The role of speech in development

In child development, language plays a crucial role as a component of communication. Language and cognition are closely linked to each other.

Language helps individuals express their own thoughts. Communication involves understanding another person's thoughts and expressing one's own thoughts while listening and responding to others. Based on these criteria, language is classified as receptive (what one hears) and expressive (what one can say).

Receptive language determines how accurately a child understands instructions. For example, bringing a named object, following directions, and so on.

Expressive language encompasses a child's ability to verbally express various contents. A child starts by babbling, then progresses to single words, and finally begins to combine words and phrases. Over time, children use more words and develop more complex grammatical and syntactic structures, expanding their expressive language.

A child's language development progresses alongside their cognitive development stages.

From 0 to 1 year, children interact with each other, seeking similarities and differences, evaluating events. They gather information about words through observation, trial, and error.

From 1 to 3 years, children can understand and grasp the meaning of what they hear. They use words and gestures to express their own thoughts and engage in structured conversations.

From 5 to 6 years, children can understand and comprehend what they hear. They use words and gestures to express their own thoughts and engage in structured conversations. Children in this age group have the ability to participate in informal conversations, making suggestions and contributions (expressive language).

To determine the criteria for these indicators, there are indicators that allow us to understand how closely a child's language development level adheres to the norm. This indicator may include the number of words spoken by the child, their reaction to calling, etc.