Social Competence & Language Development
Three Elements of Social Competence are (1) secure attachment, (2) instrumental social actions and (3) experience-sharing.
Attachment -- refers to the affective tie of infants to their parents
Instrumental social actions -- are those that are done to achieve a specific objective in a social setting
Experience sharing -- it involves the desire and skills to be a good reciprocal playmate, to value others' point of view, to develop friendships, and to conduct emotion-based interactions.
These elements explain the main reason why children development language to communicate.
Children talk to maintain to maintain social contact, often for no other reason than to share experience, feeling, or thought with another person. This motivation for sharing reflects the need infants have to sustain "intersubjectivity" – that is, an interfacing of mind with other persons.
Intentionality drives language acquisition, and intersubjectivity drives intentionality.
Initially, this intersubjectivity reflects the child's experience of emotions. Gradually, however, children come to recognize, others' experiences of emotions. Increasingly, this appreciation of intersubjectivity, or what has been termed a theory of mind (ToM), contributes to children's ability to predict behaviors of others and participate in effective social conversation.
Brian B Shulman, and Nina C. Capone (2009) Language Development. Foundations, Processes, and Clinical Applications.