The development of language and communication
Language and Communication
Language is that tool of expression which is ever needed and is a prerequisite to begin with a discourse in the society. Speech is the natural gift to the human kind and it enables one to develop his/her own set of language that is in correspondence with the needs of the society. In order to enable the interpersonal communication, language is the one that is made use of. The development of language is a process that starts very early in human life, as an infant begins to make disrupted sounds like jabbering, though this becomes a category of verbal communication, but it is also meaningful to identify that in the stage of preverbal communication child does respond through gestures and vocalizations that are enough to let the communication take place.Language is an entity which is learned by every infant, and that language modifies itself according to the changing patterns and the beliefs in the society. Language is something which is though primarily responsible in helping a child acquire a cognitive recognition but at a personal level it is hearing (that is the listening activity) which is of prime importance (The linguist List, (n.d.)). An infant only makes cooing or babbling sounds in response to whatever he hears and whatever he sees. Thus, the infants only relate to their surroundings and thus the communication only takes place at a minor level. Cooing and babbling in such cases can be seen as an early stage where the infant thus develop a language because of the natural gift of speech. Little later the babies who grow around nine months old or bigger they start making sounds by comparing and adding syllables together, thus little words like ‘ma’/ ‘mama’ etc. are the ones which they utter. Also, the child who is almost a year old gradually relates to the little objects around him and calls them according to his own private dictionary (Kids Health, (2012)). Sometimes there might occur the problem for the child as the speech might be delayed in a case, when one observes that the child is finding trouble in marking out that from where are the sounds coming. Localization is that concept which means that a person/ child can identify from where a sound is coming. Normally a child would develop language and the communication skills from his surroundings. Before developing that sense of language, they model themselves on the pedestal that is set by the adults who take care of them. They learn from the dresses that are won by the parents, the body language that they use, table manners and such household activities (Elsevier, (2012)).
Importance of Speech and Language
It is important to know the difference between the speech and the language, speech is only a physical (natural) ability of any human being and language is something acquired and I developed through experience and age. Especially in the context of a child’s communication skills, it is important to see that a child’s language abilities differ from the ability to go by the speech, suppose if somebody asks a child “Is this your mama?”, the possible reply of the child would be “no, it’s my mama”, though the child is able to catch the word “mama” from the language system, but the child was unable to relate to the pronunciation aspect of it, thus the word ‘mama’ had a different imprint on his senses. Since, it is clear that speech and language are two distinct entities and are two independent abilities in context of their growth and development in a child, the emerging language system of a child doesn’t thus reflect upon speech in a much direct way (University of Michigan Health system, (2012)). In order to check that there is a common plane between these two linguistic entities it is vital to see that they both advance through different stages in that process. There comes a point of debate if one wants to check the rate at which the children learn language, and according to research it is found that such rates vary from time to time. it is usually seen that children learn in accordance with their own pace and they only chose that what they should learn (anything that is worthy of catching a child’s attention) and in correspondence with that the children have their own strategies to learn including language.
Unilateral Hearing Loss 
In case it is seen that a child is taking a long time to identify that who is speaking or from where the sound is coming the same should be checked for Unilateral hearing loss. This is a condition in which the child faces difficulty in understanding speech in crowded or the noisy situations. Thus, the blockage in the hearing process, cuts the way to understand the concept which is being expressed, thus there comes a gap between what is being said and the desired response in the same language, making the communication to fail (Gale Cengage Learning, (2009)). Moreover, because a child is developing the language once cannot expect from the child to fill any such gaps and create a language on his own.A typically growing child may face a speech developmental problem if the child acquires a UHL problem, because he is then only able to hear from one ear and not hearing from the other ear. This problem thus delays the response. To break the myth it is important to reflect that it is not a disease but only a disorder that acts as an obstacle in the way of development of a child’s communication capacity. Therefore, this disorder doesn’t keep him away from learning anything new, but only defers the process. The disorder thus let the children have difficulty in speech and expression. To study about the UHL disorder, one gets to know that that actual such type of hearing is mono-hearing, because the hearing becomes difficult if already there is a background noise present and in the children it thus loses almost one third of the capacity to hear, and if the hearing is deferred then definitely there is problem in communicating properly as the message that was sent by the source doesn’t reach the receiver and so it stands as a barrier in communication. Moreover, with this problem in children it is seen that they become the slow learners and somewhere they lag behind the children who have developed their language skills with respect to normal rate. This disorder cause, irritability, frequent headaches and strain on ears and mind, isolation, anxiety among the children when there is noise in the background, they can easily get puzzled when there are multiple sounds present around, also it gives rise to evasive behavior and social complex. There are seen chances when occurs the case of wrong interpretations of what kind of noise it might be. For sensory-neural hearing loss, it is found that the ghost beeps are heard by the children, facing this disorder (stemming from the disrupted sensory system). The increased problem has direct effect on the speech and thus speech comprehension is a huge problem in this respect (Hutson, Dunham and Tucci, (2008)).
Speech and Language Disorders
The adverse effect of UHL is that it affects speech and the language development pace of a child, the speech problem is the one that is there with the production of sounds and the disruption in language arises from the difficulty in joining the words together and communicating them in time and putting across the ideas. Thus, there occur the speech disorders that become problematic to be resolved, and are largely time consuming while they are put to approach. The first can be Articulation Disorder, this reflects the disorder as there occurs the difficulty in producing sounds while syllables are confused that the speaker remains unsuccessful in putting the message across. The next is Fluency Disorder; this brings out the speech problems like stuttering which is a sign of abnormal stoppages in the normal pace of talking, or there is stammering i.e. continuous repetitions in the speech that means prolonged sounds and the stretched syllables in a word or a sentence (Flipsen, (2006)). Thirdly, it can be a Resonance/Voice Disorder when a child acquires the problem with pitch, or balancing the volume according to the environmental need, managing the quality of the voice that might distract the receiver from receiving the message fruitfully. Such disorders are usually painful while the child speaks and therefore snatches away the comfort even from this very natural phenomenon (Kistler, Wightman, Rothpletz, (2012)). The disorder can also be Dysphagia (that is a feeding disorder), it has a difficulty with eating and swallowing food, thus letting the child not develop normally and thus is an obstacle in the overall development of the child. The disorders also affects the cognitive development because the speech and the language remains disturbed during the overall growth years of a child, such can be seen as Receptive Disorders, it is a difficulty that the child faces with the interpretation of the message that has been put across to him, thus a language delay because there is a problem in understanding the same and knowing that hoe it is being processed. Another is the Expressive disorder where lies a problem in putting words together because of the lack in understanding the grammar or the lexical system of a language, and thus it cannot be reproduced by the child in a societal domain, the way it is expected to be (Jerger, (2010)).
To resolve the complexity of UHL stricken children
The use of various Language intervention activities, like one should be careful that the child is present in a comfortable environment from where he finds it easy to listen to what is being expressed and that the position in which the child is seated should face the speaker, and especially the side from which the child should be able to listen to the person properly. It is important at the part of the parents that they should initiate eye-contact with their children. It is important to boost the children’s morale by focusing upon the stress that is given to important words which are normally used in the routine life of both the familial works and that are important for the child’s over-all development. As the main focus is to initiate hearing in such children, it is important to invoke their reaction to any expression that has been made by the parent or the guardian. Thus, asking question is the one important technique that can be repeatedly used to initiate response from the children. Encouraging the children to answer back to the query helps them overcome any social complex or any such anxiety that is related to speech or language. The use of rich vocabulary by the adults helps them achieve an increased level of knowledge because in turn it enriches their experience and update their personal library of words in the language that they use. The next activity can be the use of amusement activities like paying the hearing games, such games would be rhetorical in nature that would put questions to the children in a very obvious sense, like the utterance “I heard the bell ringing”, “I heard the door banging”, “I heard someone screaming”, this would actually put a check on the children with the listening disability to validate the comment that has been made by the individual. In case the response is incorrect it lets the other know about the status of the child’s disorder. In order to keep the child away from the unnecessary injuries and accidents on should avoid giving the child directions from another room, but should approach the child head-on, so that he doesn’t misinterprets the language or the message that has been communicated. Other than such activities various speech therapies could be used in order to cure the disorders at a faster pace which would in fact act as a catalyst in enhancing then the quality and the pace of a child’s development. Thus the professional therapies that can be inculcated in improving a child’s language development aspect, the first can be Articulation Therapy, this therapy practically helps the child towards gaining an effective speech and that would have an overall impact in curing the hearing impairment problem, that is telling the child how to roll the tongue in order to speak out different words or letters clearly, that would simultaneously include listening to one’s own pronunciation and is a healthy exercise for the listening activity as well. Secondly, the use of Oral Therapy can be made, this means the exercise of the face, the jaw and lip modulation so that the muscles of the face could be strengthened and that would definitely help in healing the hearing or listening impairments (McKay and Oyler, (2008)). Also, it helps in making the eating and swallowing activities easy for the child. According to the pediatricians and the speech experts the parental support is the best therapy that can heal a child off his hearing or language problematic. They are ones who remain ever present with their children and thus are the appropriate catalysts to help the children out of their language development issues (Child Development Institute Parenting Today, (2012)). Other than the professional or medical cures, the best medicine is love and affection that one can shower on a child besides his making mistakes and numerous complexes that s/he has related to the impairments the child is suffering from.
One may conclude that though Unilateral Hearing Loss, which is a hearing impairment causes slow rate of growth in terms of the child’s language and speech development, it is completely curable. There is just a need to encourage the children to never lose hope and keep working hard on themselves and also the adults around them can play a vital role in their development. The importance of language and communication is already highlighted in the paper centers on the children who lack the expertise that they should have already acquired in comparison to the children who have acquired speech and language proficiency with time (Sage Journals, (2012)). The rhetorical and intensive exercises plus the therapies that can help balancing the speech and have an overall impact in curing the hearing impairment should be used in curing the language issues in the early years of the child’s life. The treatment of this disorder should be done patiently by the individuals so that it doesn’t panic the child as the case may take a flip side by shattering the confidence or the self-esteem of the child. The mistakes that the child might make in the learning process should be overlooked and that would create wonders in the overall development of the children with the speech delay problem and with any hearing impairments.
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The development of language and communication
