Abstract:
Background: Learning to speak and understand language is exceptional and forms an important accomplishment of early childhood. As part of the general growth of children, language development plays a vital role in their cognitive and social development. Language development of children across the world is believed to follow the same pattern. There is much debate on the first words of children as well as the content of these first words. Few studies have addressed these questions (what are the first words of children and the content of the first words) for children at the very earliest stage of language development.
Aim: The study was aimed at determining the first ten words of children acquiring Ga language between ages 12 and 18 months within the Ablekuma South Constituency.
Method: This research used a quantitative cross-sectional design to investigate the first ten words of children acquiring Ga language between ages 12 and 18 months. A checklist was generated by the researcher and was used for data collection. Parents who consented to the study responded to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the words on the checklist to indicate whether their children are saying the words as part of their first words or not. Parents also provided additional words which were not on the checklist but were part of their children’s first words. Data collection was done by the researcher and three trained field workers. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 software was used in analyzing the data collected. Three hundred and sixty-six (366) children participated in the study, 70% males and 30% females. The mean age of the children was 15 months. The study was conducted within the Ablekuma South Constituency, particularly, Mamprobi, Chorkor and Korle Gonno.
Results: The first ten words derived from the study were ‘maa’ (mother), ‘ba’ (come), ‘daa’ (father), ‘ayɛ’ (witch) ‘ayee’ (bye), ‘bebi’ (baby), ‘yaa’ (go), ‘goo’ (ball), ‘nu’ (water) and ‘tↄ’ (take). These words were ranked from 1 to 10 with ‘maa’ (mother) obtaining the 1st position and ‘tↄ’ (take) obtaining the 10th position. The first words of the children include nouns (names of people, objects and animals) and verbs (action words). The number of words of the children increased as they grow.
Conclusion: The first ten words of children acquiring Ga language have been identified to be (maa, amm, ayee, ba, daa, bebi, yaa, goo, nu and tↄ). These words were mainly nouns and verbs. The study also showed that as children grow, their vocabulary increases, for example, children aged 13 months produced 1-4 words whereas, children aged 17 months who produced 13 words.
Keywords: Language development, first words, vocabulary increase
