班主任教育随笔-生活感言

Lesson 1 Child‟s Development: Language Takes on New Significance
孩子的发展：语言具有新的重要意义

Researchers are focusing with new intensity on the earliest stages of
childrens language acquisition as a key indicator of normal-
and-abnormal-development.


研究人员现在开始将炙热的目光聚焦 在儿童语言学习的最早阶段，并以此阶段
作为测试他们发展正常或是失常最重要的指标。


They say that the age at which infants smile when spoken to, say “ah-goo”，
habblc and coo foreshadow later development and may be important clues
pointing to learning, sensory or psychiatric disorders and need for early
intervention to foster language development. Intervention to stimulate
language ability perhaps correct an underlying disorder, they say, may head
off behavioral and learning problems that often cause family disruptions and
lead to social and school failure.


他们称：当对孩 子说话，他们会微笑，牙牙学语，而通过这一年龄的表现可以预
测他们后天的发展，成为测知他们学习、 意识或精神紊乱以及预测他们语言发展
的培养是否需要早期干预的重要依据。他们指出刺激孩子的语言能 力的干预手段
或许会纠正潜在的缺陷，阻止行为上和学习中常导致家庭破裂、致使社交和学习
失 败的一些问题。


At the same time, other researchers who study factors that enhance language
velopment are finding that babies whose parents talk with, not at, develop
more rapid and richer linguistic skills. After decades of emphasizing
visualmotor skills and playing down language as a measure of a child‟s
development, many experts now recognize linguistic skills to be the best
predictor of a child‟s cognitix . ability. Yet, they say, rarely is a child‟s language
development assessed with the same attention that is paid to physical growth
and the acquisition of such motor skills as turning over, crawling and walking or
fitting pegs into holes.


与此同时，其他研究促进孩子语言发 展因素的人员发现，那些父母与之聊天而
不是告之的孩子 能更快地学习到更丰富的语言技能。多年来，许多专家都强调视
觉 形象动作技能是孩子发展的标尺，而 贬低语言，现在他们已认识到言语技能

是预测孩子认知能力的最好手段。然而，他们指出 ，孩子语言能力的发展很少像
他们的身体发育和诸如翻身、爬行、走路、将小物体放在洞里的动作技能发 展一
样受到同等重视。


To fill this gap in the care of well babies, p( diah ic researchers at the Kennedy
Institute for Handicapped Children in Baltimore have developed a simple
screening test to help physicians detect lags in language development,
sometimes months before babies say their first real word, phrase or sentence.


为了填补照料状态良好的婴孩这方面 的空白，巴尔的縻肯尼迪残障儿童研究协
会中 的一些儿科研究者已开发了一套简单的视屏测试系统来帮助医生们检测出
孩子 语言发展迟缓的原因所在 ，有时是在孩子能真正说出他们的第一个单词、
词组或句子的前几个月就对他们进行测试。


The researchers, Arnold J. Capute, Bruce K. Shapiro and Frederick B. Palmer,
all physicians and associate professors of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, say the test can help to call attention to
developmental problems like communication, hearing and learning disorders,
as well as aid in the asstvssment of more severe problems like chm c-hral
palsy, mental retaixlation and autism, that might not otherwise be noticed and
treated until the child is much older.


阿诺• J•凯普彻，布鲁斯•K•谢皮 诺和弗雷德里克•B•帕来默等研究人员们都是约
翰•霍普金森大学医学院的医生和儿科副教授。他们说该测试有助于引起人们对
孩子发展过程 中出现的如沟通、听力和学习障碍等问题的重视，还有助干对像脑
瘫、智力发育迟缓和自闭症等更严重的 问题进行测评，否则这些问题可能会到孩
子更大一些的 时候才会被发现并得到治疗。

Experts in language and child development applauded the new test, dubbed
Clams, for Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale. The developers
say the test, which has been fully standardized and validated, has already
attracted the interest of p( (liatrit ian as far away as Australia. They describe it
and its potential uses in the current issue of the professional magazine,
Contemporary Pediatrics. While widely used tests of child development
explore some aspects of language, they focus primarily on visualmotor skills.
Clams is one of the first comprehensive, systematic assessments devoted to
language development.

语言和儿童发展专家们非常认可这 项 新测试并命名为“Clams”，即“临床语言和
听力进程址表”。开发者们称，这项完全合乎标准、完 全有效的测试已经吸引了
远至澳大利亚的儿科医师的兴趣。他们在专业杂志--《当代儿科》近期期刊 中
描述了该测试及其潜在的作用。尽管这项测试在儿童发展方面的广泛应用发现了
儿童在语言方 面的一些特点，但是它们主要关注的还是视觉动作技能方面。
“Clams”（临床语言和听力进程量 表）是第一个综合地、系统化地深入探究语言
发展的评价系统。

To be sure, the ages and stages of language development, like the
development of motor skills and physical growth, vary among individual babies.
And boys are much more likely than girls to lag in their language development.
But the Clams test can help physicians determine from parents and from the
baby how closely a child‟s prelinguistic and language development m nihlcs
that of other children who are the same age.


可以确信的是，婴儿语言发展的年 龄和阶段就像动作技能的发展和身体 的发育
一样，因人而异。而且，男孩比女孩在语言发展上很有可能迟缓一些。但是，
“Cla ms”测试能帮助医生们从家长和孩子那里确定同龄孩子之间的早期言语和语
言发展会具有多大的类似性 。

For example, according to the Clams assessment, a one-week-old baby
typically shows some response to sound, a four-month- old turns toward a
voice, a six-month-old babble and a nine-month-old understands the word “no”.
By 14 months, a baby typically says three words and can respond to a simple
verbal command. By 21 months, a child‟s average ocahulan has grown to 50
words and by age 3 to 250 words plus sentences of three words or more.


例如：根据“Clams”评价结果，一周大的婴儿典型表现是对声音做出一些反应，4个月大的孩子会转向声音源：6个月大的可以牙牙学语而9个月大的孩子则能理
解“不”的意思，到 14个月大时，典型特点是婴儿会说3个单词和对简单的言语
指令作出反应，到21个月大时，儿童的平 均词汇量将增至50个词,3岁时，词
汇量增至250 个词，而且，此时他们会说含有3个及以上单词的句子。

Currently, experts said, “few physicians who care for babies are trained to
detect delays in language development. When parents bring language delays
to the doctor‟s attention, the typical response is “Don‟t worry, he，U grow out of

it.”

目前，专家们称：“看护儿科医生，很少有专门受过训练 来检测孩子们的语言发
展的迟缓。毎当家长咨询医生们这个问题时，他们的典型回答就是：“无须担心，
孩 子在长大时会好起来的。”

However, according to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a pediatrician at Harvard
Medical School who is an authority on child development, such complacency is
often not justified. “In my experience,” he said, “when parents are worried,
there‟s usually a good reason for it.”The experts also agreed that early
detection of language problems could have a significant impact on the child‟s
development.


然而，据T•拜瑞•布睿索登博 士--哈佛 大学医学院研究儿童发展的专家所言，这
些自我安慰常常没什么道理可言。“依我的经验，”他说：“家 长们担忧时出现这种
情况是情有可原的。”专家们还认为及早发现孩子的语言障碍对他们的进一步发展具有重要的影响意义。


“Although early detection doesn‟t mean we can „cure，every problem, early
identification can be of enormous benefit to both the child and the family,” said
Judith Cooper, who runs the division of communicativr disorders at the Natioiiil
Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke.


朱迪思•库柏说道：“尽管早期的检测并不意味着我们可以„治愈 ‟所有毛病，但是
尽早的确认不论对家长还是对孩子都很有益处。”她在国家卫生研究院神经疾病
与中风研究院负责鉴别沟通障碍这一项。


Dr. Cooper explained that parents who were aware of a language problem
could learn how to communicate with their child better and adopt more realistic
expectations for how the child will respond. For example, rather than getting
angry when a child fails to pay attention or to mind, the parent may learn how
to elicit an appropriate response by modifying the message or the way it is
delivered.


库伯博士解释说意识到语言问题的 家长们能学会如何更好地和他们的孩子沟
通，并且对他们 的孩子做出如何的反应抱以更实际的期望。例如，与其对孩子未

能集中注意力或未能留心 思考而大发雷霆，家长们可能更愿意通过修饰信息或者
改变信息的表达方式来得到孩子适当的反应。

Dr. Cooper added: “What‟s really nice about this tool is it will help pediatricians
and family physicians aware of what s within normal limits of language
development and when they should become concerned. If a child is referred to
a speech -language pathologist for evaluation, you don‟t lose anything if the
child turns out not to have a problem. But you can lose a lot of valuable time if
the diagnosis of a real problem is delayed until the child is in school.


库伯博士补充说：“这种工具真正的价 值在于它可以帮助儿科医生和家庭医生意
识到什么是属于孩子语言发展中正常的表现，而什么时候他们应 该关注。如果一
个 孩子在接受言语病理学家的诊断后，诊断结果是毫无问题，那么你也不会有
任何损失。但是如果直到孩子上学后才诊断出的确存在的问题来，那么你将会丧
失许多宝 贵的治疗时间。”

“Early identification of some language problems and therapy addressed to the
deficiencies can miniini.c the damage, that might have serious result if the
impairment were not recognized and treated until the child was 5 or 6 years
old，” Dr. Cooper said.


库伯博士说道：“及早确诊孩子的语言问题并对症下药会将这种伤害降低到最小，
但如果到孩子5岁或6岁的时候，问题仍没有被发现和治疗，后果就会很严重。”

“For many children, language difficulties impair not only reading and overall
intellectual development but can also interfere with social skills and
psychological adjustment,” said Dr. Carl Feinstein, a child psycliiatrist and
director of developmental disabilities at Bradley Hospital in Providence.


卡尔•费恩斯坦医生说道：“对许多孩 子而言，语言问题不仅影响到阅读、全面
智力发展，还会影响到社交技能以及心理 调节能力的发展。”他是普罗维登斯布
拉德 利医院的儿童精神病医师和发展障碍者组织的负责人。


A child who cannot communicate well may have trouble getting along with
other children and may be inclined to use physical rather than verbal means for
getting a message across. Many such children are chronically frustrated

because they are so often misunderstood or are unable to perform as
expected. Their egos may be repeatedly assaulted by parents and others who
think they are stupid，nau^ht or uncooperative.


无法有效与人沟通的儿童与其他孩 子相处时可能会出些障碍，而且他们可能 习
惯于用身体的而不是言语的方式交流信息。这样的儿童会因为他们经常不被理解
或是不能像 期望的那样表现自己，而长期感到失落。他们的自我或许被家长和其
他认为他们愚蠢、淘气和不愿与人合 作的人再三地责难。


“About half the children who are treated at speech and hearing clinics have a
diagnosable personality or psychiatric disorder, such as an attention deficit or
conduct disorder,” Dr. Feinstein said. “Language problems are a major
nliH*ral)ilit factor that predisposes 狂 child to other problems•”


“大约一半在言语听力康复中心接受 治疗的孩子，有可诊 断性的人格和精神缺陷，
例如注意力涣散或行为失调，”费恩斯坦医生说道：„„语言问题是诱发孩子其 他 问
题的罪魁祸首。”


However, experts in language development are not uniformly enthusiastic
about the prospects of screening children for delays in linguistic landmarks.
Catherine Snow, professor of human development at Harvard‟s Graduate
School of Education, said there was a serious risk of overdiagnosis associated
with using an assessment tool like Clams.
vary enormously in language development,” she said. “A perfectly normal,
intelligent, 18-month-old may have a vocabulary of two words or of 800 words.
It is not at all unusual, for instance, for a second child to be a late talker.”


然而，并非所有语言发展方面的专家 们对利用视屏检测孩子的语言发展迟缓的
前景都抱乐观的 态度。哈佛教育研究生院人类发展学教授凯瑟琳•斯洛说，利用
像 “Clams”这样的工具引发的相 关问题是存在过度诊断的高风险。她说：“正常
发展的孩子在语言发展上差异性很大。一个完全正常、聪 明伶俐的18个月大的
婴儿可以有2~ 800个单词的词汇量。但是，如果对一个晚些学会说话的孩子来
说（达不到这个量），也完全正常。”

Dr. Cooper acknowledged that some children outgrew their language lag
without any intervention or lasting scars. But, she added, “most don‟t outgrow it

and currently we have no way to know who will.” She also emphasized that the
diagnosis of a language (丨(li( U did not mean a child was not intelligent. “In
some children, language is one of several developmental areas that are
delayed, but in others only language development is affected. A large
percentage of children who come to speech and hearing clinics do rpt have
other problems.


库伯博士承认有些孩子的语言发展迟 缓的障碍在其成长过程中无须干预就消失
了，而且没有留下任何“后遗症”。但是， 她进一步指出：“大多数孩子不会这么
幸 运，而且目前我们没法知道谁会痊愈。” 她还强调了对孩子 语言发展迟缓的
检测并不意味着他智力上有问题。“对有些孩子来说，语言的迟缓发展只是其他
发展障碍的 一个方面。但是对另外一些孩子来说，他们只是语言发展受到了影
响。在来语言听力康复中 心的孩子中，大部分不存在其他方面的问题。”

The existence of a language disorder does not doom a child to failure in life, Dr.
Capute noted. “Einstein didn‟t talk until age 4 or 5. He was a genius, but he still
had a language disorder. Many physicians have language disorders, but they
still function well as physicians.”


存在语言障碍并不是说一个孩子在生 活中注定是失败者。凯普彻博士解释说：
“直到4或5 岁时，爱因斯坦还不会说话。他是天才，但仍有语言障碍。许多医
生有语言障碍，但是这并不妨碍他们成 为好医生。”