DEVELOPMENT
BY: BUTAWAN, DEANE BIANCA S.3
Cebu Doctors University Department of Rehabilitative
Sciences: Speech and Language Pathology
Authors note:
The Early Language stage is the primary point wherein
changes and obvious development can already be visible. In
this study, the various areas of development along with
anecdotes from the experience of direct observation and
bidirectional socialization with the participants will be
tackled separately for ease of reading. Participants names
are in initials in line with the agreement of confidentiality of
the study. For ease of reference, AR is 6 months, JB is 1 and
months and EY is 2 years old, all of which they befall
under the Early Language level.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Motor activity at this year is vital to the childs
competent development. Independence allows children at
this stage to explore their environment more extensively and
to initiate iteration with others, which will in turn shape other
aspects of development. One way to look at this initial stage
is through Jean Piagets Sensorimotor Stage that lasts from
birth to about age 2. It is in here that the child in Early
Language stage constructs an understanding of the world by
coordinating sensory experiences with physical motor
actions
In terms of developing motor skills, infants must
perceive something in the environment that motivates them
to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their
movements. This can be readily observed by the two infants
I observed, AR & JB aged 6 months and 1 year and 6 months
respectively, wherein they explore their world via the use of
their hands and mouth most of the time. In terms of Freuds
Psychosexual Stage, this can be seen as the Oral stage
with the help of an adult and this was made possible by how we
interacted with participant EY by correcting a few of his
pronunciations without necessarily pointing out he pronounced
the word incorrectly.
Through interaction with the child,
Information Processing executive attention (decision making)
and sustained attention is being honed. Also, OBJECT
PERMANENCE, the understanding that objects still exist even
when it is not seen, heard, or touched was also observed with EY.
When one of his toys is hidden behind my back and is asked
where it is, hed say tago, meaning its hidden.
For younger observed participants AR & JB, infants could
learn through B.F Skinners Oerant Conditioning. If an infants
behaviour is followed by a rewarding stimulus, the behaviour is
likely to recur. Infants can retain information from the
experience of being conditioned (Rovie-Collier, 1987). This was
evident in the way AR & JB would continuously make sounds
with their toys if they are given wide smiles and shown more
toys to play with. The way they play with toys and any object
for that matter, wherein they bang it with tables and hard
surface to make a sound is somehow related to Ivan Pavlovs
Classical conditioning in which a stimulus elicits a response.
The response would usually be in the form of a coo or a laugh
as they play with their toys.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
This age is where infants start to make babbles,
vocalizations and explore throughout consonant and vowel
syllables. This was evident in the way JB and AR interacted,
along with eye gaze with gestures. Eventually, there is more
preference for words rather than gestures exhibited by EY. EY
is able to speak in more than single words but not yet in
sentences. He has phonological processes and at times a mix
of jargons as well. In line with Chomskys Infinite Generativity,
the child operates as a mini linguist with the ability to
produce endless number of meaningful sentences. This notion
backs up the ability of children at this stage to be able to
explore throughout diferent words at almost without