ClickCease

Importance of Language Development and Literacy in Children

Language-development-and-literacy

Importance of Language Development and Literacy in Children
Language development and literacy is no doubt a critical part of any child’s overall development. It supports the ability of your child to communicate, and express and understand feelings. It also supports your child’s thinking ability and helps them develop and maintain relationships.

Language development lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills in children as they enter and progress through school. Language is needed for all aspects of their education in the classroom as they connect with peers and teachers, and throughout their lives as they grow into adulthood. So, developing language skills is of absolute significance for every child’s progress in later life span both as social beings and in pursuing an education. Let’s dig deeper into this topic for better understanding of the facts!

Understanding the Link between Language Development and Literacy

Language development is very closely linked to literacy of a child. A plethora of research has been done on this topic and all have proven that early literacy is closely connected to language development in children during the kindergarten years.

The link between the two is quite natural because long before a child learns how to read words and recognize symbols, they develop and hone the skills required to understand how language works. Additionally, before the age of eight, children form the foundation for language and literacy development by discovering that speech has patterns and symbols have meaning. As a result, successful language development is a vital part of later achievement in reading.

However, many times, owing to different reasons language skill delays happen in children leading to inefficient vocabularies causing them to fall far behind the peers. Therefore, proper exposure to structured and age-appropriate instruction during the formative years of language and literacy development helps bridge this achievement gap.

Some of the Strategies to Support Language Development and Literacy include:

  • Building Varied Vocabulary
  • Increasing Phonological Awareness
  • Encouraging Story Comprehension Skills
  • Supporting Decoding Skills
  • Leveled Literacy Intervention

Risks Associated with Delayed Language and Literacy Development

There are many negative consequences of improper language development. So, if your child is showing signs of developmental delay or if they are late talker, simply adopting a wait and see attitude could prove to be a huge mistake. As per many research studies, delayed language development have been associated with:

  • Learning disabilities
  • Academic difficulties
  • Shyness and Social Difficulties
  • Anxiety Disorder
  • Behavioral Problems and ADHD

If you are concerned that your child is not keeping up with typical development with regard to language and literacy, you should always seek professional help from a pediatric neurorehabilitation professional. We at Hope AMC provide complete neurological rehabilitation assistance to such children. If you are in Dubai and need help with regard to your child’s language and literacy development, then seek help from our pediatric neurorehabilitation professionals.

How Can You Encourage Language Development and Literacy in Your Child?
The best method to encourage and boost your child’s speech and language skills is to do a lot of talking together about things that interest your child. You need to make the interaction with your child interesting, and keep responding to them so that they encouraged with the communication. When your child starts using words, you can repeat and build on what your child is saying. Talking about what’s happening in your daily day-to-day life together is a great method of increasing the number of words your child hears. You can talk about things that make sense to them, and during the conversation can use lots of different words and in different contexts. These can really help your child’s overall language development and literacy.

However, if you observe that your child is facing some extreme language development problems, then immediately consult with a professional specializing in neurorehabilitation treatments. If you are located in Dubai and are facing such problem, then you can come to us and our speech-language therapists will do their best to assist you.

By admin | February 1, 2019 | Categories: Advantages Speech Therapy Dubai | Tags:

38 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

Get in touch

Get in touch