Amorsen, A., McBurnie, K., & Wilson, D. (2017). Oral language development in the early years- getting everyone involved. Practical Literacy: The Early & Primary Years, 22(2), 13-15.
This article goes in to detail explaining how a group of teachers researched, who had the greatest impact children’s early oral language. The teachers, Kelly, Adele, and Deborah, soon found that parents had a major role to play in helping teach their children oral language. These teachers did various things to get parents involved with their children. They set out to share their research result with diverse groups. They created an Early Childhood Network; this was used to join the early educators and parents together. Educators and parents could work as a team
There is no doubt our educational system is more complex than ever before. There is much to consider when looking at the balance between theories, proven methods, and the reasons why we chose to invest such time into our children’s education. In this paper I will touch on these theories, methods and the importance of the education.
“Phenomenologically, Donny and Timmy were not growing up in a literate environment. Although they lived in a home situation in a city situated in a country that contained many forms and functions for print, they did not experience it. They did not notice it around them; they did not understand its uses. Their world functioned without written language” (Purcell-Gates, 1997, p. 58).
In the article titled Nine Ideas About Language by Harvey Daniels, one of the fundamental ideas that he presents is Children learn their native language swiftly, efficiently, and largely without instruction. This dispels the myth that parents “teach” their children to talk.
Harris et al ( 1988) ‘Journal of Child Language, vol. 15 pp 77 – 94,
Nathani, S., Ertmer, D. J., & Stark, R. E. (2006). Assessing vocal development in infants and toddlers. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 20(5), 351-369. doi:10.1080/02699200500211451
Assessments matter. They are a useful tool for teachers to use to inform daily literacy instruction. They provide clear pathways into what the child already controls, partially controls, and aren’t yet controlling in reading and writing. I am not just talking about any assessment tool, I am talking about the one that was reviewed and rated as a screening tool by the National Center for Response To Intervention, Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (OS).
Language development emerges during the first two years of life whereby, infants and toddlers begin to develop skills to use symbols as a sign of communication. Psycholinguists have it that language development is dependent on physical growth thus as the brain develops
In our schools today, literacy should not just be a task for the English or Reading teacher. Instead, literacy should be a shared venture by all teachers within all content areas. Teaching literacy in all content areas is important because a teacher with a solid understanding of teaching literacy in his/her content area will tremendously help all students achieve greater success on class assignments and standardized assessments. There are three main points that surround the idea of teaching literacy in all content areas. Teachers need the necessary skills and knowledge to teach literacy, once the necessary skills and knowledge are gained then there is justification for teaching literacy across content areas, and
SHANNON LOCKHART (2012) 'Supporting Communication, Language, and Literacy Learning With Infants and Toddlers', 26(3), pp. [Online]. Available at:http://www.highscope.org/file/NewsandInformation/Extensions/ExtVol26No3_low.pdf(Accessed: 18-Mar-2014).
Grimshaw, Gina M, Adelstein,Ana Bryden, M.Philip and MacKinno, G.E. "First-Language Acquisition In Adolescence: Evidence For A Critical Period For Verbal Language Development." Brain and Language 63, no. 2 (1998): 237-255.
Hulit, L. M., & Howard, M. R. (2002). Born to talk: An introduction to speech and language development (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Language acquisition is a significant milestone in early childhood with lexical acquisition beginning as early as six months, and starting before an infant ever speaks their first word (Gervain & Mehler, 2010). Understanding and later speaking their native language will prove to be an important skill. According to Topping, Dekhinet, and Zeedyk (2012), parent-infant interaction in the first three years is critical to the development of this skill. The brain shows evidence that structural and functional organization for language exists from the start (Gervain & Mehler, 2010), and even prior to birth infants are exposed to language in utero (May, Heinlein, Gervain, & Werker, 2011), with hearing onset in the third trimester. This exposure allows them
Further in this term-paper I am going to describe the stages in child language acquistion starting from the very birth of an infant till the onset of puberty.
Some observations on the children’s language acquisition in the world reveal that their stages are almost universal. Some stages last for a short time; others remain longer. Some may overlap for a short period, though the transition period is always sudden.
During this phase children begin to gain better control of their mouths and tongues they start to laugh and coo. The sounds that are produced are mostly from the back of the mouth which are velar, plosive consonants for example the /k/ and /g/ and the long close back rounded vowel /u:/. O’Grady suggests that from four months a parent, guardian or care-giver can contribute to language acquisition by speaking to the child in a particular way known as Motherese. This nature of speech is slow with careful pronunciation and simple vocabulary objects, using short sentences and exaggerated intonation. This kind of speech helps the child understand what is being said. Furthermore, children react more positively to speech with the emphasis of Motherese than speech that has adult like intonation. (O’Grady