Language Development F 9

289 Language Development9289 Language DevelopmentFrom their very first cries, human beings communicate with the world around them. Infants communicate through sounds (crying and cooing) and through body lan-guage (pointing and other gestures). However, sometime between 8 and 18 months of age, a major developmental milestone occurs when infants begin to use words to speak. Words are symbolic representations; that is, when a child says table, we understand that the word represents the object. Language can be defined as a system of symbols that is used to communicate. Although Language is used to communicate with others, we may also talk to ourselves and use words in our thinking. The words we use can inf luence the way we think about and understand our defining some basic aspects of Language that we use throughout the chapter, we describe some of the theories that are used to explain the amazing process by which we understand and produce Language .

290 Part III: Building Blocks of Development example, go has two phonemes: g and o, and check has three phonemes: ch, e, and ck (National Reading Panel, 2000a). Different languages have types of phonemes that are distinct. For instance, in Japanese, the length of a vowel can indicate a different word.

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