PRE VERBAL

STAGE
Giorgia Ocampo Danga, CSP-
PASP
January 22, 2020
LANGUAGE
STAGES
accdg to me
-Rhea
Paul
Advanced
Language
L4L
Developing Language
Emerging Language
Pre-Linguistic
my guiding light
 A
REPRESENTATIONA
An abstract
L act
system of
SYMBOLS

LANGUAGE Involves talking about

objects, events,
relationships in the
world

A tool for
COMMUNICATION
Remember!

COMMUNICATION
is
TWO-WAY
Remember!

The ultimate GOAL of

Language Instruction
is
EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Developmental Progression to becoming
Effective Communicators
(MacDonald & Carroll) Conversationa
l Partners
Language Partners
Communication Partners
Turn-taking Partners
Play Partners
PRECURSORY SKILLS
PRECURSORY SKILLS

● Aka PRELINGUISTIC SKILLS

■PRE + LANGUAGE
● Aka EARLY LANGUAGE SKILLS
● Before the child learns more complex symbol systems…
she develops non-verbal forms of communication
& increases her understanding of the world around her
PRECURSORY SKILLS
The most significant period in language development occurs
between birth and 2 years
aka SENSORIMOTOR STAGE OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
- Jean Piaget

● most learning takes place through active

sensorimotor exploration of child’s environment
● At 2 years:
Multiword utterances
+ Symbolic Capacity
__________________________
Typical Language Development
Infant Social & Communicative Development

What
happens at
0-12?
Infant Social and Communicative
Development
Infant Social and Communicative
Development
Infant Social and Communicative
Development

Source: Owens (2012)

Precursory skills related to USE

INTERPERSON JOINT SELF-OTHER

AL GAZE ATTENTION RELATIONS

MAKING
REFERENCE & TURN-TAKING
REGULATING
INTERPERSONAL
GAZE
 ● This pertains to the ability to
make exchanges of gaze in the
context of interpersonal
activities
INTERPERSONAL ● Early form of communication
between children & caregivers
GAZE ● “INTERPERSONAL EXCHANGE”
■ Smiling
■ Touching
■ Feeding
■ Vocalizing
 JOINT
ATTENTION
 This pertains to the ability of the
child to move gaze towards an
object or event referred to by
another

JOINT
person.
ATTENTION
SELF-OTHER
RELATIONS
 This pertains to the ability of the
child to relate with others through
engaging in associative &
cooperative play

SELF-OTHER
RELATIONS
 MAKING
REFERENCE &
REGULATING
 ● This pertains to the ability of the
child to use motor or vocal
behaviors in order to control his
environment or communicate with
MAKING another person.
● Making reference = commenting
REFERENCE & ○ Show
○ Give
REGULATING ○ Point
● Regulating = requesting, protesting
○ Cry
○ Reach
○ Point
 MAKING
REFERENCE &
REGULATING
 MAKING
REFERENCE &
REGULATING
TURN-TAKING
 ● This pertains to the child’s
ability to take turns
TURN-TAKING ● A crucial prerequisite for
communication
● “Reciprocity”
Precursory skills related to
CONTENT
OBJECT OBJECT USE
PERMANENCE

ORGANIZATION
& OBJECT- MEANS-END
OBJECT & CAUSALITY
RELATIONS
 OBJECT
PERMANENCE
 ● This pertains to the awareness
that objects exist even when
they are hidden, and that they
can reappear
● Knowing that something exists

OBJECT even if it’s out of sight

● Enables child to label things
that are not present
PERMANENCE
 OBJECT
PERMANENCE
OBJECT USE
 This pertains to the understanding
of the execution of appropriate use
of selected items and toys

“A child without functional object

OBJECT USE use is unlikely to need language to
code the name of objects”

Using an object for its purpose

requires the mental representation
of both the object and its use
OBJECT USE
OBJECT USE
ORGANIZATION &
OBJECT-OBJECT
RELATIONS
 This pertains to the ability to
combine objects and actions in
logical relationships
ORGANIZATION &
OBJECT-OBJECT
RELATIONS
MEANS-END &
CAUSALITY
MEANS-END &
CAUSALITY
 ● This pertains to the use of
actions or strategies to achieve
specific end goals
MEANS-END & ○ Skill involves the child
understanding that their certain
word, action, or behavior will result

CAUSALITY in a desired outcome

○ Skill involves the child’s awareness
that they are one of many objects in
the environment and that their
actions cause effects on other
objects
MEANS-END &
CAUSALITY
Precursory skills related to FORM

IMITATION

imitation of imitation of
ACTION SOUNDS
IMITATION

imitation
of ACTION
IMITATION

imitation
of SOUNDS
 This includes the ability to imitate
gross, fine, and oromotor
movements

IMITATION

imitation imitation
of ACTION of SOUNDS
 ● Actions are easier to imitate
than vocalizations
● Motor movements can be
physically assisted unlike
speech
IMITATION ● As babies begin to copy
sounds, they may relate them
to real words. This facilitates
the transition from sound
imitation imitation imitation to word imitation.
of ACTION of SOUNDS
Development of Intentionality

Phase 1: Perlocutionary  Behavior has consequences but is not

produced with communicative intent
(birth- 8 mos)

 Behavior has communicative goals

Phase 2: Illocutionary but does not use the form of the target
language
(8-12 mos)

 Behavior has communicative

intentions and adultlike forms
Phase 3: Locutionary
(12 mos-)
GESTURES
Gestures

● Manual, facial or other bodily ● What is a communicative

movements that communicates gesture and what is not?
meaning or simply accompany
the forward flow of speech

● A gesture is rather considered as

intended to communicate
something
GESTURES in EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
I. Deictic Gestures
○ AKA prelinguistic gestures
○ First gestures to appear
○ Emerge at ~8-9 months
○ Showing, giving, pointing, and
ritual requests
● Children make reference to
something in the environment
and rely on that context to
convey meaning
● Prerequisite: Has the pragmatic
function to gain or maintain
adult interaction or to request or
draw attention to a referent
GESTURES in EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

II. Representational ● Emerge at ~12 months, before 25-

word milestone
gestures ● The ability to use representational
gestures tells us that a child is
starting to think symbolically
● Convey some aspect of the referents
Types:
meaning,
A. Conventional ○ Therefore, they can be
understood even when they are
B. Iconic produced without the referent in
sight
GESTURES in EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

A. Conventional Gestures
E.g.
■ hand waving to signal greeting
■ shaking/nodding head for no/yes
■ blowing kisses
■ shrugging to indicate the inability to answer
■ placing a finger to the lips to indicate a hush
GESTURES in EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

B. Iconic Gestures
● E.g.
○ Arm flapping for “bird”
○ Sweeps around in circle for “everywhere”
○ Move hand back and forth into the mouth for “eating”
○ Open arms wide for “big”
○ Putting finger under nostrils for “stinky”
 How can someone at the
pre-verbal stage possibly look like?
References:
W. Haynes & R. Pindzola (Diagnosis and Evaluation in Speech Pathology)

R. Paul (Language Disorders from Infancy through Adolescence)

M. Lahey (Language Disorders & Language Development)

Communicare Therapy Center Initial Evaluation template

R. Merkel-Paccini (Early Language Development-Super Duper)

R. Owens (Language Development- An Introduction)

E. Hoff (Language Development)

N. Capone (Gesture Development)

PROJECT

Form 10 groups (4 members/ group

| one group will have 3 members)
A. Video Compilation- compile
short video clips of babies
showing all precursory skills
discussed
B. Communicative Sampling
(Precursory Skills Checklist)
Using the Precursory skills list (Lahey
1988), identify the precursory skills
Miya & Kiera displayed in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p
P0fJ64QFHE
Write:
● Present + specific behavior skill
was observed if observed in the
video and Not observed if
precursory skill was not observed
● Time it was observed
● Brief description of what
happened