Princess Pearl P. Giron Gregoria Musni, Ph.D.

Factors affecting Early Language Stimulation

Language and literacy development does not begin in the first day a child attends
school. Human beings develop language, even before actual words are formed in
spoken language. From the time of birth, children’s literacy is influenced significantly
by their family and environment. Their teachers serve as only one influence on the
road to developing adequate literacy skills.
Children likely to develop literacy skills when the day they born. However, there are
several factors that affect a child to develop and master the language and literacy;
these some factors are in the following:
1. Children living in poverty
One of the most significant factors affecting children’s learning and development is
growing up in an area of social deprivation. Deprivation has a negative impact on
educational attainment. In the long term children who grow up in poverty leave school
with fewer qualifications and skills, which in turn affects jobs and employment. Poverty
is linked to poorer health and has been shown to have a negative impact on
engagement with society; for example, an increased likelihood that an individual will
engage in criminal activity.
2. Income and material deprivation
A low income has been shown to mean a lack access to books, computers, and other
reading materials and space to study quietly. It affects the quality of the home
environment and neighborhood as low income restricts where families can live. There
may be no quiet spaces in which to work to or sleep and this has an impact on
emotional well-being. Children’s diets may be inadequate because of lack of money,
and poor nutrition can lead to physical changes that affect cognitive ability and
performance of the brain.
3. Health
Low birth weight is more likely in children from lower socioeconomic groups and this
is associated with risks to cognitive and physical development throughout childhood.
Poorer children are likely to suffer poorer health throughout their childhood, including
chronic illness.
4. Cultural and social capital, and the experience of schooling
Some research has suggested that a lack of social and cultural capital leads to low
attainment for children living in poverty. I am suggested that children from lower
socioeconomic groups have different background knowledge skills and interests that
aren’t reflected in the school curriculum.
The differences in cultural capital mean that the curriculum is more difficult for these
children to access. The Social Exclusion Task Force reported that young people in
deprived communities often lack social capital: access to sources of inspiration, role
models, support and opportunity and even those children with high aspirations were
found to lack the understanding about what to do to achieve their goals.
5. Deficiencies from Inadequate Diets
A common problem for young children who do not eat enough meats and green
vegetables is lack of iron, which results in chronic fatigue. Serious iron deficiencies
lead to iron-deficiency anemia, a common nutrient deficiency. Some children may be
malnourished even though they consume enough calories. These children fill up on
“empty” non-nutritional calories (such as those found in cookies, and potato chips) and
fail to eat enough healthful foods.
Undernourished children tend to have stunted growth and delayed motor
development. They are also are at risk for cognitive disabilities such as low levels of
attention, learning impairments, and poor academic school-related performance.
6. Functional Isolation
Functional isolation results from direct and indirect effects of poor environment and
inadequate nutrition. Diminished brain from stimulation–influences children’s behavior.
The children may become more wary, easily tires, less attentive, and less playful, and
they rarely show delight and pleasure. Because these children are not very
responsive, caregivers do not interact with them much.
7. Parents as Teachers
Probably the most important one is spending time with children. Although most parents
are aware of the importance of reading to their children, not all parents routinely
provide this type of experience. Many children are read to very little or not at all, and
how often children are read to varies by income level and the race/ethnicity of the
family.
8. Parent-child relationship
This is concerns with social-emotional and interpersonal aspects that relate to literacy
practices. The absence of such relationships can be a detrimental factor in a child’s
emergent literacy development.
9. Parental Characteristics
There are two characteristics, the culture, ethnicity and parental beliefs. Culture and
ethnicity affects areas such as the expectations for education, the patterns for
language use in bilingual families (e.g., primary language used at home, language of
the community, bilingual education).Parental beliefs include the family’s beliefs about
the importance and role of the educational system in the literacy development of their
children.
10. Child Characteristics
It include the child’s level of engagement and social interaction in literacy-related
activities, as well as language proficiency, cognitive abilities, developmental
achievements, motivation, attention, and health conditions that might affect language
and literacy development. Each of the child characteristics can influence the extent to
which a child can use the support that the environment provides for early literacy
learning. For example, the substantial body of research demonstrating that preschool
children with language delays are at a significant risk for later difficulties in learning to
read indicates that factors within the child can influence emergent literacy
development.
11. Home LiteracyEnvironment
It includes such aspects as book sharing between parents and children, parents
reading aloud with their children, print materials being available to the children, and
parents’ positive attitudes towards literacy activities. The home literacy environment is
comprised of both direct and indirect literacy-related events. Direct literacy related
events are those in which the child engages, such as book sharing with a parent or
labeling the printed letters of the alphabet. Indirect literacy-related events are those
about which the child learns through the observation of individuals as they engage in
those activities (e.g., reading the newspaper, writing notes).
12. Teenage Mother
Teenage mothers generally have less knowledge of child development than mothers
who postpone childbearing. The teenage mother’s lack of general knowledge in child
development can affect the child’s cognitive achievement and behavioral adjustment
in school. The lack of understanding of development knowledge behavior can affect
the language and literacy of the child that may lead to physical and emotional harm.
13. Sex
Boys are faster than the girls in learning to talk. Compared to girls the mean length of
sentence uttered by boys is less. The comprehension vocabulary is also small in case
of boys. Boys commit more grammatical errors and their pronunciation is less
accurate. Sex differences in favor of girls remain and become quite pounced with
every increase in age.
14. Intelligence
Intelligence plays a vital role in language development. Babbling at an early age is
better predictor of child of child’s intelligence. Children of high intelligence show better
linguistic competence both in vocabulary, length of sentences uttered and correctness
of sentence structure.
15. Twins
Twins and triplets are slower to learn the language than the single child. Their
vocabulary skill is so faster than the twins.
16. Bilingual Homes
In bilingual homes the child face several problems to the language because the learn
more than two languages at a time so it is very difficult to child to remember the two
or three languages at a time.
17. Language of Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Children
Children with hearing impairments often do not develop oral language skills as fully as
other children do, but they are quite capable of acquiring a language of gestures called
American Sign Language.
But as these factors affect the language and literacy development of a child however
there are ways to avoid this if people will apply some circumstances like as the
following:
1. Teacher & Parents – Parents should promote cognitive development by
constructing an optimal learning environment in the home-they provide materials,
experiences, and encouragement that help children to become curious explorers of
their worlds.
When children are exposed to a large variety of learning materials in a safe
environment and when they receive encouragement for learning, they score higher on
tests of language development and cognitive development than do children with less
stimulating environments.
2. Story Telling – storytelling to children, exposing the child to different play things,
naming the object describing the object.
3. Family Support – parent(s) and/or primary caregiver(s) provide the child with high
levels of consistent and predictable love, physical care, and positive attention in ways
that are responsive to the child’s individuality.
4. Positive Family Communication – parent(s) and/or primary caregiver(s) express
themselves positively and respectfully, engaging young children in conversations that
invite their input.
5. Caring Climate in Child Care and Educational Settings – caregivers and teachers
create environments that are nurturing, accepting, encouraging, and secure.
6. Time at Home – the child spends most of her or his time at home participating in
family activities and playing constructively with parent(s) guiding TV and electronic
game use.
7. Early Literacy – the child enjoys a variety pre-reading activities including adults
reading to her or him daily, looking at and handling books, playing with a variety of
media, and showing interest in pictures, letters, and numbers.