Introduction
The concept of early development opens a plethora of opportunities for a child. The latter may acquire the information that will help them grow as a young learner at a very fast pace and become a lifelong learner. By creating the environment that will spur the young learner’s enthusiasm for studying and avoiding the factors hindering early social and instructional language development (ELD), teachers and parents will be able to encourage a child for academic progress.
Situations Fostering Early Language Development
As a rule, to create a situation that promotes ELD, active participation of parent is highly required. One of such situations presupposes that one of the parents (or both, if needed) reads a story to the child and engages the latter into the discussion of characters, their actions, etc. To facilitate such a situation, it is recommended to find a book with big and colorful pictures that the child can scrutinize for details.
Another situation that fosters ELD, engaging the child in a specific exercise while the child is listening to music should be listed. It is also highly desirable that the music should belong to the classic genre; surprisingly enough, classic rock music also works as a background for the child to be creative and develop their language skills (Aspire Training & Consulting, 2010).
Finally, ELD can be enhanced by creating a situation, in which a child communicates with a parent or both parents. The theme of the conversation may concern pretty much anything; for example, the parents may help the child learn new words by playing a game (e.g., showing drawings of objects and suggesting the child to name them). The important thing is that in the course of such communication, a child establishes positive and trustworthy relationships with their parents. As a result, the environment fostering ELD emerges.
Situations Hindering Early Language Development
Parents and teachers of young learners, however, have to be extremely cautious about the situations that they create when promoting ELD to the latter. Some of the situations hindering ELD are menacingly similar to those that trigger the desired process. For example, it has been mentioned above that listening to music encourages ELD in a learner. Such a background noise as a TV broadcast, however, may slow he ELD process down considerably. In the situation, when parents are reluctant to spend time with their child and leave the latter to be baby-set by “uncle Television” for a while, the young learner ceases to work on their language skills.
The same goes for the situation, when a child is excited about telling something to their parents, and the latter, instead of sharing the learner’s enthusiasm, correct the mistakes that the child makes. Mistakes correction is important, yet it has to be delicate; otherwise, a young learner will feel discouraged from continuing the cognition process. Finally, the situation, in which parents leave their child with the discoveries of the young learner without any attention must be avoided at all costs (Aspire Training & Consulting, 2010).
Early and Subsequent Language Development
ELD is essential, since it defines the further language development of a child. If a child misses the specified stage and will not receive the amount of information needed, they will lose the chance to develop proper language skills for good. The studies of the so-called feral children show that even with enhanced training at the later stages, a learner will never be able to get their ideas across without ELD (Evangelou, Sylva & Kyriacou, 2009).
Conclusion
Though the importance of ELD is a common knowledge, the significance of the phenomenon is not emphasized enough. Since ELD affects the following acquisition of language skills of a student, it is imperative that the proper environment for ELD should be created. By reducing the negative effects and enhancing the student friendly environment, parents may enhance ELD in a child.
Reference List
Aspire Training & Consulting. (2010). Foster cognitive development in early childhood. Melbourne, AU: Aspire Training & Consulting. Web.
Evangelou, M., Sylva, K. & Kyriacou, M. (2009). Early years learning and development literature review. Oxford, UK: University of Oxford. Web.