| dc.description.abstract | Although the investigation of child development, in general, has a long and varied
tradition, researchers have primarily been interested in either the child alone or the
interaction of the child with the mother. Children, however, rarely live alone with
their mother. The focus of this study, however, is based on the influence of sibling
presence on language acquisition of young children in families’. Using 81 selected
schools and 100 families this research sought to determine the following
objectives -: How siblings presence activate the children’s inborn abilities to
acquire speech, The effects of siblings' relationship on vocabulary size, The extent
to which siblings' presence widens children’s grammar. The research was a
descriptive survey in nature. For a fair representation, a Multi-stage sampling
technique was used. This is a technique where clusters are selected from the
population. Based on the sample frame, stratified random sampling was used to
determine the sample for the study. The stratification was defined depending on
the type of school either public or private and the teaching level. The sample size
constituted of 81 schools within Rachuonyo South District. Sixty respondents
comprising of parents, pupils, older siblings, teachers and guardians were selected
for the research. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected using
structured questionnaires. The study took note of the various levels of language
development together with the challenges they faced. Data was sorted then
analyzed. SPSS software was used to enhance the data processing by providing
relevant tables for analysis. Direct attention was given to the diverse methods of
data collection in child language research, and the facilities they offer from the
vast district. The researcher applied all the elements of a descriptive research. In
chapter four the data was analyzed in SPSS and the result presented in tables and
pie charts where relevant to make it easier for the end users. In conclusion
generally children imitate much more than are observable even several hours of
home observation are not enough to show the extent to which children’s linguistic
and mental development is dependent on their social environment. It is thus
conceivable that those events which seem to prove children’s perspective taking
abilities mainly prove the extent to which they imitate their mother.
Recommendations on further research are that children start by imitating their
models: they do not learn to speak in order to achieve anything such as getting fed
or meeting others’ minds, but they imitate for the sake of learning. Soon, they
realize what chances they get by having acquired important skills such as language
hence the variable of reaction as result of speech should also be analyzed. | en |
