Promoting Useful Language in Children With Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

Burnard, Sonia

doi:10.1080/1363275960010304

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our empirical growth plots for vocabulary revealed that individual children often transition up or down in their language skills rank, with corresponding changes in engagement. This provides preliminary evidence that change in the trajectory of symbol skills is accompanied by change in the engagement trajectory, but this should be confirmed experimentally with young children given a language intervention, as has been done with older children (Burnard, 1996). Further, the relation between symbol skills and engagement skills should be studied in other social relationships.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Symbols Build Communication and Thought: The Role of Gestures and Words in the Development of Engagement Skills and Social‐emotional Concepts during Toddlerhood

Vallotton

Ayoub

2010

Social Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social skills and symbol skills are positively associated in middle childhood, but the relation between these domains is less clear in newly verbal toddlers. Vygotsky (1934Vygotsky ( /1986 proposed that symbols are both tools for interaction and mental tools for thought. Do symbols help even very young children build skills for interacting with and conceptualizing the social world? Longitudinal data from 108 children and mothers were collected when children were 14, 24, and 36 months. Children's gestures and words during mother-child interactions were used as symbol skill indicators to predict children's abilities to engage others and the number of social-emotional concepts children portray during play. In a series of growth models, words had a stronger effect on engagement skills while early gesture use predicted later development of social-emotional concepts. Therefore, even in early development, symbols serve as both communication tools and mental tools to construct understanding of the social-emotional world.Keywords social development; language; gesture; early childhood; symbol Even before children can consistently use language, symbols, in the form of words or gestures, facilitate social interactions of many kinds. By the time they are three years old, most children are adept at using words to engage and communicate with others, as well as to represent increasingly complex social concepts. But the beginnings of this connection between developmental domains can be seen in everyday interactions in infancy and toddlerhood, as illustrated by the anecdotes below.During a typical morning in an infant classroom, 13-month-old Ji-Yun turned to her caregiver and pointed out the window. The caregiver responded "You're pointing out the window. Do you see that bird in the tree?" Ji-Yun flapped both arms up and down, the gesture she learned to symbolize bird. "That's right," the caregiver said, "you see the bird." Ji-Yun smiled. She had successfully engaged her caregiver in a social interaction using simple gestures. iIn the toddler classroom next door, 23-month-old Daniel got his caregivers' attention, then pointed to a stuffed bear which lay on a wooden block. He put his Send correspondence to: Claire Vallotton, PhD 2G Human Ecology Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48823 Vallotto@msu.edu. i These anecdotes were observed by author Claire Vallotton at the UC Davis Center for Child and Family Studies, a laboratory school where symbolic gestures are modeled by caregivers. Names have been changed, but ages are accurate. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptSoc Dev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 August 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript finger in front of his mouth and said quietly, "Baby…" His caregiver replied, "Shh…is baby sleeping, Daniel?" Daniel nodded and put his finger in front of his mouth and said, "Shh."Ji-Yun demonstrates the use of gestures to begin and sustain an interaction,while Daniel's behavior illustrates how gestures and words can be u...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%