Psychology of Language Development: Discussion Post and Review

This discussion post delves into the psychology of language development, exploring the interplay between biological factors and environmental influences. The author analyzes theories from Santrock (2015) and others, focusing on the impact of parental communication and socioeconomic factors on a child's vocabulary and sentence formation. The post highlights the significance of both inherent language wiring and social interactions, particularly the role of parents in fostering language acquisition through reading and verbal engagement. The author references developmental theories by Piaget, Erikson, and Vygotsky to rationalize the importance of parental involvement in children's language development. The conclusion emphasizes the combined influence of biology and social-parental characteristics in shaping a child's language skills.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: DISCUSSION POST
PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: DISCUSSION POST
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1PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: DISCUSSION POST
Introduction
A number of theories, perspectives and perceptions have been evidenced for the purpose
of understanding the development of language and speech in children (Conte & Ornaghi, 2019).
However my personal belief is that while social environments and parental influences play a key
role in a child’s language development, the process of language association in children, may be
in fact biologically acquired and wired.
Discussion
Example and Theory
Upon close examination of the video directed by Heather Cook, it can be observed that
the children’s language acquisition process and expression can largely be linked to the
theoretical perspectives of language development by Santrock (2015), which evidences a positive
association between a child’s vocabulary and the prevalent socioeconomic demographics and
verbal communication initiated by his or her parents. Key examples demonstrating both the
influence of biological wiring and social environment in a child’s language development is,
firstly where children begun to speak 2 word sentences by the age of 2 years without any
teaching possibly due to biological wiring) and secondly, where the four year old can effectively
differentiate incorrect and correct sentences as compared to a three year old (possible both
biological and social influence).
Position, Advocacy and Rationale
Thus, with respect to the theory and current evidence based literature, I believe the act of
parents reading out to their children is far from harmful and rather a beneficial and fulfilling act
to be engaged in. One can draw from relevant developmental theories to rationalize this

2PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: DISCUSSION POST
statement. Traditional theories of cognitive, psychosocial and social development by Piaget,
Eriksson and Vygotsky largely demonstrate the simultaneous role of children’s ability to
understand stimuli from the environment as well as the influence of elders in encouraging
learning and development in children (Conte & Ornaghi, 2019). Thus, parents are recommended
to engage in appropriate verbal communication and vocabulary usage so as to ensure positive
language development in children.
Conclusion
Thus to conclude, while language development in children at birth may be influenced
largely by biology, the influence of social and parental characteristics as the child aged cannot be
denied.

3PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: DISCUSSION POST
References
Conte, E., & Ornaghi, V. (2019). Early childhood development of theory of mind in typical and
atypical samples: Associations with language and social abilities. In 19th European
Conference on Developmental Psychology (pp. 242-242).
Santrock, J. (2015). Essentials of life-span development. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.