Language Development Fagus Guides > Language Development Contents How to Use this Guide to Set Goals Introduction Expressive Language          Developmental Sequence Overview          Infancy                                 (0-2 years)          Early Childhood   …

How to Use This Guide to Set Goals Fagus Guides > Language Development How to Use This Guide to Set Goals Read the definition at the beginning of the introduction to familiarise yourself with the topic (decide if you want to read more of the introduction). Establish the child’s current point of development – where…

Introduction Fagus Guides > Language Development Language Development The use of language can be summarised in 3 processes – expressive language, receptive language and pragmatics (see Figure 1). Expressive language is the output of words and sentences. It involves the articulation of sounds to form words and the linking of words to form sentences. Expressive…

Expressive Language Development Fagus Guides > Language Development Expressive Language Development Figure 3. An overview of the development of expressive language during childhood and adolescence. Fagus Guides > Language Development

Expressive Language: Infancy (0-2 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Expressive Language: Infancy (0-2 years) Birth few vocalisations other than crying uses crying to signal needs however this crying is undifferentiated for different needs; listeners are unable to distinguish whether the cry indicates hunger, discomfort or pain 1 month makes pleasure and cooing sounds when…

Expressive Language: Early Childhood (2-7 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Expressive Language: Early Childhood (2-7 years) 2 years uses 50+ recognisable words asks ‘what’ and ‘who’ questions correctly repeats what and who questions that they have heard before, but may make errors when constructing their own questions often memorised as a single unit of…

Expressive Language: Middle Childhood (7-11 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Expressive Language: Middle Childhood (7-11 years) uses approximately 13,000-19,000 words at 9 years (please note that this number varies depending on the source of information) talks using sentences of up to 7-11 words uses complex sentences containing more advanced connectives (e.g. ‘therefore’, ‘meanwhile’) uses…

Expressive Language: Adolescence (11-19 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Expressive Language: Adolescence (11-19 years) Early adolescence (11-14 years) uses sentences made up of 7-12+ words, although shorter sentences are often used during conversations uses prefixes and suffixes correctly uses a wide range of adjectives and expressions uses academic words in formal tasks confidently explains…

Receptive Language Development Fagus Guides > Language Development Receptive Language Development Figure 4. An overview of the development of expressive language during childhood and adolescence. Fagus Guides > Language Development

Receptive Language: Infancy (0-2 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Receptive Language: Infancy (0-2 years) Birth specialised brain areas are activated by speech from birth preference to listen to speech (vs. nonspeech) from birth cries in response to sudden noise (startle response) lies still in response to new sounds 1 month blinks or widens eyes…

Receptive Language: Early Childhood (2-7 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Receptive Language: Early Childhood (2-7 years) 2 years continues to echo sounds and words that they hear becoming increasingly sensitive to the intentions of the speaker uses cues from the speaker to decipher the meaning of novel words associates novel words with whatever is…

Receptive Language: Middle Childhood (7-11 years) Fagus Guides > Language Development Receptive Language: Middle Childhood (7-11 years) understands (and explains) that a word can have two meanings understands that there are different types of questions and that these require different responses (e.g. gives detailed answers to open questions, yes/no answers to closed questions and knows…