7 Complex sentences
A significant milestone in language development is reached when children move beyond the ‘simple syntax’ of two- and three-word phrases like ‘I want X’ and begin to use complex sentences that express a specific relationship between two (or more) situations in two (or more) clauses. This process begins by children learning to coordinate clauses using conjunctions (e.g. ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’) but then soon progresses to embed one clause (e.g. [clause 1]) within another to express a certain relationship between the two (e.g. [clause 1 modifies [clause 2]]).
For instance, complement clauses act as noun phrases within a sentence (e.g. ‘[main clause The president believes that [complement clause the earth is flat]].’); relative clauses act as adjectives, modifying a noun phrase ‘[main clause the cake [relative clause that was given to me] was bad]’; and adverbial clauses provide information about time, place, manner or cause of the main clause event, e.g. [adverbial clause Because the car was out of fuel [main clause the engine wouldn’t start]].
By the time children are around 3 years old, they have started to talk about things that have happened in the past. When they do, it can help unlock a lot more complex language as they move beyond naming and commenting on things appearing in the here and now.
In this video Dr Saloni Krishnan helps mum Anastasia explore how talking in the past tense can be good for her daughter Denisa’s language learning. Open the link below in a new tab or window.
Video 2 How does talking about the past help children’s language skills?
Thoughts on Video 2
There’s a difference between the way children speak about things in the present and how they speak about past events. When we talk to children about the here and now, they’ll often do the sorts of things we do as adults – pointing to things, naming them, giving a little information only, as they know that you are there with them experiencing it as they are. You can see what they’re talking about, so they don’t need to say too much. When we ask them about events in the past, they have to give much more detail to help you understand what they mean. You can encourage them to draw out this detail by asking lots of ‘what?’, ‘when?’ and ‘where?’ questions.
Around the ages of 3–4 years old, children develop episodic memory as part of their brain called the hippocampus develops. Episodic memory is memory about details like who was with them when something happened, where they were and what they did. This is great for their language learning, as they can begin to tell you all about these things if you help them practise talking in the past tense with plenty of questions about past events. Scientists refer to talk about the past and future as ‘decontextualised language’. This just means language about a situation they’re not currently experiencing – they’re having to put things into context for you so that you understand.
This is great for their building language skills as they’re able to put their memories and plans into words.