Tony and Tia have 5-year old twins, named Donna and Daniel. The parents notice that Donna's language skills seem to be significantly ahead of those of her brother. Which of the following would be the best response to this realization?
1) The parents should not be concerned, as girls often develop language skills earlier and faster than boys. This will not necessarily amount to any long-term differences.
2) The parents should assume that Daniel is always going to lag behind Donna, as early differences in these skills are usually enduring throughout development.
3) The parents should immediately have Daniel tested for both hearing difficulties and cognitive deficits, as there is no reason for this sort of difference to exist
4) The parents should immediately enroll Donna in a preschool for gifted and genius children, as this is very uncommon.

Answer:

1.The parents should not be concerned, as girls often develop language skills earlier and faster than boys. This will not necessarily amount to any long-term differences.

Explanation:

The Components of language includes:

1. Language comprehension

2. Language production

The Crucial communicators in language development are: Joint attention, Give and take, Preverbal gestures, Word-gesture combinations etc. The First speech a child makes is said to be cooing and it usually occur in the first 2 months and vowel sounds. babbling occurs after 6 months, consonant-vowel combos, there is universal timing and also range expansion.

Early phases of phonological development

The First words are mostly sounds, made by the child and it is related to semantic development, they understand more than they produce; with time, improve meaning expression and others. Late phases of phonological development is when the child can say more like 200-300 words, adjust vowel lengths, addition of unstressed syllables, full word etc.

Semantic development

In this stage, there is the development of language rather than just of sounds, meaning and vocabulary, fast-mapping and vocal growth spurt, its critical period ranges from 18-24 months.