From theory to practice in child language development

Abstract

This paper addresses current theoretical perspectives on child language development, and their implications for intervention. It is argued that language is a complex system consisting of a number of distinct, interacting, components, and that no single explanation for its development is likely to be adequate: the evidence suggests, rather, that different factors predominate in the development of different parts of the system. Some recent work with deaf children-on the development of sign phonology, and on maternal strategies for presenting signs to their children in context-is then discussed together with its implications for the use of signs with other groups, focus-ing particularly on the use of signed input with children with Down's syndrome.