Language development during middle childhood

Between the ages of 4 and 5, the development of language skills increases rapidly but thereafter, it occurs at a slower pace. Around the age of 9 it starts to increase again when significant language development and refinement takes place.   

 

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The length and complexity of the sentences that schoolchildren use increase and certain grammatical forms, such as the passive voice, are completely mastered at school.  For example, the child can then understand sentences such as “The chocolate was eaten by the boy”.   Their vocabulary increases everyday as they learn all these new words and their meanings.  As preschoolers, they understand concrete meanings of words such as good, hard, hot, sour, hungry, but as they grow, the abstract meaning of words becomes clearer.  

Eventually, by the age of 8, they can already begin to understand sarcasm in the tone of voice by which it is said.  They then start understanding figurative speech such as "She has a heart of gold", as well as opposites, for example if the father would tell him/her "You have such clean feet", while his/her feet are actually very dirty, they would understand that it is the opposite of what was said.  

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As they get older, they start experimenting more and more with words.  They become fascinated with jokes and riddles and the facial expressions that comes along with it.   

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The language development of  the middle school child also includes the ability to switch from person to person.  They would not speak the same way to their parents or teachers as they speak to their friends.  To an adult, they would choose their words wisely but with friends, the language is more socially adjustable.  They therefore tend to correct another child’s language quickly and even make fun of him or her.  Children not only become efficient in one language, but in most cases they are also increasingly exposed to other languages. They acquire bilingualism or multilingualism through two processes: 

• The simultaneous learning of languages; or 
• Through consecutive learning. 

If two languages are learned simultaneously from birth, the one generally does not dominate the other, and each language is developed in its own right. When a second language is acquired successively, the words of the ‘weaker’ language (or the second language) are initially parasitical to the first. This means that children apply the syntactical patterns and phonetic structures of the first language to the second language.  

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When one watches how skillfully children switch from one language to another for different purposes, one can only marvel at the degree of their multiple proficiencies.  

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