Language development

Abstract

The ability to communicate using language is one of the most basic human traits. It involves learning to understand and produce an abstract and complex linguistic code, providing the foundation for social interaction, personal relationships, reading, writing, problem-solving, formal learning and personal well-being. This chapter presents detailed charts outlining children's speech and language development, and also some of the main developmental milestones of, and influences on, the language development of typically developing pre-school children. The development of infant phonetic discrimination is influenced by the quality of mother-infant interaction. Some children experience delays or problems in acquiring the sounds, meanings and grammatical structures of their language. Others experience difficulty using language socially. Such delays may or may not be transient and are often the first signs of a problem related to hearing, cognition or other areas of development. They may also be indicative of a developmental language disorder.