LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

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Language is the basic symbol used by human beings for communicating with one another. It is a set of standardized verbal symbols that are used to communicate information and to verbalize thoughts and desires. Broadly speaking, it encompasses every means of communication in which thoughts and feelings are expressed so as to convey appropriate meanings.

Some of the ways of communication include the production of sounds. It is worthy of note to mention that sound is not necessarily language.Before sound can be said to be language, it must have meaning to the user, must be produced or pronounced in a particular manner and must be understood by the listeners or other members of the society who are users of the same language.

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Language development follows a sequential pattern, implying that the child perfects one stage before proceeding to the next.
First, the child is capable of making incoherent and reflex sounds consisting of babbling and cooing. Gradually, the vocal apparatus progressively matures during which the child learns to coordinate the movement of the lips, tongue, jaws, larynx and voice box.
Development and use of language ability progressively improves just like motor abilities. Also, there is a positive correlation between physical maturation and language maturity; therefore, different language abilities can be expected at different ages.