its rules for combining its components, such as words, such a system as used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; often contrasted with dialect.

Language is the symbols we use in order to communicate with one another, and the rules that show us how we use them properly. We learn language from the very beginning of life and we use this in everyday situations.

An example of language would be a child learning how to use the dialect from the place which they come from. For example if a child came from Tennessee, they wouldn’t usually say you, they would say y 'all.

Language development
Language development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood.
From birth up to the age of five, children develop language at a very rapid pace. The stages of language development are universal among humans. However, the age and the pace at which a child reaches each milestone of language development vary greatly among children. Language development in an individual child must be compared with norms rather than with other individual children. In general girls develop language at a faster rate than boys. More than any other aspect of development, language development reflects the growth and maturation of the brain. After the age of five it becomes much more difficult for most children to learn language. Two examples of milestones for a young child are:
At 6 months a child should be able to vocalisation with intonation, respond to his/her name, respond to human voices without visual cues turning his/her head and eyes and respond appropriately to friendly and angry tones.
At 18 months a child should be able to have vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words, be able to repeat a words or a phrase over and over and follow simple commands. If parents are concerned about their child 's speech and language development, they should see a speech-language pathologist for a professional evaluation. The speech-language pathologist can administer tests of receptive and expressive language, analyse a child 's utterances in various situations, determine factors that may be slowing down language development, and counsel parents on the next steps to take.
The speech-language pathologist may give suggestions on stimulating language development, and ask that the parent and child return if parental concern continues. Or, the speech-language pathologist may want to schedule a re-evaluation right then. In more severe cases, the speech-language pathologist may want the parent and child to become involved in an early intervention program. The programs typically consist of demonstrating language stimulation techniques for home use, and more frequent monitoring of the child 's progress.
An example of Language development would be a child reaching the milestones and progressing with their language abilities.

Question 3
Communication difficulties can also be caused by causal factors of a social, Biological, and or psychological nature. Briefly describe examples of the impact of communication of casual factors.

Biological Factors: Hearing is critical to speech and language development, communication, and learning. It causes delays in the development of receptive and expressive communication skills .The language deficit causes learning problems that may result in reduced academic achievement, Communication difficulties often lead to social isolation and poor self-concept, and it may have an impact on vocational choices. Vocabulary develops more slowly in children who have hearing loss, The gap between the vocabulary of children with normal hearing and those with hearing loss widens with age, Children with hearing loss do not catch up without intervention, Children with hearing loss have difficulty understanding words with multiple meanings. Children with hearing loss often cannot hear quiet speech sounds there for do not include them within their speech, Children with hearing loss may not hear their own voices when they speak. They may speak too loudly or not loud enough or they may have a speaking pitch that is too high. The earlier hearing loss occurs in a child 's life, the more serious the effects on the child 's development. Similarly, the earlier the problem is identified and intervention begun, the less serious the ultimate impact.

Social and environmental
If a child is being abused by another person that child’s communication will be affected. A child that is being abused can become very stubborn and resistant to change. This can then make the child become very agitated and not willing to learn. A child who is being abused can also become very withdrawn this can be caused by many different things but the main reason is that when a child is being abused the abuser usually tells the child to keep quiet about what is happening, this sometimes means a child becomes mute and will not speak to anyone about anything at all, they also will not make any facial expressions or use body language to express there feelings. This then can cause delays in a child speech and communication as they are not receiving any interaction with others as they are mute.

Psychological
The behaviour of a child can be very important. If a pupil is misbehaving it can become very difficult to teach them correct procedures for using speech and communicating. There are many ways in my placement we encourage good behaviour with Teaching methods, which are appropriate for children with AD/HD, these are to, understand the struggle a student with ADHD has and provide an ordered, safe, predictable classroom environment, Establish a trusting, working relationship with the persons parents, Learn about their child’s strengths, weaknesses, interests and achievements outside of school, Ask Parents or past teachers what teaching methods have been most effective with the child, Communicate often and send encouraging notes home in order for child to receive praise for doing good from parents and teacher, allow for time to speak to the student individually, Be respectful and express interest in his or her success in school by asking how he or she learns best, Make classroom rules clear and concise and explain the consequences for misbehaviour and enforce them, use a point system, tokens, stars, or other methods to encourage good behaviour. This would then allow you to teach the child language skills and not be distracted continuously with a pupil misbehaving, if the correct procedures are put in place a child’s behaviour can then be dealt with very quickly and a lesson the finished successfully. Communication with the child and teacher would improve and relationships would also be created.

Conclusion
There are many different types of learning approaches used in teaching people with language or communication difficulties, all of which include different strategies to help make a lasting change on a person’s life. Communication is not just about what people say to each other with words. It’s also about the meanings of peoples facial expressions, their tone of voice and the movements they make with their bodies to help explain things to others. Communication is about using all these things as well as words. I feel that communication is very important and without this we would be unable to learn in life and build relationships.

Bibliography

www.google.com

www.NHS.com

Learning support needs HNC 2010 George notes

Bibliography: www.google.com www.NHS.com Learning support needs HNC 2010 George notes