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Child & Language Development
 

Sample Scholar capstone project.

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Shared with permission.

This Child & Language Development webpage demonstrates my knowledge of various aspects of how children develop, including cognitive, linguistic, and psychosocial growth (C2). While I touched on some tools and information relating to this competency in my Resource Library, I will provide specific information here, as well as reflecting on how this knowledge impacts the work I do as a school interpreter.


School Interpreting Series (SIS) Standards
 

SIS Competency 2

Integrate child and language development knowledge into the educational experiences and interactions of a diverse body of deaf and hard of hearing students across their academic years. (Knowledge, Skill, & Attitude)

This webpage includes a demonstration of my competence within Child and Language Development.  Artifacts include infographic overviews of child language and developmental milestones, considerations on learning, analysis of three video examples of different stages of K-12 learners, and an overarching reflection of my learning on this subject.  The video analyses include highlights of cognitive, linguistic, and psychosocial milestones that are relevant to the students at each age level.  Understanding typical development is vital to the work of a school interpreter.  Grades K-12 are a period of immense and significant growth and development that sees an individual from early childhood into young adulthood.  Interpreters need to be able to connect with d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students at levels appropriate to their current stage of growth and development.  A developmental understanding allows an interpreter to identify how a student is progressing and if there are supplemental linguistic needs that should be supported.  Using developmental milestones as a linguistic evaluation tool is one method educational interpreters can use to ensure they are meeting the individual needs of the student.  


Developmental Overview

The Child and Language Developmental Milestones infographic describes major trends that can be expected as children grow and mature, spanning birth through age 18.  The main categories of development addressed include American Sign Language (ASL) (related to neurotypical deaf and hard of hearing children), speech (related to neurotypical hearing children), theory of mind (ToM), play, psychosocial needs, and identity.  

Cronrath INTR 433 Developmental Overview 3.0 (1).jpg
Cronrath INTR 433 Developmental Overview 3.0 (2).jpg

My learning on the topic of developmental milestones was guided by two School Interpreting Series (SIS) courses: Introduction to School Interpreting and Childhood Development for School Interpreting.  I also called on my personal knowledge as a parent and connected the themes I learned about to the stages of growth in my own kids.  Making connections between personal first-hand experience and professional decision-making is what Jelena Zikic (2016) termed "positive spillovers" (p. 4).  Interpreters need to recognize that many DHH children start school with language skills that do not meet the typical flow of developmental milestones.  Atypical language presentation can be due to many different factors, including language deprivation and learning/cognitive delays. Interpreters need to work closely with the educational team and be aware of the student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals, then incorporate language modeling that will build from the student's current abilities.


Development of a Preschool-Aged Student

Foundational knowledge of child development can now be applied to a situation that could realistically occur in a K-12 school setting.  The video (Handspeak, 2014) below​​​​ demonstrates language development of a neurotypical preschool-aged girl.  She was filmed in various home-based settings interacting with adults in her life over a span of time.  The girl was raised in a language-rich environment with effective modeling.  The video highlights the importance of school interpreters as language role models.  Interpreters need to be familiar with developmental milestones as part of their role as a member of the educational team.  Interpreters can work with other members of the team and contribute information to IEP meetings on a DHH student's language usage.  If the student is behind on meeting developmental milestones, interventions can be designated to support the student's progress.  

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Consider a scenario where the preschooler in the video example is moved to a mainstream public school district and placed in a hearing classroom with access to an interpreter.  Everyone in the classroom (with exception of the DHH student) is hearing, speaks English, and knows no sign language.  Two ways to assess the DHH student's language proficiency is by their Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) (ASLized!, 2015).  BICS is connected to the student's social and casual communication with peers and adults, and CALP refers to the language the student uses for more formal educational discourse.  The child in the example (at age 3 1/2), is on par with developmental milestones for 3-4 year-olds.  She can fingerspell the alphabet and knows her numbers 1-10 (-20 with assistance), which are skills reinforced in kindergarten.  She has basic literacy skills and can identify names of people she knows and can connect some fingerspelled words to the correct concept from memory.  She is responsive and eager to learn.  She has developing theory of mind skills and understands the difference between herself and other people, and that other people have emotions too.  If we consider this child to be placed in kindergarten, I feel she has a strong foundation in her native language, but wouldn't be quite up to the same level as 5 and 6 year-olds because a lot of cognitive, psychosocial, and language development occurs between the preschool and kindergarten years.  

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If a child with her level of development were placed in a kindergarten class, she would need to have a skilled teacher of the deaf and interpreter (both language models) to catch up any language deprivation and encourage social interaction with her classmates.  She may need individual support from a teacher of the deaf or other specialized related service provider.  Gaps in education can easily occur with an interpreted education in a mainstream environment.  Working closely with the educational team will help to mitigate those gaps and keep them from widening in future grades.  

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The following section provides examples of developmental milestones that were identified in this video along with timestamps for reference. 

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Cognitive Milestones

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  • Can correctly open a book and tell a story based on the pictures.​

    • "BUTTERFLY.  SCARED YOU SCARED FLY-AWAY HOME." (4:24)

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  • Can express basic reasoning for cause and effect.

    • "#TOO HOT, NO, WANT SHORTS." (7:25)

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  • Demonstrates knowledge of time (future).

    • "ME FUTURE BIG, ME SIT THERE." (9:48)

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Language Milestones

 

  • Begins using classifiers, uses space for storytelling, uses directional verbs.

    • The girl recalls an incident that happened at a playground where she was pushed (directional verb).  She shows herself falling (classifier) and uses an expanded signing space to show height and direction, supporting her story. (2:21)

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  • Uses fingerspelling to spell her own name with support.  Still developing correct parameters (orientation of palm), but letter formation is identifiable.

    • "NAME WHAT?"     "J-U-L-I-A..."    "N..."    "N-N-A!" (6:31)

 

  • Can count on her fingers from 1-10 independently, and from 11-20 with support. (10:08)​

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Psychosocial Milestones

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  • Is considerate of others and offers to share her crayons.

    • "BREAK YOURS, NO.  ME CAREFUL.  SHARE?" (3:56)​

 

  • Demonstrates knowledge of ownership and honesty.

    •  "ME STEAL YOUR APPLE ME STEAL." (9:34)
       

  • Engages in pretend play with caretaker.

    • Acts out going to father's house in the car. (15:14)​​


Development of an Elementary-Aged Student

By the time a child reaches the age of 5 or 6, they are ready to start school at the elementary level.  The next video (Bowen, 2012) is an example of a public kindergarten/first grade combined classroom where the teach and students are all hearing.  The students sit on a rug in front of the white board. The teacher leads the students through their daily duty assignments and a lesson on the days of the week.  Students are assigned roles to fulfill within the classroom, for example: line leader, board cleaner, pencil sharpener, etc. The lesson includes spelling, phonetic awareness, and temporal aspects (i.e.: today is, tomorrow will be, and yesterday was).  The students are expected to observe classroom rules of appropriate behavior, such as listening quietly while the teacher is talking, raising their hands to answer a question, and responding when called on.  The goal of this educational interaction is to teach students the days of the week, reinforce temporal concepts and time frames, support development of appropriate social behaviors, and contribute to the upkeep of the classroom environment.  A Common Core State Standard that applies to this lesson is English Language Arts Standards: Language, Grade 1, Conventions of Standard English, 1e.

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The following section provides examples of developmental milestones that were identified in this video along with timestamps for reference. 

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Cognitive Milestones

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  • Attend to the teacher.

    • During the lesson the teacher calls for the attention of the class: “Boys and girls, eyes and ears…Okay, nice job” (1:53).

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  • Demonstrate appropriate social behaviors/Respect their classmates. 

    • The students sit on the rug quietly and listen without interrupting when their classmate is asked a direct question.  “Today is Monday, so what will tomorrow be?  Close your mouth and raise your hand.  Leta, what will tomorrow be?” (3:18).

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  • Understand social cues.

    • The teacher asks the students to listen to what he says and repeat it back.  As they are repeating, he directs a question specifically to one student, but the rest of the class does not repeat the student’s name, and the individual student recognizes that the teacher is asking him to answer a prompt.  They understand the implicit direction of what the teacher is asking of them.  “‘Let’s listen (Leta) and repeat: Yesterday (yesterday), was (was)…Harley?’ ‘Yesterday was Sunday’” (5:42).

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Language Milestones

 

  • Learn the letters for the days of the week in written form.

    • The teacher asks the students what the days of the week start with S.  “‘Yesterday was S-S-S-Sunday.  What letter does Sunday start with?’ ‘S!’” (5:11). 

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  • Follow directions and responding to questions.

    • The teacher asks the students to “close your mouths and raise your hands”, then calls on Gordie, who responds that the answer to the question is “Monday” (2:19). 

 

  • Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future.

    • Leta responds to a direct question from the teacher using the correct verbs, which also meets the Common Core objectives: “‘Leta, what will tomorrow be?’ ‘Tuesday’” (3:26). 

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Psychosocial Milestones

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  • Learn to be respectful and demonstrate social norms.

    • Gordie raised his hand and was quiet until given permission to speak.  “I like how Gordie already has his hand raised, so I’m going to ask Gordie: What is today?” (2:20).

 

  • Follow the rules.

    •  The students sit still on the ground and listen to teacher.  When the class finishes their stretch break, the teacher uses his arms outstretched to signal he wants them to sit down again, and the students follow this direction (7:10).
       

  • Self-Care/Emotional learning: Demonstrate self-control.

    • The class does a stretch break and breathing exercise together to re-center before moving on to the next activity (6:40). ​​


Development of an High School-Aged Student

As students transition to high school, they continue to build skills in independence and social awareness.  This video (Massachusetts DESE, 2015) is an example of a mainstream 9th grade high school biology class.  The students and teacher are hearing.  The teacher is presenting a lesson on flatworms.  She begins with a brief review of concepts learned in a previous class, then moves on to the day’s new topic.  The lesson includes a lecture from the teacher, a brief student presentation, and a hands-on activity where the students make their own flatworms from modeling clay.  The teacher is enthusiastic about involving the students in the lesson through physical movement connected to the concepts.  Making models and kinetic movement are examples of manipulatives to reinforce concepts.  The goal of this educational interaction is to teach students about the taxonomy and biology of flatworms.  A Next Generation Science Standard that applies to this lesson is High School: Life Science, From Molecules to Organisms: Structure and Function, LS1-2.

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The following section provides examples of developmental milestones that were identified in this video along with timestamps for reference. 

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Cognitive Milestones

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  • Students at this age are able to research information, produce a visual aid explaining the information, and report what they learned to the class in a presentation.

    • A student team gave a poster presentation on flatworms, discussing common types and their classifications (2:15).

 

  • Students at this age can reason from known principles, form new ideas or questions, and problem-solve solutions.

    • The teacher notices they have one step left to complete their clay worm models.  She asks the students what they are missing, how the missing piece could be made, and provides them with a tool to finish the missing element. “‘And then what can you do with it?’ “Stick it through the middle!’” (10:44).

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Language Milestones

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  • Students at this age are able to make predictions based on implicit information and critical thinking.

    • The teacher asks the students how to spell Platyhelminthes.  Several students worked together to spell it out loud for the class.  The students could be basing their spelling on prior exposure to the word during the course of the class or by using their knowledge of English grammar and critical thinking skills (4:25).

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  • Students at this age are able to follow spoken instructions containing complex vocabulary and grammar.

    • Examples of complex lesson-specific vocabulary:

      • Cnidarian

      • Planarian

      • Phylum

      • Acoelomate

      • Platyhelminthes

      • Triploblastic

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Psychosocial Milestones

 

  • Students at this age try to avoid embarrassing situations whenever possible.

    • The teacher wants the students to perform an action that imitates water going in and out of the pores of a sea sponge.  She knows they feel silly doing it and encourages their participation.  “I only see half of you doing it.  Let’s do that” (0:21). 

    • ​The teacher wants the students to show her tentacles and polyps using their arms, but the students look around at each other embarrassed.  “Raise your hands in–where are your tentacles?--in the air, and wave them like you just don’t care and all the polyps in the room say, ‘Oh, yeah!’” (0:51).

 

  • Students at this age value peer relations.

    •  ​The teacher calls on Nadia to answer a question, but Nadia isn’t confident in her answer.  The teacher tells Nadia she can ask Samantha for help.  Nadia asks Samantha and Samantha provides the correct answer.  This use of teamwork saves Nadia the embarrassment of providing the incorrect answer and also strengthens her peer bond with Samantha (5:55).

Educators design curriculum based on an understanding of how children grow and develop.  The developmental milestones are building blocks for how information is taught and structured so students can learn and be challenged appropriately. The following infographic addresses concepts of learning, goals of the K-12 classroom, factors that impact a student's learning process, and considerations specific to the learning of DHH students.  The information may seem basic but is foundational to the implementation of a systems approach to interpreting.  Educational interpreters must recognize the goals of the environment and how each client (DHH and hearing) fits into the bigger picture (see Systems & Collaboration).  

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I appreciated studying how DHH students learn in ways that are different from how hearing students learn (for example, Marschark, et al. (2011) state that DHH students learn and retain information more effectively when it is visually and spatially oriented). In a workshop I attended, the presenter stressed the importance of building rapport with the general education teacher in a mainstream setting and being a resource for them on how DHH students can access information and integrate more fully into the classroom. For example, if the teacher wants to show a video in class, the interpreter could suggest a video with the same content information that is presented in ASL with voice overlay. This makes the video fully accessible to the class, more than just providing a video with captions.  An important aspect of educational interpreting is to provide school administrators and faculty with information about DHH students and their learning needs, especially to those who may have never worked with a DHH student before.


Overarching Reflection

Child and language development were two big topics that I didn't understand how to integrate with what I knew of interpreting before learning about them through SIS coursework.  Learning about the developmental milestones and how to look for them in academic settings helped me to see how foundational these concepts are to educational interpreting.  ​​The artifacts presented here reinforce the truth that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.  Every student has needs that are individual and must be tailored to them specifically.  Meeting each DHH student's needs is a team process.  Interpreters need to work collaboratively with teachers in the classroom, special education, teachers of the Deaf, and other related service providers to track a student's progress on their IEP goals, making adjustments when needed.  Communication between the student, interpreter, and educational team is and should be a high priority.

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One of my strengths is that I am a parent.  My kids are age 8 and 11, and are in elementary and middle school respectively.  As I learned about the content presented here, I was able to draw connections with what I have and continue to learn through raising my children.  I have had the privilege of volunteering in their elementary school classrooms, working with their teachers, and supporting individual students through various activities.  That experience has reinforced for me how every child learns and processes information at their own pace.  My kids are both neurotypical, and I do not have experience working with kids who have special needs.  When I go on my internship, I know I will work with students who are Deaf+ (meaning they are DHH and are neurodivergent) across grade levels.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to apply what I have learned to working with DHH students with all abilities.         


References

ASLized! (2015, March 9). Kindergarten readiness for deaf children in American Sign Language [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/AVhrwJUSu4E? 

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 Bowen, D. (2012, February 22). Kindergarten / 1st grade calendar time part #1 [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwXyopaMmtw 

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Handspeak. (2014, September 14). Preschooler signing ASL: Months 6 and 7 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/NZgiERquuSk? ​​

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Marschark, M., Spencer, P. E., Adams, J., & Sapere, P. (2011). Evidence‐based practice in educating deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children: Teaching

to their cognitive strengths and needs. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 26(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2011.543540

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Massachusetts DESE. (2015, October 27). 9th grade biology [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9kyl_WPFhU​​

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Zikic, J. (2016, May 9). Being a parent made me a better manager, and vice versa. Harvard Business Review. 

https://hbr.org/2016/05/being-a-parent-made-me-a-better-manager-and-vice-versa

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