Learning a language

The important factors that affect the early stages of language development

All children are expected to effortlessly develop speech and language skills. Learning to speak a language is something that does not require much by itself and is highly co-related to the characteristics of the environment in which children learn to communicate.
In general, a child’s social background is very relevant. To be specific, the ‘quality of communication’ is the most important of the social background factors. The quality of communication in the early years of childhood is a function of the following five:
a. The amount of vocabulary spoken
b. The diversity of vocabulary
c. The cumulative amount of time spoken in a day (to ensure repetition)
d. The content of communication
e. The variations used in the context of vocabulary used
A communication rich in the above mentioned five contexts will necessarily demand:
a. Hands-on parents
b. A sincere attitude towards education and learning at home, kins and neighbourhood
c. Many more close family and friends of different age, education, interests
d. Some peer children from not too different backgrounds in the neighbourhood
e. Books, toys, some audio-visuals, outdoor play, etc. but limited TV or computer games at home
To summarise, a language-rich context around children is all that counts in language development in the early years of childhood.

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