A Developmental Perspective on Language Acquisition 27perceives the events at hand, integrates sights and sounds, and
formulates memories of the experience.
Bloom and Lahey (1978) proposed a model of language
development that includes three components: form (phonology,
morphology, syntax), content (semantics), and use (pragmatics).
Language is viewed as the convergence of these three elements.
They defined language as a socially shared code or conventional
system that represents ideas through the use of arbitrary symbols
for communication. This integrative model revolutionized
the thinking of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) by
providing a “map” of language development, which traced the
child’s expression of ideas from single words through complex
sentences (Gerber and Wankoff 2014). This communication-
language orientation (Lahey 1988), based on longitudinal data
from typically developing children, provides a developmental-
descriptive framework to assist SLPs in determining what
children with challenges in learning language should acquire next
based on developmental phases. The components of linguistic
form, content, and use develop within the broader domains of
engagement and effort, components of the Intentionality Model
(Figure 2.1), providing a mechanism for continuity between the
two models and across developmental stages. In addition, both
models view the child’s growth across domains as synergistic, with
developments occurring simultaneously in multiple domains, such
as language content (semantics) and language use (pragmatics).
An example of this synergistic, integrative nature of early language
is a child who says the word “up” (an example of linguistic form) to
code the semantic notion of an action involving a change of place
(an example of language content) to request that the adult pick
him up (an example of language use). Yoga practices for children,
with their emphasis on nurturing the whole child, reflect this
synergistic, integrative view of development.