Comprehensive Language: What It Is And Tips To Enhance It In Childhood
For communication to be that, two key aspects must occur: expression and understanding. We express ourselves as we send a message to our interlocutor, and we understand when he or she returns it to us in the form of another message.
Comprehensive language is that faculty of communication that is put into practice when we try to identify a received message whether in the form of words, images or gestures.
Below we are going to delve deeper into this language modality, what its most notable characteristics are and what we can do to help develop it in babies.
When we talk about comprehensive or receptive language, we refer to the ability of people to understand what others say It is the process that involves receiving a message and understanding what they are telling or indicating to us. Human beings can communicate in various ways, and communication does not have to be verbal, since important information can also be transmitted in its non-verbal aspect. We transmit information through oral, written, pictorial or gestural language.
Comprehensive language is extremely important during child development, since the ability to understand speech, understanding what certain gestures, actions or sounds mean, is the first step in language acquisition. In fact, understanding comes before expression. The smallest babies, who barely know how to babble, although they do not verbalize, are able to understand and follow certain instructions.
Communication is the combination of expression and understanding, therefore, comprehensive or receptive language is very important to be able to communicate with others successfully. As children improve their expressive capacity, they also expand their vocabulary, which allows them to understand more and express themselves better. They are acquiring more capacity to receive information from their environment, whether with words they hear and images and gestures they see.
For the development of comprehensive language to occur, it is necessary for children to be immersed in an environment where they are exposed and in direct contact with images, sounds and, especially, listen to the way in which the people around them express themselves At the same time, they should also be able to observe other people gesturing, showing rich and expressive body language so that the little ones properly associate it with the environment or the action that is being done.
Communication with gestures is an essential factor. As they observe others express their emotions, feelings and thoughts, accompanying them with gestures, children internalize them and incorporate them into their behavioral repertoire through imitation. This is enhanced by their tendency to constantly learn, always attentive to environmental stimuli and learning new things daily.
That’s why, To cement the comprehension aspect of language, it is very important to bring children together with others The little ones learn and develop better when they are in contact with their peers, of the same age, developing skills for socializing and playing. Communication involves interacting with other people, it is a social process and cannot be developed without establishing contact with other people.
Tips for stimulating receptive language
To contribute to the development of comprehensive language in their sons and daughters, parents and other caregivers can do so by applying the following strategies:
1. Maximize body expressions
Especially with younger children, relying on body expressions is very useful to develop the comprehension capacity of little ones By visually observing what you are trying to communicate, you will find it much easier to associate the words with their meaning.
Getting at the same height as the little ones and making eye contact before saying something is a good way to get their attention. Eye contact can be encouraged placing objects that are of interest to the child, such as his favorite toys, while talking to him
3. Read them stories
Stories are a very good tool for promoting language, both expressive and comprehensive. They are especially useful in your first steps toward verbal language acquisition. It is advisable to select books appropriate for their developmental stage that have very clear images of objects or actions.
4. Instruction sets
Attention, concentration and working memory are fundamental aspects for understanding language. These can be encouraged by instruction games, simple entertainment in which they have to follow basic guidelines They can be things as simple as “place the ball on the table”, “now, give the ball to dad”…
5. Use simple and clear sentences
In the first moments of language acquisition for the child, it is essential to use simple and clear words or sentences. This will make it much easier for the boy or girl to understand what you want to tell him or her, associating more and more meanings quickly and progressively The more words they know and understand, the more words they will use and, around the age of three, they will be able to speak in sentences of more than two words.
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As we said, comprehension is a fundamental aspect of communication, therefore, boys and girls who have difficulties in this aspect of language can present serious learning problems, especially if they are not detected or intervened soon. These types of problems can show up with different symptoms:
Difficulty understanding what other people have said
Trouble organizing your thoughts
Difficulty maintaining routine
Attention deficits
Problems distinguishing phonemes.
Difficulty following simple instructions at home.
It is difficult for him to answer or understand questions and requests.
He does not understand the plot of the stories that are read to him.
Behavioral problems, probably due to the frustration of not understanding the environment.
It is difficult for him to continue recognizing and following social norms.
Does not participate in social situations.
Poor social skills.
He expresses himself poorly, has a limited vocabulary and has difficulty learning new words.
These and other symptoms make communication at school, home and with other children a real odyssey. This is why it is so important intervene as soon as possible if it is suspected that a child, whether a child or a student, has language comprehension problems, and with quite a probability of expression. Early intervention can make the difference between a child frustrated with school who doesn’t understand and a happy child who learns as best he can with the right tools.
