THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ON COMMUNICATION

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0     INTRODUCTION

          Parental involvement of children communication development is the basic concern of this research. This aspect of life has attracted many disciplines including the psychology, linguistics, psychiatry, education among others. All efforts are geared towards describing the involvement of parents in their children communication development, and to ensure that proper parental involvement is practiced by parents and intending parent to be.

          In this regard, some contributions have been made towards helping and improving the lope holes found in the part of parents in the involvement of their child’s communication development.

2.1.0  DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION AND

2.1.1  COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT

          Communication, the sole property of man for interpersonal relationship, can be primarily achieved through the use of language. Language either verbal or non-verbal, is the vehicle for expression human thought. Therefore, mutual intelligibility can be attained only when all barriers to language codes are removed. It is, therefore, pertinent here to say that language cannot be divorced from communication. Okon (1970:89) as cited by Seban (2008:23-24) justifies this when he says: “we need language for all forms of communication, pleasant or unpleasant, political, moral, social, religious, poetic, intellectual or emotional.

          Language and communication are inextricably linked, given that language is an essential tool for the processing and memorizing of information Sperber and Wilson (1990:173). Essentially, it is a vehicle for communication. Lyons (1990:43) also observed that philosophers, psychologists and linguists assume there is an intrinsic connection between meaning and communication.

          Generally, communication deals with the transmission and reception of information between a source and receiver, using a signaling system Crystal (1997:72). Communication is said to be successful if the information received is the same as that sent.

          Communication is a noun formed form verb “communicate” which is the exchange of information, ideas/feelings. Communication therefore means the activity or process of communicating ideas or passing on news, information, feelings, relationships, illness, etc. Erhabor (2008:129).

          Communication actualizes and realizes language, because to speak or to use language means to share or exchange a lot of mutually relevant things through a systematic and systematic network of vertical and horizontal linkages of shared signs, signals, codes and symbols. These shared signals, codes, signs and symbols, make for a structured cohesion without which man cannot be and society cannot exist. Articulate language is the distinguishing feature of human society Emenanjo (2008:46).

2.1.2  DEVELOPMENT  

          Development is a complex issue, with many different and sometimes contentious definitions. A basic perspective equates development with economic growth. The United Nation Development programme uses a more detailed definition- according to them, development is “to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community (2011).

          Accordinbg to Ask.com (2010), development is the act of improving quality of life and making sure everyone has the preference in what life looks like. These choices are widened through the combined effort of local people, international bodies, governments and variety of civil society organizations such as NGOs, community organizations and religious groups.

          Development as defined in Briggs and Nte (2009:3) is the progressive acquisition of physical (motor), cognitive (thought), linguistics (communication) and social (emotional) skills and attributes. All normal children must undergo all the development stages in the acquisition communication.

          According to Cherry (2012) development describes the growth of humans throughout the life span, from conception to death. The scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life. This includes all aspects of human grown, including, physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development.

          The scientific study of development is important not only to psychology but also to biology, anthropology, sociology, education, history etc. Development does not just involve the biological and physical aspects of growth, but also the cognitive and social aspects associated with development throughout life (About. Com Psychology).

2.2     THE THEORY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

          Language is generally viewed as a specific human attributes. It has been serving humanity right from time immemorial. It is regarded as the medium through which the manners, morals and mythology of society are passed from one generation to another. It serves as a significant ingredient in social interaction. It is because of these functions of language that parents look toward with keen expectation towards the emergence of true speech in their infant.

2.2.1  THE BEHAVIOURIST THEORY

          This theory believes that a child is born into the world in a “blank state” with no preconceived notions about the world and its systems including language, or verbal behaviour.it is, however shaped by the environment through stimulus response reinforcement. (Skinner, 1957).

2.1.2 THE INNATIST THEORY

          This theory was propagated by Chomsky (1968) and supported by McNeill (1970) reveals that language is innately determined. This means that the child is said to be born with a built-in-device called LAD (Language Acquisition Device) which exposes him to language acquisition and to a systematic perception of the language around him, which in turn enables to him to construct and internalized system of language. According to this theory, exposure to language in the environment is a necessary and sufficient condition for language acquisition in children.

2.2.3 THE COGNITIVE THEORY

          This theory is one which assumes that language is dependent upon cognition, Jean Piaget, the Chief proponent of this theory, believes that language take the particular form it does because the child is expressing through language his understanding of the world (Piaget and Inhelder, 1969). This simply means that certain words or phrases can appear in the child vocabulary only after the child has mastered the corresponding cognitive principle. Here, the child is said to develop his language through interaction with his world.

2.3     NORMAL PATTERN OF DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR        DETERMINANTS

          Development is an increase in the function and complexity of these skills in an individual, influenced by biological psychological and social factors. These may act singly or in combination to determine the course of the child’s development. It is, therefore very important that all who are involved in the care for children, either at home, school or within the community get conversant with the normal development so that developmental communication disorders can be detected on time and appropriately managed in order to reduce their impacts on the child as a whole Brigs and Nte (2009:3).

          Development is different form growth, growth only refers to the child getting bigger in size while development is the process of maturation and intactness of the nervous system, University of Michigan Health System (2011).

          Developmental milestones are set of function skills or age specific tasks that most children can do at a certain age range.

TABLE 1: DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES

                   PSYCHOLOGICAL GROSS MOTOR FINE

Age	Psychological	Gross motor fine	Motor and visual	Communication and hearing
1month	Follows face to the midline	i. Moves all extremities equally. ii. Lifts head when lying on stomach	Opens hands spontaneously	i. Startled by loud sounds. ii. Cries iii. Quiets when feed and comforted.
2months	i. Follows faces past the midline ii. Smiles responsively	Lifts head up to 45 degrees when on stomach	Look at own hand	I. Makes baby sounds such as cooing squealing and gurgling.
3months	i. Recognizes mother voice. ii. Smiles responsively	i. Can support head for a few seconds when held upright	Open hands frequently	i. Responds to voice ii. Laughs
4months	i. Follows an object with eyes for 180 degrees. ii. Regards own hand	i. Bears weight on legs. ii. Good neck control when pulled to setting position. iii. Lights chest and support self on elbows when lying on stomach	i. Brings hands together in midline (claps hand). ii. Grabs an object such as a relttle iii. Reaches for objects	Turns head to sound Such as conversation on radio,television.
6months	Reaches for familiar people	i. Rolls from stomach to back or back to stomach. ii. Sits with anterior support	i. Plays with hands by touching them together. ii. Sees small object.	i. Responds to name ii. Babbles
9months	i. Indicates come some things such as ii. Waves “bye-bye” and “come here”	i. Can sit without support. ii. Creeps or crawls on hands and knees	i. Look for a toy when it falls from his/her hand. ii. Takes a toy from one hand to the other.	Responds to soft sounds such as whispers.
2months	i. Has separation anxiety. ii. Social interactions are intentional and goal directed	i. Pulls self up to stand position. ii. Walks with support	Points at objects with index finger	i. Says at least 1 word. ii. Makes “ma-ma or “da-da” sounds. iii. Locates sounds by turning head

Adopted from (JCDCD) 2009.

2.4     PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNICATION            DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN

          Research has shown that parental involvement is one of the key factors in how satisfied parents are with their child’s care arrangements. The greater their involvement, the more satisfied they are with their child’s care and communication development.

          Consistently, researchers have discovered that greater parental involvement in child’s communication development is associated with:

v Love

v Good nutrition

v Conducive environment

v Exposure

          There has been a significant amount of recent researcher on early brain development that has shown positive parental involvement needs to begin long before children starts communicating. The early years of a child’s life are critically important for healthy brain development, attachment formation and language acquisition. Prime opportunities for learning exist during the first few years of life that may not be recovered at a later stage. Early parental involvement is important for young children, as the child grows older parents should be more and more involved in the communication development of their children. Parents should always be supportive of their child’s development, this can be achieved by their presences and involvement in the early years of the child. Kronthal (2012).

          According to Nikolic (2011) he stated that “intelligence is only one factor of children’s success in the acquisition of communication; and later on, in life”. It is necessary to develop certain character traits in the child, that the intellect would fully come to the fore. Parents are building the foundation on which will depend the child’s self-confidence, independence and desire for research and learning.

           The most important feature that the child needs to develop are the sense of responsibility, sense of self confidence and independence. These traits of characters are primary developed through the interactions between parents and children in the family.

          The important of parental involvement in language acquisition shows that when parents are involved in their children’s language acquisition and development that their children demonstrate higher language skills than those of children with less involved parents. Children’s language skills are dependent on social contexts, not simply learning by rote. This means that the skills are developed via interactive activities such as talking with parents, siblings, and friends, as opposed to simply being talked to and not being able to respond. The variations in language ability among small children and babies can be traced to how involved the parents are with their children communication development.

          It is importance that parents should not correct word pronunciation of their child’s speech as this interferes with the flow of speech the child is learning to master. Like most parents who tries to correct the utterances that their child makes, in correcting the child’s sentence, the child might forget some of the words or sentences he or she had plan to say. So it is better to let the child finish and as a parent you repeat the word in correct form so the child can learn from you. This now takes us to the next section which discloses facts on how children learn language.