Noam Choomsky's Approach To Life-Span Development

Language is used every day in life whether it’s written, through sign language, or spoken, and without the language concept it would be very hard to communicate with one another. Language is a key part in communication, and has been the main topic debated by many theorist and researchers. Over time there have been many theories developed about where language comes from and how it is developed. There have been many questions concerning language development, but the two main question are whether language is a natural born occurrence or if it is learned through reinforcement and teachings. One of these theories comes from a man named Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believed humans are biologically born being able to understand and learn language at a certain

He also believed humans can detect certain features and rules of language as soon as birth (A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development, John W. Sandtrock, pg.307). Over time there have been researchers who have questioned Chomsky’s theory, and believe language can only be taught and learned and nothing more. I do not agree with Chomsky that humans are biologically born with the ability to communicate and understand language from birth. however, I do believe language is developed over a period of time, and factors such as how a caregiver interacts with an infant and the type of environment a child is raised in must be taken into account when it comes to language.

Communication between an infant and its caregiver plays a very important role in a child’s language development. Language development begins at an early age, but it has to be learned. A baby’s language may not be something that we understand, but as adults we eventually learn how to distinguished what they want. As a mother of three I have learned that the more I

Some children aren’t raised in a rich language environment due to many factors. Sometimes children aren’t exposed to much language and this delays their language developments. I know this from experience. My nephew who is now three years old has trouble talking and expressing what he wants and what is wrong with him due to the fact that he wasn’t exposed to much language. His mom suffered from severe depression and due to this he wasn’t spoken to or interacted with very much. According Tonya R. Bergeson, children whose caregivers suffer from depression have a more difficult time learning speech because they are spoken to in monotones of flat affects and this is likely to have effects on that child’s language development (Tanya R. Bergeson, Spoken Language Development in infants who are deaf or hard of hearing: The Role of Maternal Infant- Directed Speech, pg. 172). My nephew has a vocabulary of as little as thirty words when he should have a vocabulary of more than two hundred words. He is currently enrolled in language development classes to help him better develop his language skills and vocabulary. If a child isn’t in an environment where they’re not being interacted with and where a strong language system isn’t in place it will cause a delay in their language development.

Language development has everything to do with environment and how a child is exposed to language. Humans are not born knowing language and grammar usage,