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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.7

Publication Date: July 25, 2020

DOI:10.14738/assrj.77.8613.

Djelle, O. P. A. (2020). Cognitive And Communicative Performances Of Children From 3 To 5 Years Old With Language Delay. Advances

in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(7) 746-760.

Cognitive And Communicative Performances Of Children From 3 To

5 Years Old With Language Delay

Opely Patrice-Aime Djelle

Enseignant Chercheur,

Ecole Normale Supérieure Abidjan.

ABSTRACT

This research deals with the cognitive and communicative

performances of children from 3 to 5 years old with language delay. Our

objective is to observe the 3 to 5 year old child with language delay

integrating and interacting socially, in an environment other than his

family during his interactions with his peers and especially with the

adult. . We conducted the study in the light of the theories of Piaget,

Vygotsky and the Anglo-Saxon theory on the extent of language

disorders. The implementation of language activity by several

approaches around games and textless books and the observation of

these in interaction with their specialized educators including trainees

as well as their peers, allowed the rating of 5 children (3 boys and 2 girls,

all with language delay) on an observation grid. The success of the

exchange is largely assured thanks to the interventions of specialized

educators (ES) to support the speech of the children. Despite their delay,

these children are aware of their social environment, and integrate into

the rehabilitation program, and particularly into language activities.

Keywords: Delay - Language - Performances - Cognitive - Communicative

INTRODUCTION

Rondal and Seron (2003), according to the definition of DSM IV (1996), specify that 7.4% of children

aged 3 to 6 have a language delay (study carried out on 7218 children). It is also a specific learning

disorder, that is to say that it concerns children with a specific cognitive impairment, whether it is

an oral language disorder, written language , the ability to find one's bearings in space, an attention

deficit disorder, etc. According to Vaniere (2012), "In language delay, disorders are at the level of

syntactic construction of the sentence and in the ability to associate words in sentences". This

results in the fact that the child has difficulty choosing and ordering the words for Vaniere (op.cit).

Impact of speech and language delay on social interactions between the child and the teacher in a

large section of kindergarten, around an activity. Despite the acquisition difficulties of the child with

speech impairment, his development is not necessarily pathological. Among these children, at 2

years old, many catch up, more or less quickly, with their peers of the same age (for example: 1/3

of the children observed in the study by Fishel, Whitehurst, Caulfield & DeBaryshe (1989), 70 to 80

% according to Whitehouse, Robinson & Zubrick (2011), cited by Masson, 2014) while others, less

numerous, continue to experience difficulties in their acquisition of language. "The children in

question, located in the 18-36 month age group, are referred to in the literature as late-talkers ...

However, even if all late-talker children do not develop language disorders , there are persistent

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 7, July-2020

difficulties in these children in more elaborate language tasks such as storytelling, understanding

metaphors (Girolametto, Wiigs, Smyth, Weitzman & Pearce, 2001) or reading (Rescorla, 2002) ”(p.

175) . Delay is a pathology that is assertive in terms of the standard measured by a calibrated verbal

and non-verbal test). It is a deficit concerning homogeneously all the sectors of the language;

language resembling that of a younger child. In addition it is a functional disorder, that is to say, it

alters the functioning of processes of various orders (cognitive, language ...) in their adaptive value

and the explanatory framework of this / these disorders would be that of a simple delay in

maturation responding in the vast majority of cases quickly and favorably to speech therapy.

We speak of disorders when there is an anomaly related to a brain processing disorder of linguistic

information (phonological / lexical / morphosyntactic). Language is deviant because it does not

exist in the context of language development. The deficit is of a structural nature, that is to say, they

affect the very structure of language in connection with a dysfunction of brain structures (networks,

module) or consequence of a congenital structural anomaly affecting the development of bases

language brain specifically involved in the processing of linguistic information (neurobiological or

even hereditary origin of disorders and their cognitive mechanisms). In addition to the severity of

the symptoms, durability is associated with a certain degree of resistance to rehabilitation protocols

without forgetting the presence of associated disorders. Finally, therapy presupposes the coherence

of multiple skills from the fields of education (school psychologists, specialist teachers) and health

(doctors, speech therapists and neuropsychologists).

This process will not be acquired until around 6 years of age. Even if the exchanges become more

verbal around the 4th year, they remain largely based on non-verbal modes of communication.

During the first few months, the mother plays a predominant role in managing the interaction. While

giving her child the role of a fully-fledged interlocutor, she structures the exchanges in a

conversational mode, thus providing him with a dialogical model of interaction. In addition, it gives

meaning to the behavior of his child who can learn to formulate his intentions in an ever more

sophisticated manner. Piaget said that "what seems to me essential in the stages, and this for years

that I repeat it, it is not the chronological ages, it is the necessary successions. You have to have gone

through such a stage to arrive at another. ” During the period of 3 and 5 years old even 6 years old,

the child is in a perpetual development, it is centered on the development of his ego, the

assertiveness. His attention is focused on him, he is still very immature and therefore prey to strong

anxieties. With the appearance of language, we also have the appearance of mental representations

and the possibility of evocation that they bring. The child is then able to enter the delayed imitation

games. The symbolic games that start in the 2nd year (by immediate imitation) are very present

here: playing dad, mom, mistress, car driver, baby, big sister, heroes / heroine of the book , etc.

The child is in an irrational world without continuity (syncretism = global, undifferentiated

apprehension). He does not hear the rational answers we give him; The child projects into the

objects of life, thought modes which are his "the ball is nasty, it hurt me" "the car is sleeping in the

garage", "the snow has jumped on the car". Their relation to time is very different from the adult,

they perceive the present time so waiting can seem difficult for the child especially when he is

waiting for something without knowing when it will happen becomes anxious: waiting for the end

of the session rehabilitation (especially for novices), waiting for the parent after snack. The child

can start playing again when the parent arrives or is nearby because he has found his safety. These

are previous works that have dealt with the subject. Given the fact that we have analyzed and

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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.77.8613 748

Djelle, O. P. A. (2020). Cognitive And Communicative Performances Of Children From 3 To 5 Years Old With Language Delay. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 7(7) 746-760.

studied several works, our synthesis will take into account the most important research works

related to language delay and / or cognitive and communicative performance. This also makes it

possible to highlight the objectives targeted by these previous authors through their research.

Certain works such as that of Vaniere (2012) deal with the impacts of speech and language delay on

the interactions between the child and his teacher in the large nursery school section. These also

demonstrate that language delay is a fairly common disorder in kindergarten, that it can be mild

and resolve quickly, but that it can also appear in much more severe forms. At school, these

disorders can weaken learning and affect other areas (relationships, behavior, self-esteem ...). The

author hypothesizes a negative influence on speaking, on the relevance of the child's responses as

well as an influence on the teacher's shoring strategies and on the success of the exchange. . The

observation is that the delay does not hinder the child's speaking but that it can make him less

informative. The success of the exchange is largely assured thanks to the teacher's interventions to

support the discourse of late-learning children. Despite their delay, the children integrate into the

life of the class, and particularly into language activities.

In addition, there are other works such as DSM-IV (2005), which deal with the fact that the

disturbance can manifest itself on the clinical level by symptoms such as: markedly restricted

vocabulary, time errors, difficulty in evoking words, difficulties in constructing sentences of a length

or complexity appropriate to the stage of development. Thus, difficulties of expression interfere

with academic or professional success, or with social communication. According to him, the

language delay does not meet the criteria for a pervasive developmental disorder.

In addition, work emphasizes the prevention of language disorders through an early identification

policy. This is the perspective of Masson's (2014) work, the aim of which is to better inform people

in contact with young children and thus ensure care as early as possible. According to his studies,

research on the future of children with a language dysfunction shows that their early identification

helps to stem future social problems. The latest reports on language disorders have all stressed the

need to identify these problems and to intervene before the start of school learning, in particular by

providing information to professionals. Still in its logic, recent studies also seek to determine

whether there are, in the early stages of language, warning signs of a delay or a language disorder.

The issues raised by the prevention of language disorders lead us to carry out work to raise

awareness among childhood professionals and parents about language development and its delays.

In addition, the works of Delahaie (2009), concretely relate that there would be at least one child

with more or less severe disorders per class because in terms of prevalence, language learning

disorders concern 4 to 5% children of an age group and among them 1% have severe disorders.

Emphasis is placed on the imperative of favoring identification and early detection because speech

disorders in children, and beyond, learning disabilities, have become a real public health issue. The

objective is to draw up the current state of knowledge on language development and specific

disorders, considered from several angles (educational, socio-emotional and neurological). It is a

theoretical clarification tool intended not for specialists in the question, but for education and health

personnel (teachers, psychologists, school nurses and doctors, pediatricians, general practitioners

...) to questions and questions in their daily practices.