81Assignment - Module 3 Week 5

Language and Literacy Journey

Section 3- Tyler as a Toddler

Life as a Toddler was similar for Tyler to his life as an infant in the way he received support and care from his family. The only difference, in this case, is that his father was not as around as he was during the early months of his life as he had gone back to work. Regardless, the father spent much of his time away from work offering his children the best care he could together with the mother. The mother spent some of her free time researching how best to bring up Tyler and his older brother. Such research by Tyler’s mother enabled her to be more involved in the language development processes for her children.

The people in a child’s life can positively or negatively affect the outcome of his language and literacy journey and some of the most impactful of the people are the parents. Justice, Jiang, Purtell, Schmeer, Boone, Bates and Salsberry (2019) indicate that children with involved parents not only have great social and emotional development but also have high rates of literacy and educational achievement. On the other hand, children with uninvolved parents have social and emotional development issues and limited chances of literacy and educational achievement. Children in the latter group experience neglect and other adversities at an early age when their brains are in their early stages of development (The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2020). Even as toddlers, these children are still in the early years of their lives, and their brains’ circuitry is bound to be influenced by the outside experiences for worse.

Neglected children have higher chances of developing toxic stress and intense disruption of their brain circuits. Toxic stress can alter the architecture of the developing brain for the worse and result in unwanted outcomes for a child’s long-term learning, behavior, and general health (The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2020). Tyler has not experienced or dealt with toxic stress in his life because his parents have provided him stability and care thereby facilitating his healthy development. The parents spent time with Tyler, playing and interacting whenever they could. Tyler was also privileged to have an older brother who would play with him and made his toddlerhood fun. Other interactions that Tyler had were with the members of his extended family and family friends. Still, at this stage of development, the only language that Tyler came across was English.

Other than language, the parents also focused on offering Tyler healthy food for healthy growth and development. Tyler’s parents were aware of Tyler’s cousins’ love for fast food like burgers and fries; therefore, they discouraged them from carrying such foods with them when they went to visit Tyler. The parents did not want Tyler to get used to junk food and have an affinity for healthy food at an early age. This move by the parents was right since toddlerhood is a stage when the tastes of children are still developing and is the best time to introduce children to a variety of fruits and other healthy foods. Tyler’s parents ensured good language development for Tyler by offering him a growing environment that promoted the same.

The parents began buying him toys to play with when he was as young as 14 months old. However, the parents knew that toys are potential health hazards and made sure the toys Tyler had access to would be safe for him. Some of the toys at Tyler’s disposal included; boon pipes, a musical toy, an activity table, and a pull-along toy. Another activity by Tyler’s parents for the sake of their child’s healthy development was reading him stories before bedtime and when they could afford time for the same. Although the Brown household had electronics for entertainment like TV, tablets, phones, and a computer, the parents did not allocate any time for Tyler to watch TV as a toddler and tried as much as they could to limit his screen time. The only time Tyler managed to catch a show or two is when he found Carl watching on the TV or one of the tablets.

The parents also promoted the physical and mental health of Tyler by enrolling him in swimming classes as early as possible. By the time Tyler turned 2, the parents had begun to consider enrolling him in the classes, and in a few months, they did just that. These lessons exposed Tyler to more life experiences and boosted his language development capacity. The benefits of the good early experiences for a child show in his language development as a toddler (Bleiker, Gampe and Daum, 2019). For Tyler, by the time he was at 18 months old, he had come a long way from simply saying “mama” and “dada”. Tyler could ask his mother or brother to join him in play by saying “play” or “mommy play”. Although his language at this point was lacking in pragmatics, his limited words were accompanied by the use of made-up words and gestures which allowed the people around him to understand what he was referring to.

By the time he was two; Tyler could follow simple instructions and respond to simple questions. Furthermore, Tyler understood the name of common things in his life like cups and socks and he could name pictures in books when his parents were reading to him. The communication between Tyler and his family and other people around him had improved significantly by the time he was 3. For instance, Tyler used fewer made-up words and could still be understood because of his use of more than two words in his sentences. Additionally, pragmatics had started to become a consideration in the child’s language use, where he could wait for his turn to speak and even stay on topic.

Some of the sentences Tyler used as a Toddler were those for asking for food, seeking his mother’s attention, asking Carl to play with him, and complaining that Tyler had taken his toys. As an older Toddler, Tyler used crying less as a form of communication because his language development was on spot. The positive language and literacy journey for Tyler as a toddler is attributed to positive early experiences and a supportive environment. Tyler had good physical and mental development which facilitated his good language development and vice versa. His family background ensured that he was not exposed to toxic stress and that he had all the care and support he needed for good language development as a toddler. The only limiting factor in Tyler’s life is that he had not been exposed to a second language yet and could not develop an interest in the same as a toddler. References

Bleiker, M., Gampe, A., & Daum, M. M. (2019). Effects of the type of childcare on toddlers’ motor, social, cognitive, and language skills. Swiss Journal of Psychology.

Justice, L. M., Jiang, H., Purtell, K. M., Schmeer, K., Boone, K., Bates, R., & Salsberry, P. J. (2019). Conditions of poverty, parent–child interactions, and toddlers’ early language skills in low-income families. Maternal and child health journal, 23(7), 971-978.