LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Language Acquisition in Early Childhood



Language Acquisition in Early Childhood

Introduction

Early childhood is a period of development that spans the ages from 3 to 5 years, between the end of the toddler years and the start of first grade. It is the time in the young child's life when the foundation is laid for physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social-emotional abilities that will expand throughout life. Yet there is an unmistakable quality to early childhood that makes it one of the most interesting and charming periods of human development. This paper discusses language acquisition in early childhood in a concise and comprehensive way.

Language Acquisition in Early Childhood: A Discussion

Bialystok (2001) mentions with the start of the early childhood years, babyhood rapidly becomes a thing of the past. The chubby, big-headed body of the baby becomes transformed into the more sure-footed, slimmer, and proportioned physique of the young child. The three- and four-word utterances used for the basic communication of wants and needs now blossoms into grammatically correct and complex sentences. There are great advances in children's thinking about real-world events, which is often expressed in creative ways through pretend play, drawing, and painting. But children's thinking is also characterized by a form of egocentrism in which inanimate objects are given human qualities (Bialystok, 2001), such as when young children believe that the moon and the sun follow them when they move, that dreams are movies shown on closed eyelids, and that all activity of the world ceases when the child is asleep. This type of thinking is endearing and amusing but can also cause young children to have nightmares and irrational fears of monsters in the closet and alligators under the bed and lead to the need to summon imaginary playmates as friends and protectors.

In words of Butler & Hakuta (2006) brain development is an important aspect of physical growth during early childhood. The brain continues to increase in size and weight, although at a slower rate than previously. New synapses, or connections between neurons, continue to form, and previously established connections become stronger. Some synapses that were present at birth will be pruned away due to inactivity, as experience continues to sculpt the brain. The two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, or the upper layer of the brain, become more lateralized, or specialized, in their functions, with the left hemisphere becoming dominant for many language functions and the right hemisphere dominant for many motor functions. Research shows that there is especially strong electrical activity in the left hemisphere of the brain from 3 to 6 years of age, while electrical activity in the right hemisphere remains at levels constant to those throughout childhood. This increased activity in the left hemisphere may be important for the many advances in language and cognition that appear in early childhood (Butler & Hakuta, 2006).

Van (2005) mentions throughout early childhood, the process of myelination, or the appearance of a fatty substance along the body of the neuron, persists and provides insulation to make ...