A specific way where adaptation to the social environment lacks for children raised in orphanages in South Africa is in the area of language and speech development of their native language or second language.
Development of communication skills is essential
Communication competence is fundamental in the growth of other significant areas of development and if frustrated can lead to an increase in long term difficulties in behavioural, social, cognitive, psychiatric, and academic competencies.[i] The term communicative competence is described as the process whereby,
“a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires abilities as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, and in what manner.”[ii]
A reason to suggest this lack of communicative competence is the quality of verbal interactions between the care-givers and the children. Due to the high care-giver to child ratio, such as 20:1 in some Romanian orphanages,[iii] low general education levels of staff, and minimal training in child care and development, often times verbal interaction and thereby modelling is limited.[iv] A specific model of responsiveness between communication partners includes:
Child-oriented responses (i.e. utterances that comment on the children’s plan of the moment), interaction-promoting responses (i.e. utterances that encourage children to engage in extended conversational turns), and language-modelling responses (i.e. utterances that expand or extend the semantic content of the children’s communicative attempts). [v]
A study completed in a South African orphanage found that care-giver interactions within these three areas were particularly inadequate. Partially due to cultural norms, care-givers do not regard children as communicative partners.[vi] For example care-givers often interrupt adult to adult conversation to regulate child behaviour by saying only the child’s name and with no follow up afterwards; children often take the initiative to communicate either verbally or non-verbally depending on their needs; care-givers often ignore this initiative or respond with only eye contact and very little verbal reply.[vii] As well care-givers do not change their speech pattern to accommodate the child’s developmental level and very rarely speak to infants or young children.[viii]
A milestone for communicative competence occurs between the ages of 9-12 months and is determined by the development of canonical babbling which are vocalizations such as yells, shrieks and some vowel and consonant-like sounds.[ix] This stage is an important indicator of later speech and language development.[x] However, in the case of the orphanage in South Africa it was perceived that the children between 9-12 months had neither developed canonical babbling or communicative intent and even those children 12-15 months had not yet developed canonical babbling and very few had limited communicative intent.[xi] In regards to the importance of development of communication competence in infants, the cultivation of connectedness between care-giver and child necessitates the interrelationship between the child and their “immediate social world and as their communicative competence develops, so too does their ability to connect with the wider social space.” [xii] This lack of verbal modelling on the part of child-care providers in South African orphanages inhibits the communicative abilities of the children being reared in these institutions.
[i] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[ii] Brooks, B. (2001). An examination of the communicative and linguistic abilities of children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Retrieved from http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/41123/1/2001_Brooks.pdf
[iii] Brooks, B. (2001). An examination of the communicative and linguistic abilities of children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Retrieved from http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/41123/1/2001_Brooks.pdf
[iv] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[v] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[vi] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[vii] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[viii] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[ix] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[x] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[xi] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
[xii] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa. Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564
Technorati Tags: african children, child sponsorship programs, development of children in orphanages, Language development of orphans, social development of children, South African education, zulu child
This short video relates a view on life from the eyes of South African children. The film was shot in KwaZulu Natal (KZN); the children in the video have similar lives and experiences as the children that currently live at St Vincent’s in Mariannhill, KZN. Although their hardships are great, there is much hope for these children as you will see through their perseverance and their wisdom. 
