How do children develop pragmatic and conversation skills and how Essay

How do children develop pragmatic and conversation skills and how might their communication be affected by a disability at this - Essay Example Moreover, it was also observed that children tend to speak differently to their fellow children compared to how they converse with older people. Therefore, pragmatics also became an important aspect in the researches. The above-mentioned studies will be discussed further in this paper including the fact that there are also instances wherein conversation and pragmatic skills are affected by cases of disorders. In the modern world, children with disabilities are increasing. Nevertheless, instead of treating them as invalid, more and more advocates are suggesting that these special people should be treated as normal people who are able to do things just like the others who have no disabilities. Therefore, it is most important to look further into these conditions and consider how their communication skills are affected in order for normal people to adjust to their conditions and understand them, instead of worsening their situations. II. Children Discourse Parents are known to be the fi rst teachers of their children because as expected, they are the very first ones to be dealing with the child at home. They may not often be aware of it, but they are teaching children conversational and pragmatic skills with the way they treat them. ... tion is a dynamic interaction that consists of a source, who has a purpose that is understandable to another person, and an encoder, who is able to understand the meaning of the message† (2003). For instance, when a person asks a child what his father’s name is, he should be able to tell his father’s name and not his own name. In this case, the source is the person asking the question whose purpose is to know the name of the child’s father and the child is known as the encoder. Such skill however, does not automatically occur, but is gained through constant communication with the child, identifying and explaining his relationships with the people and things around him as the child grasps the information. This supports the nature and nurture theories that sought to simplify understanding of how children develop communication skills. Nature theory suggests that â€Å"humans have an inborn mechanism in the brain for mastering language called Language Acquisit ion Device (LAD)† (Santrock, 1988; Santrock, 1995; Schement, 2002; Sigelman & Rider, 2006). This so-called device is the innate factor that enables a child to learn and adjust his language skills as he communicates with the people around him. This is basically what makes a child able to acquire understanding of words, their meanings and uses. Eventually, as the vocabulary of a child increases, he learns how to converse with other people, using the words he acquired in manner that he is understood. Moreover, the conversation skills of a child are improved as he adjusts his understanding of phonology or sound system, semantics or word meanings as well as syntax or form and structure of language through the help of the LAD as his experiences increase (Santrock, 1988; Santrock, 1995; Schement, 2002; Sigelman &