Human Communication and Language Development
Communication and Language
What is Communication?
We define communication as the ability to engage in meaningful and intentional conduct, enabling interaction with others. It is a communicative action directed at a receiver, who can interpret it and act accordingly. To communicate is to exchange messages between individuals.
The term communication should be understood broadly as the set of behaviors that humans use to influence or elicit the behavior of another person, intentionally, in order to convey information and elicit a response. Communication is a broader term that encompasses language, although language can be considered the most important form of communication.
Human communication is not limited to spoken and written language; there are various codes of communication, including gestural, proxemics, and physical cues. However, in general, we can say that the primary means of communication is verbal/auditory.
Adults constantly attribute communicative intentions to the expressions of babies, however subtle. This is of utmost importance, as it enables interactions between adult and child. Thanks to this constant interpretation of the child’s expressions by adults, continuous interaction and the child’s access to meanings are facilitated.
Language: A System of Signs
Language is a system of signs used to express ideas and feelings. It serves two basic functions: communication and representation. These functions are not mutually exclusive but are interrelated within linguistic activity.
In both communication and mental representation, humans use different types of language: numeric, musical, plastic and visual, physical, and verbal. Verbal communication and representation are undoubtedly central to human development, and have therefore been the most studied.
Language and Intent
Language is communication, and its use carries a mandatory intent (Vila, 1990). The primary objective of oral language is communication between people; the voice is the instrument used, and speech is the ability to express thought through words.
We define language as an internal representation of reality constructed through socially accepted media. Authors like Chomsky and Piaget understand language as a system for representing reality, whose acquisition depends on innate abilities. Subsequently, the communicative aspects of language were emphasized, highlighting its role as a privileged instrument to regulate social exchanges.
From this perspective, language develops through and for communication. Language arises from a desire for communication within a pre-existing communicative social context. That is, there are communicative prerequisites as well as cognitive prerequisites.
One of the most important causes of this shift in perspective is the study of, and the emphasis placed on, the socialization processes in child development. Vygotsky’s theses, which postulate that all intellectual activities first appear in social activities (the child interacting with others) and are subsequently internalized, have been highly influential.