Halliday's functions of Child's Language Development:
Instrumental: The child uses language to express their needs, directly concerned with obtaining food/drink/comfort e.g 'I want to...'.
Regulatory: Child uses language to influence the behaviour of others, Persuading/commanding/ requesting others to do things e.g ' Go away'.
Interactional: The child uses language to develop social relationships and ease the process of interaction, concerned with the phatic dimension of talk e.g 'I'll be the cashier'.
Personal: Child uses language to express personal preferences and individual identity, sometimes referred to as the 'Here I am' function- announcing oneself to the world.
Representational: Child uses language to exchange information, concerned with relaying or requesting facts or information. e.g. 'I'll tell you'.
Heuristic: Child uses language to learn of and explore the environment and to learn. This may be questions or answers or the kind of running commentary that frequently accompanies children's play e.g 'What is the tractor doing?'.
Imaginative: Child uses language to tell stories and jokes and to crate an imaginative environment, may also accompany play as children create imaginative worlds or may arise from story telling. e.g. 'Let's pretend'.
