Assessment of Language Development in a 23-Month-Old Child

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EARLY CHILDHOOD
Table of Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................2
Part B:..............................................................................................................................................4
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................5
Critical analysis of dialogues:......................................................................................................5
Feeling during the communication:.............................................................................................7
Identification of appropriateness of the dialogue:.......................................................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9

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EARLY CHILDHOOD
Part A
For doing assessment of an infant or a toddler, I chose a 23 month child after consulting
properly with my mentor. The parent of the child gave the consent via my mentor using the
center protocols for me to work with the child. After the consent was granted I spent the first
week of the placement to know about the infant. In this one week I carefully observed all the
activities of the child. The child can understand everything that is told to him but he cannot
speak. The child is facing difficulties in speaking. The child doing everything that is asked him
to do but when he is asked any question he responds by showing gestures or doing any activity
but never speaks. The child is not showing all the characteristics that a child of 23 months should
be. Normally social and emotional development occurs within this period of time. The child
starts understanding everything that is being told to him within this period of time. A child’s
physical movement is also quite grown up within this period of time and the most important
thing is the language and speech development. The development of languages is very rapid
within this period of time. This child is not speaking a single word to whatever he is asked. Thus
his language development has not occurred within these 23 months of age. The other
developments have occurred properly. He can understand everything he what he is told. He is
communicating with every on by nodding and showing physical gestures. He is very calm and
quite in comparison to other children of two years of age. The child does not shout as a child of
this age normally does.
I consulted with his parents regarding the priorities that he should get and also about
whether he has gone through any previous assessments for speech development or not. The
current status of development of this child with respect to both speech and language must be
compared with the development of his other social and physical development. Normally a child

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EARLY CHILDHOOD
can speak and develop language if the environment in which he is living has daily
communicative activities. The most important thing is that the family members of his child need
to talk and communicate with him properly time to time to develop his language. When I asked
his parents that whether he has gone through any previous assessments or not, they accepted that
he has gone through assessment before also but it failed. The child has not shown any
improvements in the developments of languages. Before some days, an educator used to come to
develop the skills of language of the child. The educator used to talk with the child for most of
the day, trying to make him talk with her. The educator also noticed that the child was not
talking, he was only listening to everything he was said. The educator used to tell stories to the
child so that he can speak but this time also he failed. The educator even forces the child to listen
to the music and used to listen the music together for the purpose starting conversation but the
child never spoke. He just smiled, giggled, noded his head as the response of listening to the
music. The teacher sometimes used to take the child to nearby playgrounds and parks so that he
can get the chance to meet with other boys. In the playgrounds he used to play with other
children present over there by only responding and showing bodily gestures. Even at such a
small age the child was introduced to television with the hope that he would start speaking by
listening all the interactions going on in the television. The child development the understanding
skills to large extent after going through all these assessments but the development of speech did
not occur.
My interaction with the child at the playground is given below. Here I represent me and C
represents the child.
*I Do you like to play games?
C (The child did not spoke, he was just staring at the blocks)