The Five Stages Of Emergent Literacy: Oral Language

Emergent Literacy: Oral Language

Michelle L. Demshick

Tidewater Community College

Emergent Literacy: Oral Language

Oral language is the base for how children learn how to speak, read, and write. It is needed for all types of communication. Children begin learning languages when they are infants and continue to learn throughout their entire lives. There are several stages that children move through to be able to properly communicate. The stages build off of the last one which helps the child become ready for the transition.

There are five stages of oral language development, these stages show what the child should be learning at what ages and what you should expect next. The five stages are cooing, babbling, one-word stage, telegraphic

The first stage is observation during this stage the children family and other people they spend time around dealing with different types of written language. When they see adults reading or interacting with books or newspaper they become curious. They enjoy having adults read to them and they try to follow along. The next phase is exploration which begins when children start trying to use written language. During this stage, children pick up books, magazines, or other written language and pretend to read it. They will look at the pages and tell their own stories, especially if there are pictures they will make up a story to go along with them. Then they move onto the experimentation phase, during this stage children begin using imagination to write. They write stories by using scribbling, invented letters, drawing, and invented spelling. (Otto pg.58). This stage is used in preschool and kindergarten. The next phase is communication, this is the stage where they begin to read and write. They start writing simple messages and use pictures to show what their message is. They start recognizing and pronounce bigger words and can understand longer stories. The final stage is conventional reading and writing, which begins late first grade or early second. The children begin to write correctly and can read on their own. (Otto