Online Seminar on "Common Attention, Common Intention and the Importance of Meaning in Language Acquisition" was Held

Speech Specialist  and Language Therapist Kemal Colay was invited as a speaker to the online seminar. Before starting the speech of the guest, Department of Speech and Language Therapy Lecturer Betül Özsoy Tanrıkulu started the online seminar by briefly mentioning Colay's CV. The event continued with the useful information Kemal Colay gave about attention, intention and meaning.

Colay began his words as follows: "What makes human cognition different is not his individual brain power. It is the ability of an individual to learn through other people and their works, and to cooperate with others and engage in joint activities. In other words, culture, technology and civilization do not occur alone. We must work in harmony with other people and want to learn from each other. The same processes are required for language acquisition. Because it is acquired through joint activities. How is it that we learn from someone else?" He reinforced his words by presenting audio and video recordings of the children he practiced therapy with his words.

Talking about the relationship between Language and Intention, Colay said: "Learning from each other, intellectual flexibility and paying attention to each other are the most basic elements of human communication. Understanding the intention of another person, creating this in the mind and preparing for what will happen, opens the door to human cognitive development. So why do we care about this partnership? Because linguistic code is built on the understanding of non-linguistic purpose-intention and a common conceptual basis."

Speaking about common attention and common intention in the rest of his speech, Colay said: "Common attention; It is the directing of an individual's own attention to someone else's for the purpose of creating a common reference and sharing information. Mutual attention between target-adult-infant is essential for later language and cognitive development. Common intention or intentionality occurs in collaborative interactions in which participants share their psychological states with each other. Collective attention is thought to be a precursor to perspective taking, or theory of mind. The goal and reinforcement here is to share the experience with others. According to the social cognitive model, the maturation of the capacity to understand others' thoughts, intentions, and emotions, or the development of joint attention is very important for development."

Referring to the issue of common meaning, Colay said: "The common meaning is the child's related needs, the needs that are relevant to him, the current context, like the past, that is, it is important for the child and has priority for him. Cognitive development in the first year of life creates an expansion in experience and sense. In the first half of life, the foundations of language are formed as a result of interactions with people and the environment. The children talk about this later. Language is developed to share this content in the mind with others."

Finally, Colay, who gave information about language and its acquisition, said: "Language is a medium used to express what is happening in our minds. It brings out what is inner and personal. Transition from individual meanings to common meanings is one of the most important points in child development. Almost all of the language that children acquire in the early period comes from their routine interactions with someone who is competent in that language."

Speech Specialistand Language Therapist Kemal Colay ended his speech after answering the questions of the students who attended the seminar. Department of Speech and Language Therapy Lecturer Betül Özsoy Tanrıkulu thanked Kemal Colay for her participation.