SCAFFOLDING AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS AND ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Language development is the phenomenon of child language acquisition. The objectives of this study are to find out the benefits and challenges of using scaffolding to help children’s language development. Descriptive survey was employed and stratified random sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents from pre-primary, primary, secondary school teachers and parents of pre-primary pupils. Ten (10) likert scale type instrument was validated and Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.88 was yielded. The study attempted to answer two research questions using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that scaffolding provides children with the opportunity to learn new words, bolster children’s language skills, help a child move from simple language to more complicated language, helps provide children with correct language usage repetitively and aid in capturing the infant’s attention and maintaining communication. The findings of the study also showed that the challenges of using scaffolding to help children’s language development include inadequately modelling of the desired behaviours, strategies or activities because the teacher has not fully considered the individual student’s needs, predilections, interests and abilities, full benefits not seen unless the instructor are properly trained, selecting appropriate scaffolds that match the diverse learning and communication styles of learners, knowing when to the remove the scaffold so that the learner does not rely on the support and not knowing the learner well enough to provide the appropriate scaffold. However, the study concludes that what the child is able to do with assistance today he will be able to do independently tomorrow and recommended among others that language teachers should be exposed to sensitization programmes like seminars, workshops and conferences to broaden their intellectual horizon on the importance of scaffolding in language development.