Child Language Development (original) (raw)

Theories of child language development attempted to account for the development of language in infants from various angles, and with different points of emphasis. In this article, two major theories are discussed with regards to their major contribution to this area of study, Piaget’s cognitivist theory and Vygotsky’s social interactivist theory. Both theories agree that the sensorimotor period in infant’s development is marked by an organization of means and ends. However, the two theories diverge in many aspects of child language development, the most basic of which is their views on the interrelationship between cognitive, linguistic and social processes of development.