The Gift of the Gab: How Children Learn to Communicate

From a simple smile to a profound debate on morals and ethics, communication is the bedrock for building relationships and, importantly, expressing our deepest emotions. Non-verbal communication, such as body language and facial expressions, also plays a significant role in this process.

What is Communication?

Communication is a complex system of skills. It is the cornerstone of all human interaction. It enables us to connect, interact, and comprehend the world.

As adults, it's easy to overlook the marvel of how we learned to communicate, often taking it for granted as a skill we've always possessed. However, it's a fascinating process that begins before birth and continues to evolve into adulthood. It's truly awe-inspiring that children are born with an innate ability to acquire language, a remarkable feat that never ceases to amaze.

The environment around a child will heavily influence the speed at which they grasp language skills in their environment. Caregivers, in particular, hold a pivotal role in this process. Their understanding of how children learn to communicate equips them to guide the young ones on this crucial journey, making them important and indispensable in the child's language development.

The Role of Nature: Children are Born Ready to Learn

Specific areas in the brain (known as neural networks) are dedicated to language processing and production tasks. (See Broca and Wernicke)

Neural Networks

These neural networks allow children to decipher sounds, assign meaning to words, and generate sounds (speech). The ‘neurological wiring’, a term used to describe the connections and pathways formed in the brain as a result of these activities, becomes the blueprint for which language skills are built.

We are Social Beings

Humans are inherently social beings, and from infancy, we all have an innate drive for connection. This shared trait makes studying communication and language development fascinating and relevant. (See The cooperative human)

Babies respond to faces (and facial expressions), voices (and the tone used), and interactions with caregivers. They instinctively seek to understand and engage with their caregivers, driven by a deep-rooted social instinct. This instinct fuels their desire to interact and communicate, bridging the gap between themselves and the world around them. (See Baby Talk)

The Role of Nurture: Using Environments to Develop Language

While nature (the genetic and biological factors that influence development) has done its part to help children develop communication skills by creating a brain capable of learning language, along with senses that will allow them to express what their brain has learnt, it is now down to nurture (the environmental factors that influence development) to promote language and communication skills.

Language Immersion

Parents and caregivers should proactively expose children to language from as young as possible. This is what a child’s brain thrives on.

Hearing spoken language in different formats, such as through conversation, stories, songs and rhymes, will help children absorb the nuances associated with language, which, over time, will expand their vocabulary and comprehension.

Caregiver Interactions

A responsive caregiver is crucial to a child’s language skill development. By engaging in back-and-fourth exchanges, mirroring babbling sounds, responding to gestures and using facial expressions, the caregiver creates a dynamic and supportive environment for language learning. (See The role of caregiver speech in supporting language development)

Learning Through Play

Play creates more than a pastime; it is a gateway to language and communication development. Children can use pretend play to develop scenarios, assign roles, and negotiate meaning while practising communication skills. (See Importance of Pretend Play)

The Stages of Communication Development

While all children will develop at a slightly different rate, generally speaking, children will go through the following stages between 0 and 5.

Pre-linguistic (0-12 months)

This is where communication is primarily non-verbal and where babies will express themselves through sounds, coos, cries and babbles rather than words.

These sounds and gestures lay the foundation for future language skills. Babies experiment with sounds during this stage and learn to respond to cues.

Early Language (12-24 months)

During this stage, children will develop their first words, likely the words they commonly hear in their environment, such as ‘Mummy’ or ‘Daddy’.

Towards the latter end of this stage, two-word phrases might appear, allowing children to express their desires and needs, such as ‘want toy’ or ‘need drink’. Children can also begin to understand simple instructions and start to ask questions.

Developing Language (2-5 years)

As language skills develop, you will see a sudden increase in how many words a child can recognise. Studies show that once babies understand words, their vocabulary grows. It is estimated that by age 3, children will recognise around 1,000 words; however, by age 5, this has increased 10-fold to around 10,000 words. (See Exploring Language in Early Years)

Children can start to create and understand narratives (such as a storyline in a book or film) and ask ‘why’ questions as they attempt to understand more and more things. As children progress through this stage, their imagination increases, allowing for imaginative play with elaborate storylines.

School Age (5+ years)

Children's language skills continue to develop and encompass reading, writing, and more nuanced forms of communication. Children can adapt their communication and language skills to different contexts, understand humour and sarcasm, and engage in more complex conversations.

The ability to develop abstract thinking allows them to express abstract ideas and engage in critical thinking and reflection. (See also Language in 5-8 Year Olds)

Nurturing Communication as a Shared Responsibility

Everyone involved in a child's life is responsible for nurturing communication and language skills. This can include (but is not limited to) parents, caregivers and teachers. (See Nurturing Communication in Early Childhood ).

Some strategies that will help to nurture these skills include:

Engaging in Meaningful Conversations from the get-go

Children are never too young to listen to you; you should talk to them as early as possible, even if they cannot respond verbally.

Describing your actions (Mummy is baking a cake), narrating your day (Today we are going shopping and then to the park), and engaging them in simple dialogues (What should we cook for dinner) will all help to enhance their vocabulary.

You can encourage them to express their thoughts and feelings when mixed with open-ended questions (Should we read a book or watch a film?).

Active Listening

Pay close attention to your child’s attempts at communicating with you, whether babbling, smiling or using words. Ensure that you respond to these attempts enthusiastically and acknowledge their communication efforts.

This will show them that you have a genuine interest in what they are trying to communicate and help to create a safe and encouraging space where they can express themselves.

As a parent or caregiver, your attentive and supportive listening is crucial to their language development.

Create Literacy-Rich Environments

Surround your child with books, magazines and writing materials. Combining this with reading aloud with your child, visiting libraries and bookshops, and making storytelling part of your daily routine will foster a love of language and literacy, enhance their creativity, and provide a strong foundation for future academic success.

Balance the Use of Technology

Technology is a beautiful thing, and with things like audiobooks, e-books and online comics easily accessible, it would be easy to pass a child an iPad and leave them to it; however, no matter how useful and valuable technology is (or becomes), it will never replace the priceless experience of real-life interactions which involve face-to-face communication, playing games, singing songs or doing arts and crafts together.

Conclusion

Anyone involved in a child's life is responsible for nurturing and developing their language and communication skills; this must start from birth. While babies will not understand the meaning of words, they absorb the sounds and rhythms of language, which is a crucial first step in learning to communicate.

You should respond and encourage any attempts at communicating by acknowledging babbling, gestures, and early words, which can be further promoted by creating language and literacy-rich environments.

Lastly, be patient; children all develop at their own pace. Just because your friend's baby said their first word at 12 months does not mean something is wrong with yours. Language development takes time; however, should you be concerned, reach out to your GP, Paediatrician or a speech and language specialist.