VIDBE-Q Volume 68 Issue 1
Cheryl Kamei-Hannan
California State University, Los Angeles
ckameih@calstatela.edu
Language is the ability to understand and convey ideas in written or spoken
discourse. It includes the ability to use words, phrases, and sentences to
communicate. Early language development begins at birth. Infants absorb the
language spoken at home, and they often begin to speak words before their first
birthday. By the age of two, young children know several words and begin
stringing them into simple phrases.
While vocabulary gives words meaning, syntax provides a string of words
the grammatical structure or framework for conveying ideas (Cho et al., 2019).
Language components include several linguistic skills such as phonological
awareness which is the ability to understand speech sounds and organize them into
words, phrases, sentences, or longer dialogues; semantic knowledge or the ability
to use one's vocabulary to aid in comprehension as well as analyze parts of words
to construct meaning, and syntactic knowledge or the ability to apply knowledge of
Building English Language and Literacy Skills
of Students with Visual Impairments
