Phonology is the system of sounds that occur in a language. When babies begin making their first sounds in the prelinguistic speech stage, they are experimenting with the phonology of language. It has been demonstrated that babies around the world all make similar ‘baby talk’, and the time their speech is distinguishable comes with the first words of the child.

Syntax is the set of rules, grammar, of a language. The syntactical aspects of language are demonstrated in children from age four or five. They can use four to six word sentences, understand and follow 3 step instructions, use present tense, plurals, past tense, possessive language (eg: Blake’s), negatives, conjunctions (eg: and, because), pronouns and prepositions.

Semantics is the meaning of words. Children discover meaning when they learn their first words. They

With maturation, children’ speech begins to sound more like that of adults. Sentences increase in length, and become more complex. Ultimately, everything once omitted in telegraphic speech, auxiliary verbs, verb endings, prepositions and pronouns, are included in the children’s everyday language. By around age four or five, children typically have developed a control of oral language, vast experience with oral and written language and may be reading environmental print and learned to associate print with reading.

continue to learn meaning as they bombard their parents with endless ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions, as they are read to and as they experience the world, for example, at a Child Care Centre or at school.

Cultural background has a major influence on a child’s learning of language. Some studies have discovered different theories as to whether the cultural background of child makes them more or less intelligent. The Deficit view made the assumption that if we could modify the language children brought to school, and their home practices, the children would achieve success in later school life. The Difference view, thought of by William Labov (1970), says that the ghetto children in America live in a very verbal culture, and have the same core vocabulary as middle class children of the same age. In the test situation, the ghetto children did poorly in understanding verbal routines, but they have in depth and complex conversations amongst themselves in the play corner. The Cultural Discontinuity view, from Basil Bernstein, suggests that varied achievement levels weren’t related to a difference in underlying linguistic ability, but to a child’s language socialisation. Working class families speak in ‘restricted code’, while the middle class family speaks in more elaborated code, with more exact and explicit communication. Whatever theory is taken into account, cultural background, and socioeconomic background, plays a big role in the development of language in children.

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