Language Development, Theories of

Language is a great power—the major means of communicating—via conversations, wedding toasts, books and magazines, legal briefs, prayers, text messages, Pinterest, Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, and other avenues ever expanding in the electronic world.

Theorists differ in their concepts with respect to various aspects of language. Some focus on sentence structure versus function. Some differ on the relationship between intelligence and thought as contrasted with language. Lev Vygotsky believed that language and thought both have roots in infant development. In contrast, Jean Piaget (1973) asserted that intelligence and thought develop prior to and outweigh language in importance: “Language appears at the same level of development as symbolic play, deferred imitation, and doubtless, mental image as interiorized imitation” (p. 117). Thus, for Piaget, thought is primary. Logical operations ...