New Explore Medbridge Pathways

Typical Language Development: Infancy Through Adolescence

Presented by Jennifer Schultz

12-Month Subscription

Unlimited access to:

  • Thousands of CE Courses
  • Patient Education
  • Home Exercise Program
  • And more
Subscribe Now

Or

First Chapter Free Buy Course
Speech-language pathologists working with pediatric populations require knowledge and skills across a wide variety of areas, including communication, cognition, literacy, and swallowing. With the breadth of knowledge that is required for the pediatric SLP, it can be difficult to maintain a current knowledge base in all areas of practice. This course is designed to provide the new or veteran SLP with an update in theories of language acquisition, models of language components, and normative data regarding receptive/expressive auditory/spoken language development.

Meet your instructor

Jennifer Schultz

Jennifer Schultz is an instructor for the speech-language pathology assistant program at Mitchell Technical Institute in Mitchell, South Dakota. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Disorders and Psychology from the University of South Dakota and a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the…

Read full bio

Chapters & learning objectives

Theories of Language Acquisition

1. Theories of Language Acquisition

This chapter provides an overview of language acquisition theories, including behaviorist, nativist, cognitive, social interactionist, and emergentist theories of language acquisition. Contributions of the theories to our understanding of language development and language assessment and treatment will be discussed.

Components of Language

2. Components of Language

This chapter will present and compare the traditional “Form, Content, and Use” model of the components of language and a newer approach to language, “Communication Subdomains.” The two models will be used to analyze communication behaviors in children.

Infant: Toddler Language Development

3. Infant: Toddler Language Development

This chapter will review the major developmental milestones in communication that are observed in normal development from birth to age three. Nonverbal and verbal pragmatic, semantic, and morphosyntactic skills will be discussed.

Preschool Language Development

4. Preschool Language Development

This chapter will review the major developmental milestones in communication that are observed in children ages three to five years. Pragmatic, semantic, and morphosyntactic skills will be described.

Elementary School Age Language Development

5. Elementary School Age Language Development

This chapter will review the major developmental milestones in communication that are observed in normal development during the elementary school years. Pragmatic, syntactic, semantic, and narrative skills will be discussed.

Adolescent Language Development

6. Adolescent Language Development

This chapter will review the major developmental milestones in communication that are observed in normal development during adolescence. Pragmatic, narrative/expository, syntactic, and semantic skills will be discussed.