Have you observed the learning capability of children nowadays? Comparing people’s learning capacity from the past decades and today, the younger generation has the fastest speed in learning development. Factors considered are the types of communities they inhabit in, the modernization of learning methods, techniques and equipments they use, and the like. Seeing the pace of their learning ability, you cannot underestimate the boundless potentials hidden inside these children.

In the language learning context, researches confirmed that children ages 1-12 have natural knowledge in language learning. When they learn other foreign languages prior to their native tongue, they have better cognitive abilities and richer vocabulary compared to adults who, in their grown-up age start to learn other languages.

Written by Caroline Bowen, she said that children in the 12th month and more can speak one or two words that they understand, or knows the meaning of it. They also obey simple requests like “Can I have your cup?” or commands like “Don’t touch!” They can also understand little questions like “Where’s your tummy?” and responds to it by touching their stomach. In ages 2 to 3, they are able to follow two-part instructions and connect two or three words together to talk about and ask for things.

The basic misconception of parent-to-children communication is that parents tend to assume that everything they say is understood by their children. They must recognize that children’s speech does not sound like adult’s speech. It is because children, as young as they are, make these so-called sound replacements. These sound replacements are termed by researchers as phonological processes.

Here are examples of phonological processes according to Caroline Bowen.

• Context Sensitive Voicing- usually disappeared from a child’s speech sound system by 3 years.
  • Example: cup= gup

• Word Final Devoicing- normally goes out at age 3, then finally deletes it after 3 months.
  • Example: bed= bet

• Velar Fronting- continues about ages 3 years and 6 months
  • Example: car= tar

• Constant Harmony- persists until 3.9 years.
  • Example: kitty cat= titty kat

• Weak Syllable Deletion- common to 4-year old children.
  • Example: elephant= effant

• Cluster Reduction
  • Example: spoon= boon

• Gliding of Liquids- usually disappears during 5th years.
  • Example: leg= weg

• Stopping of F, and S – stops at age 3.
  • Example: fish= tish or Say= tay

• Stopping of Z - often persists at ages 3.6
  • Example: peas= pead

• Stopping of SH, J, and CH- eliminated at ages 4.6
  • Examples:  shop= dop; jack= dack; chin= tin

• Stopping of TH- can go on until 5.0
  • Example: this= dis; That= dat

With children undergoing such kind of processes, parents are required with great patience and immense understanding. They need the adults to help them maximize their potentials. The role of parents to their children’s language learning is to believe in their ability to acquire knowledge, despite of their immature quality. Likewise, parents must continually interact with their conversation. Particularly, parents are the nearest persons kids can converse with, thus plays a vital role for their growth and development.

Inside these children are potentials to become future linguists, business tycoons, engineers, or even the next president of a progressive nation. You never know what these youngsters are capable of. If they would be trained and equipped with enough knowledge, enrolled to institutions that would help them rise to their potential, then the older generation would witness the marvelous acts they boundlessly are capable of doing.

Ten to fifteen years from now, these children will mark history with their unlimited skills and ability. See it for yourself.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 8:26 am and is filed under Language and Science, Young Learners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.