Language Development is a process starting early in human life. Infants start without language, yet by 4 months of age, babies can discriminate speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice.
Usually, productive language is considered to begin with a stage of preverbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intents known to others. According to a general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions which they had already expressed by preverbal means.
Deaf Child:
About 1 in every 1,000 American infants is born deaf.Over 90% of deaf children have hearing parents.These children are often delayed in language and complex make-believe play.
Deaf infants and toddlers seem to master sign language in much the same way and at about the same pace that hearing children master spoken language.
Deaf 10-month-olds often “babble” in signs: they produce signs that are meaningless but resemble the tempo and duration of real signs.
Compared to hearing children, babbling of deaf children is delayed.
However, if they are exposed to sign language development will be right on schedule with normal-hearing children’s speech development.
Hearing “dog”, infants in the middle of the first year of life may first say “dod” then “gog” before finally saying “dog” correctly.
The same gradual progression will occur with sign language – infants will make mistakes at first before making the correct sign for dog.Deaf children display their own form of babbling – Infants who cannot hear and who are exposed to sign language babble with their hands instead of their voices.
Regardless of hearing or deaf, babbling progresses from the sounds that are simplest to the more complex.
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