Article Review

Article: Saracho, O. N. (2017). Literacy and language: new developments in research, theory,
and practice.
Modern research shows that from birth, children have the ability to start developing

language skills by using what they already understand as a model for common patterns in all

languages. Basically, instead of our brains acting as clean sheets waiting to be written on after

birth, (Pinker, 2003) argues that the secrets to our language development may exist in more

natural and biological methods. However, previous researchers claimed that the process of

learning how to listen and speak was mainly through imitation, although this has today been

proven wrong by modern researchers who have shown that development of language skills occur

in a more complex way, given the fact that babies are born with a wide range of mental

capabilities (Kedar et al., 2006). In this paper I review my article which Literacy and language:

new developments in research, theory, and practice, which discusses the theories of language

development among children during early childhood.

Research that was done by Kedar et al. (2006) discovered that as early as the age of

eighteen months, children already possess the ability to recognize whether a sentence is

grammatically correct or not. The researchers argue that at the same age, children have

somehow also learned the common language fact that ing comes after the verb to be. Their

views are also in line with my results of my research which showed that children take critical

steps towards developing language skills very early in life. In short, language is believed to be a

separate piece of the biological component of the body that develops naturally. Indeed, medical

scans of the brain have shown that language development over time sculpts and reorganizes

various networks within the brain as a child grows and develops.

 The complex nature of the human brain and the various related systems continue to

amaze scientists to date. In my article, it is evident that the biological properties of the brain and

its abilities, including its functions in language development among children are only beginning

to be discovered. For a long time, researchers such as John Locke referred to a childs brain as a

blank slate (meaning a clean sheet that is waiting to be written on) and felt that children only

developed language abilities through repetition onto the blank slate (Ezell, 1983). However,

modern studies have shown that the brains of toddlers are much more complicated due to the fact

that babies are born with a wide range of remarkable abilities from the start. It is these

capabilities that are refined as the child grows and develops, but the biological and neural

capabilities are always present at birth. For example, babies usually already have the ability to

sense hunger, love, danger, and comfort among other complex capabilities through their sensory

networks and are able to communicate such senses through gestures or crying in spite of their not

fully formed brains.

It has also been shown that babies are able to recognize faces and basic shapes soon after

birth and begin to smile at six weeks (Pinker, 2003). I believe that with all the mentally aided

processes that babies are capable of, it is possible that they possess unique language abilities at

birth and begin to refine these skills throughput early childhood. In the article, these theories of

early childhood language development are discussed in depth, including how they relate to the

capabilities of infants to language development during early childhood. In general, this article is

very important in helping mothers, caregivers and preschool educators towards encouraging

language and speech development among the children continuously and lovingly.

References
Ezell, M. J. (1983). John Locke's Images of Childhood: Early Eighteenth Century Response to
Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Eighteenth Century Studies, 139-155.

Kedar, Y., Casasola, M., & Lust, B. (2006). Getting There Faster: 18and 24MonthOld Infants'
Use of Function Words to Determine Reference. Child Development, 77(2), 325-338.
Pinker, S. (2003). The language instinct: How the mind creates language. Penguin UK.