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| |    Language, Speech, and Communication by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P. It's helpful to draw some distinctions between language, speech, and communication. Knowing how these concepts differ from each other can help enrich your understanding of this wonderful area of development. Communication Babies communicate their basic needs through crying, reaching, and the expressions on their faces. They're largely conveying emotional states-happiness, anger, excitement, interest, and so on. Nonverbal communication is the main event for the first and second years of life. In fact, the word "infant" comes from a Latin word meaning "does not speak." Nonverbal communication is something that doesn't stop after infancy, of course. Once words come in, the nonverbal level of communication continues to be important. Think of all the information that you get by watching another person's eyes, or the abruptness or smoothness with which they move their arms as they talk. Nonverbal communication is really the foundation on which all language and speech depend. We've learned a lot about this from studies of children with autism. These children struggle to acquire language. One of their main problems is with nonverbal communication. They often have difficulty reading other people's facial expressions, for example, and sending clear emotional messages themselves. Language All languages use symbols in the form of spoken or written words or specific gestures to communicate ideas. The symbols are combined according to complex rules that are shared by everyone using the language. Learning language involves learning the symbols (words) and the rules about combining them (grammar). It's helpful to remember that language involves both sending messages and receiving them. Professionals call this expressive and receptive language. These are two different, but related, functions. For example, some adults who have had brain damage can understand, but cannot speak; others can speak, but cannot understand much of what is said to them. While children are learning language, they usually understand more than they can say. When the gap between skill in understanding and speaking is wide, receptive language (understanding) is a more reliable gauge of overall language development. This is the case with many, many children who are slow to start talking. Although they may say only a very few words until well after their second birthdays, often they "understand everything," as their parents comment. Evaluations show that they have normal hearing and development in other areas, and they usually catch up in speaking by age three or four. Speech Many people think of speech and language as being the same, but they really are different. Speech is part of language, but language also includes understanding (receptive language) as well as visual systems of communication, such as sign language and written language. In order to speak clearly, children have to learn how to coordinate their breathing muscles, vocal cords, palate, tongue, and lips. It's not surprising that with so many moving parts, the system sometimes doesn't work perfectly. Children who have difficulty speaking clearly, but who otherwise have normal language, often do very well with time, and perhaps a little speech therapy.
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