Paper Title
Siblings! They are more than just Annoying
Abstract
Every child starts to speak at different times point. Moreover, their receptive and expressive language development differs based on different factors (Fair, 2006). Receptive language is the ability to understand verbal communication, body language, including here facial expression and gestures, and emotions expressions. However, less is known whether children’s language development is influenced by other family members, such as siblings. Considering that language usage at home is considered to be a very important factor for linguistic development, the purpose of this research study is to investigate the presence of a sibling and the language development of a child at home. A sample of 80 preschool children (52% boys) was recruited from 4 public preschools centers in Prishtina. The mean age was (4.8 years old, SD = 0.9). All participants were Albanian and monolingual. Half of them had a sister or a brother, meanwhile the other half are the only kid home. Data were collected using the Standardized tool for the Receptive and Expressive Language in Albanian. In total, 100 questions were used to assess the receptive and expressive language of preschool children. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results show the influence of siblings on language development among children. The T-test results showed significant differences between children who are the only child in family and the ones who have siblings. The findings of this research shows that the early years practitioners need more support to create sensitive language learning environments. As such, siblings may be an important way to foster the language acquisition, as well as language development among preschoolers. However, as it was claimed by different authors, this study confirms as well the need for further research and discussion on the prerequisite of language development among preschoolers.
Keywords - Siblings, Language Development, Kosovo