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Factors that could affect children's language development - Coggle…
Factors that could affect children's language development
Biological factors
Hearing impairments
Hearing impairments, whether permanent or temporary, can affect children's speech and language development. This is because they will not be able to hear clearly or at all the input that they need to develop an understanding of language and grammar.
Hearing impairments can also affect how children pronounce words, as they may not be able to hear themselves talk clearly. This can affect their ability to communicate, and therefore, how easily they are able to socialise. This can affect their confidence and self-esteem.
Physical impairments
Physical impairments such as a cleft palate can affect children's ability to pronounce and form words correctly, affecting how easily they can communicate.
This will in turn affect their self-esteem and confidence in social interactions, meaning that they may not have the social interactions needs to develop in other areas of speech and communication.
"speech problems – if a cleft palate is not repaired, it can lead to speech problems such as unclear or nasal-sounding speech when a child is older." - NHS.
Overview: Cleft lip and palate
, (2019) available from:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cleft-lip-and-palate/
[accessed 15 October 2020]
Speech dysfluency
It is natural for children to go through phases of speech dysfluency; pronouncing words incorrectly or repeating themselves without meaning to. However, it could cause problems if it persists, as it may affect their ability to communicate their thoughts and feelings clearly, which could lead to other problems.
Children's speech may become dysfluent when they are excited or agitated, and some children who suffer with a severe lack of confidence could develop a stutter. again, this is mostly a problem as it could affect how easily other's could understand them, and this could further impact their self-esteem.
Medical conditions
Some medical conditions can affect children's speech and language development through the impact they may have on a child's self-esteem and confidence.
Medical conditions may cause a child to be away from their normal social routines for extended periods of time, and this could affect their language development as they will not being getting the input from the interactions they would normally have.
Disorders
Disorders such as Autism can affect children's ability to learn communication and language as they may not be able to grasp the basic concepts required to develop a full and complete understanding.
Environmental factors
Additional languages
If English is not a child's first language, then they may lack the confidence needed to communicate with other children freely. This can affect their confidence (see emotional factors) and make it harder for them to interact with other children.
"It is important for you to encourage families to use their home language for linguistic as well as cultural reasons. Children learning English will typically go through a quiet phase when they do not say very much and may then use words in both languages in the same sentence." - Department for Education.
Development Matters
, (2020) p.13
Lack of language input
Children who have not had much communication with adults or positive role models may not have had the input needed in the early stages to help them develop an understanding of language.
There is the potential that this lack of linguistic stimulation will have a lasting effect; the child may find it hard to learn and understand the subtleties of communication and grammar in future if they have not had the correct input during this formative time of development.
Emotional factors
A lack of confidence or shyness can affect children's language development, as they may not have the confidence to talk. This will mean that they are not getting the repetitive practice needed to be able to fully develop clear speech and communication abilities.
This could be caused by socialising with an older or more confident friend or sibling - the friend or sibling may do all the talking for the younger or less confident child, resulting in that child not talking as much as they would do otherwise.