Charlotte Round

Early language development Language development begins in the womb…

DeCasper and Spence found that babies sucked on their dummies more when their mothers read them the same stories they’d been read in the last six months of pregnancy

Mehler et al found four day old French babies increased sucking on their dummies when they heard French (opposed to other languages)

Fitzpatrick found the heart rate of an unborn baby slowed when it heard its mothers voice

Even in the womb babies become familiar with sounds, rhythm and intonation!

Babies use their vocal chords straight away…

Between birth and the first words is the pre-language stage Crying, is the first main vocal expression a baby makes, it makes the caregiver aware

the baby wants something It’s not conscious, it’s an instinctive responsive the baby makes

The cooing stage is next

Cooing starts at six to eight weeks old Babies start making a small range of sounds, getting used to moving their lips and

mouths It starts with vowels (such as /u/ and /a/) – they start to link those to produce

extended vowel combinations such as oooh and ahhh Then they start to use velar consonants, like /k/ and /g/, to form sounds like coo and

gaa This is vocal play and is the start of babbling

These sounds do not carry any meaning, at all!

Babbling comes after cooing!

This usually starts when the baby is six months old They start to produce repeated consonant/vowel combinations: ma-ma-ma-ma or,

ba-ba-ba-ba This babbling is known as reduplicated or canonical babbling If the sounds are not repeated, e.g. goo-gi-goo-ga, this is called variegated babbling

Research has shown deaf babies that are exposed to sign language will babble with their hands! This suggests babbling is an innate activity…

Some people argue babbling is just another stage of vocal play, the sounds do not carry meaning

However, some people argue it is the beginning of speech: Petitto and Holowka video recorded infants and noted that most of babbling came

from the right side of the mouth – which is controlled by the left side of the brain. This side of the brain is responsible for speech production. This suggests babbling is a form of preliminary speech!

Babbling stage is divided into two parts;

When babies begin to babble the number of phonemes they produce increases – phonemic expansion

However, later in the babbling stage, they reduce the number of phonemes they produce – phonemic contraction

This is because the baby starts to concentrate on reproducing the phonemes it hears in its native language!

This stage (ten months) is when children from different nationalities begin to sound different

Bristol University found phonemic contraction occurred less if the baby is exposed to more than one language.

Even in the early stages of babbling, some babies use rhythms that resemble speech patterns of adults – recognisable intonation

The intonation at the end of a babbling sequence may rise, similar to how intonation rises when adult asks a question. This could be accompanied by pointing…

Proto words

A child may say ‘Mmm’ to indicate they want some more food – this is not a word in itself, but functions like one

These are called proto-words and are sometimes accompanied by gestures Another example, is when a child calls a cat a /da/ - it isn’t a recognisable word, but

it refers to something and therefore not a random utterance At around 9 months, children begin to sound like they are speaking their own made

up language – jargon By the time the baby is ten months old, babbling may develop some meaning e.g.

ma-ma does mean mum

Phonological and pragmatic development Children learn vowels and consonants at different speeds. They learn to use some

phonemes earlier than others Most children will be able to use all vowels in the English language at around two

and a half years old They might not use all consonants confidently until they are six/seven – the earliest

they master are /m/ and /n/ (nasals) and, /p/, /t/, and /k/ known as voiceless plosives

The last ones tend to be /th/ sounds – fricatives Children find using consonants at the beginning or words (word-initial) easier than

those at the ends of words (word-final)

Simplification;

1. Deletion this is where a child drops a consonant all together, particularly at the end of a word e.g. ‘ca’ rather than ‘cat’

2. Substitution this is where a child might replace a consonant with another that is easier to say e.g. ‘wegs’ rather than ‘legs’

3. Cluster reduction is where there are consonant clusters – a child may drop of one the consonants e.g. saying ‘geen’ rather than ‘green’

Berko and Brown reported the ‘fis’ phenomenon. A child referred to his plastic fish as a ‘fis’, when asked ‘is this your fis?’ the child said no – insisting it was his fis. When the child was asked; ‘is this your fish?’ he replied ‘yes, my fis’.

This suggests children can recognise and understand more phonemes than they can actually produce!

Other features of phonological development;

Addition This is when a vowel is added to the end of a word. E.g. a dog is pronounced dogu…

Assimilation This is when one consonant in a word is changed because of the influence of another in the same word. E.g. ‘tub’ becomes ‘bub’ because of the influence of the final /b/

Reduplication This is when a phoneme is repeated. E.g. moo-moo for cow

Voicing This is when voiceless consonants are replaced by their sounded equivalents e.g. zok instead of sock

De-voicing When voiceless consonants replace their sounded equivalents e.g. pag instead of bag

Intonation…

Intonation is even developed at the babbling stage When children begin to put words together it become more obvious they stress

certain words e.g. mine Cruttenden found that ten-year-olds had difficulty distinguishing between;

1. She dressed, and fed the baby (she dressed herself, and then fed the baby)2. She dressed and fed the baby (she dressed the baby and fed it too)

The functions of children’s language…

Halliday states that the early language of children has 7 functions!

Instrumental To get something… e.g. ‘go toily’ means ‘I want to go to the toilet’

Regulatory To make requests, or give orders… e.g. ‘not your teddy’ means ‘leave my teddy alone’

Interactional To relate to others… e.g. ‘Nice mummy’Personal To convey personal identity and express

views and feelings… e.g. ‘naughty doggy’Heuristic To find out about the immediate

environment… e.g. ‘What boy doing?’Imaginative To be creative through language… e.g. ‘one

day my daddy came home…’Representational To convey information… e.g. ‘I am three’

Learning to interact with others;

Babies learn about social conventions before they can speak E.g. the game of ‘peek-a-boo’ familiarises with turn taking… A child’s carer might respond to their babbling as if they were having a conversation,

some basic interaction As pragmatic development continues, they interact in more sophisticated ways… use

conversations, speech functions, turn-taking… Non-verbal aspects also become more sophisticated

Lexis, grammar and semantics

Age Number of words used18 months 50+

2 years 3005 years Approx. 30007 years Approx. 4000

Children’s ability to understand words will develop faster than their ability to use them. E.g. at 18 months a child can say around fifty but, understand around 250…

Children’s first words relate to their immediate surroundings, they are connected to what the child can sense (taste, touch etc…) or they have a social function

Words expressing concepts and abstract ideas appear as the child become more self-aware

It’s estimated 11 year olds have a vocab. Of around 40,00 words

Nelson (1973) studied the first fifty words produced by children and put them into five categories:

Classes of objects; dog, shoe, ball, car etc… Specific objects; mummy and daddy, etc… Actions/events; give, stop, go, where Modifying things; dirty, nice, pretty all-gone etc… Personal/social; bye-bye, hello etc…

Classes formed the largest group; it’s easier for children to identify what they can touch!

Under extension

Is when a child uses a word in a restricted way e.g. when a child says hat but means only the hat she wears, rather than any other hat…

Over extension

Is when a child uses a word to relate to several different, but related things e.g. they might say ‘cat’ to refer to any four legged animal

Eve Clarke found that children base overextension on the physical qualities of objects and their features, such as: taste, sound, movement

Rescorla identified two types of over-extension, categorical and analogical… Categorical is when a word is used to refer to things in a similar category e.g. using

the word ‘car’ to refer to any four wheeled vehicle Analogical is when a word is used to refer to things that aren’t in the same category

but have some physical or functional relation to each other e.g. the word ‘hat’ is used to describe anything related to the head!

Aitchison – development process;

1. Labelling is when a child links a sound to an object – they are able to call something by its correct name

2. Packaging is when a child begins to understand the range of meaning a word might have. They recognise the word ‘bottle’ can cover different shapes, but they have similar functions

3. Network building is when a child begins to make connections between words. E.g. they understand words have opposites (big and small), or know that ‘little’ and ‘small’ are synonyms

Holophrastic or, one-word stage;

This is the stage where a child says their first words ‘holophrases’ are single words that express a complete idea, e.g. one word conveys

what a whole sentence would E.g. when a child says teddy it could mean several things; ‘here’s my teddy’, ‘pick up

my teddy’ … Hence why caregivers need contextual clues to understand holophrases and the

child’s non-verbal communication

The two-word stage;

At around 18 months children begin to use words in conjunction – the start of syntax!

Examples are; ‘daddy dinner’, ‘baby crying’ These patterns show similar patterns to more complex grammatical constructions

The telegraphic stage;

At around two years old, children start to use three or four word combinations – the telegraphic stage…

These utterances are also formed according to grammatical rules e.g. subject+verb+object

Children still focus on words that carry the most meaning They omit functional words – e.g. prepositions (from), auxiliary verbs (has) and

determiners (the)

By age five, children will be able to use a variety of grammatical constructions;

1. Coordinating conjunctions (and & but) to link separate utterances

2. Negatives involving the auxiliary ‘do’ e.g. ‘don’t like it’ 3. Questions formed with who, where and what 4. Inflections like ‘-ed’ for past tense and ‘-s’ for plurals

Inflections:

Children start to add inflections from as early as 20 months old Studies have shown they are acquired in a certain order Brown suggested the order that children acquire inflections is as follows;

Inflections A child will say (e.g.)1 Present participle (-ing) I going (‘am’ will still be missing)2 Plural (-s) cups3 Possessive’s Teddy’s chair4 Articles (a, the) Get the ball5 Past tense (-ed) I kicked it6 Third person singular verb ending -s She loves me7 Auxiliary (be) It is raining (or, it’s raining)

Katamba found there was little connection between the frequency with which these inflections are used by parents and the order children acquire them

The ‘ing’ inflection is learnt earliest, this could be because children can relate more to what is happening now…

Cruttenden inflection acquisition:

1. Inconsistent stage: A child will use an inflection correctly some of the time, but this is because they have learnt the word itself rather than the actual grammatical rule e.g. they might say I play outside one day but I played outside another…

2. Consistent stage but misapplied: E.g. applying the past tense inflection -ed to irregular verbs. A child might say ‘I drinked it’ rather than I drank it, this is an overgeneralisation, the child understands how past tense verbs are formed but applies it to an irregular verb.

3. Consistent usage: when children are able to cope with irregular forms successfully, e.g. they can say mice instead of ‘mouses’

Berko – wug test:

1. Children were shown a picture of a made up creature, a wug. 2. They were then shown a picture of two and asked to finish the sentence: “there are

two…”3. Three to four year old children said there were two wugs!4. They automatically used to rule that states –s is added to create a plural – this is

internalisation!

Learning to ask questions:

1. Stage one – 18 months: During the two word stage, children start to use rising intonation to indicate a question…

2. Stage two – 2-3: In telegraphic talk, children to continue using rising intonation – but start to use ‘Wh’ words (who, where, what), as they continue to develop they use more interrogative pronouns (why, when and how)

3. Stage three – three upwards: Children will use a subject-verb inversion, e.g. ‘can I see it?’ or ‘did she break it?’ they also use auxiliary verbs e.g. ‘what is mummy doing?’

Using negatives:

Children start to use negatives at around the same time they begin to use questions

1. Stage one – 18 months: Children use ‘no’ or ‘not’ to make something negative. They are usually used at the beginning of a sentence e.g. ‘no juice’

2. Stage two – 2-3: Children start to use ‘no’ and ‘not’ in front of verbs e.g. ‘I no want juice’. They also use contracted negatives like ‘can’t and ‘don’t’, these sometimes get mixed up e.g. ‘I can’t like it’

3. Stage three – three upwards: Children no longer use ‘no’ and ‘not’ like they did in stage one. They also standardise their use of can’t and start using other negative contractions like ‘didn’t’. The use of ‘isn’t’ doesn’t usually develop until later.

PRONOUNS

PRONOUNS CAN BE DIFFICULT WORDS TO USE ACCURATELY, AS THEY EXPRESS MANY THINGS THE PERSON, THE SUBJECT/OBJECT POSITIONING WITH AN UTTERANCE, A NUMBER, GENDER AND POSSESSION.

URSULA BELLUGI ALSO FOUND 3 STAGES TO THIS:

CHILD USES THEIR OWN NAME (TOM PLAY)

THE CHILD RECOGNISES THE I/ME PRONOUNS AND THESE ARE USED IN DIFFERENT PLACES WITHIN A SENTENCE (I PLAY TOY, ME DO THAT)

THE CHILD USES THEM ACCORDING TO WHETHER THEY ARE IN THE SUBJECT OR OBJECT POSITION WITHIN A SENTENCE (I PLAY WITH THE TOY, GIVE IT TO ME).

DETERMINERS

THESE ARE ANOTHER FUNCTION WORD ACQUIRED LATER IN DEVELOPMENT.

THEY ARE ATTACHED TO NOUNS AND ARE: ARTICLES (A, THE), NUMERALS (ONE), POSSESSIVES (MY), QUANTIFIERS (SOME/MANY), OR DEMONSTRATIVES (THIS.)

POST-TELEGRAPHIC STAGE

THIS IS WHEN THE REMAINING FUNCTION WORDS ARE ACQUIRED AND USED APPROPRIATELY. THE CHILD CAN:

COMBINE CLAUSE STRUCTURES BY USING COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS (AND, BUT) AND SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS (BECAUSE, ALTHOUGH) TO MAKE COMPLEX AND COMPOUND UTTERANCES

MANIPULATE VERB ASPECTS MORE ACCURATELY FOR INSTANCE USING THE PASSIVE TENSE (THE CAR WAS FOLLOWED BY THE LORRY)

CONSTRUCT LONGER NOUN PHRASES (THE TWO BIG RED BUSES)

MOVING FROM A TELEGRAPHIC TO A POST-TELEGRAPHIC STAGE INVOLVES UNDERSTANDING THAT NOT ONLY CAN WORD ORDER CHANGE BUT SO TOO CAN WORDS THEMSELVES. – USING FREE AND BOUND MORPHEMES (-ING, ‘S , HAS)

VIRTUOUS ERRORS AND OVERGENERALISATIONS

The phrase virtuous error is usually applied to the mistakes children make as they develop grammatically.

These errors however, although are deemed ‘wrong’, it shows a more complex understanding of the children to recognise that there is a change in tense (I runned as alternative to I ran).

Overgeneralisations are also similar to this, such as adding the inflection’‘s’ to nouns.

Children have to go through the process of applying rules and using exceptions to the application of inflections and changing of tense.

Theories of language acquisition

The imitation theory:

Skinner suggested that language is acquired through imitation and reinforcement;

1. Children repeat what they hear (imitation) 2. Caregivers then reward a children’s efforts with praise3. They also reinforce what the child says by repeating words and phrases back and

correcting mistakes

This approach says that children learn all the specific pronunciations of individual words by copying an adult – it explains, in theory, an important part of phonological development

Children can’t construct new sentences they’ve never heard before, so they aren’t always directly imitating

They don’t memorise thousands of sentences to use later, to their development can’t just be based on repeating what they have heard

It can’t explain overgeneralisations like ‘he runned away’ – children can’t copy these errors

It also can’t explain the fis phenomenon – children recognise more than they can actually say

The innate theory:

Chomsky argued that a child’s ability to acquire language was inbuilt. He said language isn’t taught but instead, a natural development that occurs when children are exposed to language!

Chomsky suggested that each child has a language acquisition device (LAD) which allows them to take in and use the grammatical rules of the language spoken where they live

Chomsky’s approach seems to explain how children make overgeneralisations and why they acquire inflections in a certain order – our brain is preprogramed to make this happen

Children learn language quickly because they are predisposed to do so More evidence for this theory is that all children pass through the same early stages

of language development There are some common features of language known as linguistic universals,

suggesting all speakers acquire language in a similar way However, this approach underestimates the significance of Skinner’s argument that

interaction, imitation and reinforcement are important in language development

The cognitive approach:

Piaget put forwards this approach, which focuses on the importance of mental process. Piaget stated that a child needs to have developed certain mental abilities before he or she can acquire particular aspects of language:

1. At first a child can’t mentally process the concept that something can exist outside their immediate surroundings – ego centric

2. When they are 18 months, children realise that things have object permanence – they can exist all the time, even if the child can’t see them. This coincides with a big increase in vocabulary

3. The child is then mentally better equipped to understand abstract concepts like past, present and future

One criticism is that it doesn’t explain how some people with learning difficulties are still linguistically fluent – this suggests cognitive development and language development aren’t as closely linked as Piaget suggests!

The input approach:

This approach suggests that in order for language to develop there has to be linguistic interaction with caregivers…

Bruner suggests that there is a Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) – a system where support their child’s linguistic development in social situations

There are clear patterns of interaction between child and caregiver in everyday social situations e.g. meal times, bath time and playing. The caregiver talks to the child and encourages them to talk back by pointing things out and asking them questions

As a result of this linguistic support the child gradually learns to play a more active part in social situations e.g. asking the caregiver questions…

Children who are deprived of language early on don’t seem to be able to acquire it easily later – Lenneberg proposed the critical period hypothesis, which states that without linguistic interaction before ages 5-6, language development is severely limited (Genie)

Social-cultural theory:

This approach suggests that social interaction and experiencing different social and cultural contexts are very important for language development.

Vygotsky identified two significant factors that contribute to language development – private speech and the Zone of Proximal development!

Private speech is when a child talks aloud to itself, Vygotsky saw this as a major step forwards in a child’s mental development – thinking for itself…

The ZPD is when a child needs a caregiver’s help in order to interact, e.g. if a doctor asks ‘where does it hurt?’ the child might not answer. The caregiver either answers

for the child or asks the child to respond – this gives the child a model for similar situations…

David Crystal’s theory on language acquisition:

Crystal has the theory that children learn language in five stages which aren’t clearly defined and some tie in which each other…

1. Stage one: Children begin to make basic statements. Children being naming things with single words and move on relating them to other things. They don’t have much vocabulary so they use intonation to ask a question.

2. Stage two: this is when children usually ask questions, ‘where’ questions come first. Their questions often begin with interrogative pronouns (what, where) followed by a noun or a verb… Children become concerned with naming and classifying things by frequently asking “Wassat?” they may also begin to talk about the characteristics of things, for example: big/small. Children are taught to learn things in opposite pairs.

3. Stage three: Children would be asking lots of different questions but, often signalling they are questions by intonation alone… e.g. “sally play in garden” children raise intonation to indicate it is a question. Children soon begin to express more complex wants by using more grammatically correct language. Children refer to events in the past and less often in the future.

4. Stage four: Children use increasingly complex sentences & begin to; Explain things Ask for explanations using the word: ‘Why?’ Make a wide range of requests

Now they are able to use complex sentence structures, they have flexible language tools for expressing a wide range of meanings. They begin to communicate meaning and have pragmatic understanding.

5. Stage five: Children regularly use language to do all the things that they need it to. They give information, asking and answering questions. Children are now able to talk about things hypothetically and conditionally e.g. “if I were you I would…”

Social interaction

Child directed speech: features of CDS are often simplified or exaggerated and often have the purpose of encouraging a child to interact as they’re easier to understand.

Phonology:

Intonation is exaggerated and words are stressed more strongly than in adult conversation. The pitch is also usually higher…

Words and phrases are repeated e.g. “get the ball, Annie, get the ball” The pace is much slower and with longer pauses than in adult conversation

Lexis:

Vocabulary is often simplified e.g. saying ‘nana’ instead of ‘banana’ Caregivers use reduplication e.g. “choo-choo” and “moo-moo” They also use diminutives such as, birdie or doggie A high proportion of words will refer to objects the child can see and touch…

Grammar:

Sentence structures are simplified, and function words are often omitted e.g. “Annie go for walk?”

Proper nouns are often used instead of pronouns e.g. “is Annie playing?”, also a higher proportion of nouns will be concrete nouns (cup, apple, bottle)

The present tense will be used more than past tense – the caregiver will talk more about what is happening now…

Techniques to encourage language development:

Caregivers repeat certain structures e.g. “Annie get the tractor, Annie wash the baby, Annie find the bottle”

They ask lots of questions – this encourages the child to respond They use lots of imperatives e.g. pick up dolly, drink milk… Caregivers often expand on what a child has said They also recast what the child has said, re-presenting information in a different way

Children learn how to interact with their caregivers:

The early conversations children have are usually initiated and maintained by adults They tend to be made of short statements by the child that the adult responds to Children develop a lot between 2-4, they start to understand turn taking and take

part in dialogues – understand the needs of the listener They develop more awareness of social factors in conversation e.g. they begin to

understand when to use politeness forms (please and thank-you) They become better at getting someone’s attention – they also start to use people’s

named to get their attention

Starting school or nursery has a big impact on social interaction skills. When children meet more people, they develop more awareness of what kind of language is appropriate in certain contexts (using more formal language in the classroom)

Interaction with other children:

At around the age of two, children begin to have conversations with each other.

These early conversations are limited because of children’s limited lexis They’re known as closed conversations because there is no progression in them They are often made of short sentences

As they get older, they are able to have more complex conversations...

They develop pragmatic skills – they learn to use language to form relationships with each other and to try and get what they want.

This can involve repetition and persuasive tactics They also imitate adult speech and develop more awareness of the type of language

that’s appropriate for adult audiences e.g. older children use CDS with younger children

Learning to read

Different approaches to teaching children to read:

The Phonics approach:

This approach involves looking at letters and letter combinations in terms of sounds (reading by ear) – separating phonemes and sounding out unfamiliar words

It’s useful for words such as ‘latch’ that are pronounced as they are written, but difficult for words that aren’t…

This approach has been criticised because it focuses on sounds and letters rather than meanings

The “look and say” approach:

This is also known as the ‘whole-word approach’ – it involves recognising whole words by sight alone, rather than breaking the phonemes down

It focuses on the meaning of words and teaches children to recognise common words

Relying on this method requires children to memorise a large number or words and doesn’t given them the skills to work out other words

The psycholinguistics approach:

This approach sees reading as a natural development that comes from being in an environment where books are read, valued, and available

It’s an active approach to reading – reader has to work out the meaning When children come across a word they can’t read, they’re encouraged to look at

clues such as pictures and the rest of the sentence Encourages children to focus on meaning, rather than just working out symbols –

designed to make them aware of context

Teachers tend to use a combination of approaches:

1. Schools tend to use a combination of approaches rather than rely on one, because different children respond differently

2. It also ensures children develop a range of skills – the phonics approach teaches them to recognise symbols whilst the look and say and psycholinguistics approaches teach the importance of meaning and context

3. It’s really important that children practice reading outside of school – some see this as the most important factor…

Techniques depend on the age of the child:

Up until the age of five, caregivers may read stories and nursery rhymes to children, and help children enjoy the physical experience of books e.g. turning pages

Between five and six, caregivers/teachers will read them fiction and non-fiction, get them to break down words into phonemes and get them to match sounds to letters

Between six and seven, they’ll get children to read aloud, set classroom tasks involving speaking, interacting and reading, and encourage them to talk about what they’ve read

Between seven and eight, they may introduce children to different genres and provide them with the chance to discuss different aspects of what they’ve read

Reading develops in stages as you go through school:

Pre-school(up to age five)

Children take part in activities preparing them to read e.g. jigsaws – enables them to distinguish patterns

They can turn pages and verbally create their own stories They begin to identify individual letters & begin to match sounds

to lettersBetween five and six years old

Increase the number of letter-sound matches they know They realise in English letters on a page move from left to right

etc… Recognise frequently used words

Between six and seven years old

They can read stories they are familiar with They use a range of reading strategies Recognise more words by sight Start to read with some fluency

Between seven and eight years old

They read more fluently & vocabulary continues to increase Use reading strategies

Reading skills carry on developing:

Up until about the age of 18, their reading continues to improve…

They become familiar with a wide range of texts They read to learn – use texts to gain information Able to use more complex and varied texts to find out information They read in different ways for different reasons e.g. work and pleasure Some children’s progress stops here – they never reach a stage they can interpret

what they’re reading critically This is because they often stop reading, apart from when they have to Other children’s reading continues to improve, until they are able to analyse and

criticise what they’re reading. This means they select the most important parts to develop their own opinion.

Purpose of books for children;

Toddlers:

Aim to help speech development – pictures for children to label objects Normally based around hypernms – to tech children hypernms Nouns and adjectives are the most common word class in early books

2-5 years:

Early story books are designed to be read to children, not by them Contain more complicated lexis and grammar

5-7 years:

Aimed to be enjoyable and are shared

8 years:

Children become independent readers

Key features of reading schemes:

1. Lexical repetition: especially new lexis 2. Syntactical repetition of structures 3. Subject – verb object and simple sentences 4. Anaphoric referencing: Pronouns refer to the names of characters already used 5. Limited use of modifiers 6. Text – image cohesion: images tell story

Reading acquisition key terms;

Graphonic: looking at the shapes of words and linking them to familiar graphemes to interpret the sound of the word

Semantic: Understanding meaning of words and making connections to decode new words

Visual: looking at pictures to interpret unfamiliar words

Syntactic: applying knowledge of a word in order to work out if it ‘sounds right’

Contextual: searching for understanding of the story

Miscue: when a child makes an error they may guess similar words from a picture

Chall – stages of reading development:

Stage Name Age Characteristics0 Pre-reading and Up to six years Pretend reading

pseudo reading Predicting single words of next stage of story

1 Initial reading and de-coding

6-7 Reading simple texts

Approx. 600 words understood

2 Confirmation and fluency

7-8 Pay attention to meaning

Quicker, accurate and more fluent

3 Reading for learning 9-14 Knowledge is the motivation

4 Multiplicity and complexity

14-17 Responding critically and analysing texts

5 Construction and reconstruction

18+ Reading selectively and forming opinions

Synthetic vs. analytic phonics:

Analytic SyntheticImportance of each sound Emphasis on initial sound, works

for short words but longer are more difficult. Encourages guessing.

Each phoneme – whatever its position is important.

Position Focuses on sounds, rhyme and word families (sun, sunny…)

Emphasis on hearing all sounds

Speed Teaching is quite slow, one letter a week. Delays reading process.

Faster, eight sounds over two weeks. Combining sounds to read.

Spelling Spelling is taught separately, and later. Links between reading spelling aren’t made.

Children are taught the alphabet code: if you can read a word you can spell it.

The role of the alphabet Alphabet is central. Letter names aren’t initially taught. Gives more spelling choices.

Pronunciation Sounds are sometimes taught incorrectly – blending doesn’t always work.

Learning to write Writing develops in stages:

1. Children go through stages of development before they can write and spell entire words… they seem to learn to write alongside learning to read

2. When young children do drawings they’re actually starting to learn the motor skills (coordination) they will need for reading

3. As their motor skills develop, children learn the conventions of written language e.g. spelling, punctuation and layout

4. How quickly a child learns to write depends on how much practice they have, it also depends on the child’s intelligence and how much they’ve been exposed to role models who have wrote

5. Theorists how different ideas about how many stages are involved in learning to write, and how old children are when they go through them

Barclay’s seven stages of writing development:

Stage one: scribbling Children make random marks on the page, which aren’t related to letters or words. They’re learning the skill of keeping hold of a pencil or crayon, which prepares them for writing. They often talk about what they are scribbling.

Stage two: mock handwriting

Children practise drawing shapes on paper, although it’s still not usually possible to work out what the drawing represents. Letter-like forms being to appear in or with drawings as the first sign of emergent writing.

Stage three: mock letters

Children produce random letters, but there’s still no awareness of spacing or matching sounds with symbols.

Stage four: conventional letters

Children start matching sounds with symbols – writing down letters that match sounds being heard or spoken. Words are unlikely to be spaced out. Children start using initial consonants to represent words.

Stage five: invented spelling

Most words are spelled phonetically, though some simple and familiar words are spelled correctly.

Stage six: appropriate spelling

Sentences become more complex as the child becomes more aware of standard spelling patterns. Writing becomes more legible.

Stage seven: correct spelling

Most words are spelled correctly. Older children have usually started to use joined-up writing.

Kroll four stages of writing development:

Preparatory stage:

Children develop the motor-skills needed for writing They begin to learn the basics of the spelling system

Consolidation stage:

Children write in the same way they speak They use lots of colloquialisms They use short declarative statements & familiar conjunctions

They won’t be sure how to finish off a sentence They begin to express ideas in the form of sentences, without much punctuation

Differention stage:

Children become aware of the difference between the conventions of spoken and written language

They begin to understand different genres They being to structure their work using writing guides and frameworks They use more complex and grammar structures Punctuation becomes more accurate and consistent

Integration stage:

Writing becomes more accurate, with a wider vocabulary & accurate spelling Children understand style can change according to audience and purpose Narrative and descriptive skills improve – they write expanded stories, with

developed characters, a plot and a setting They develop a personal writing style

Spelling

Problems children face spelling:

Plurals Homophones Silent letters Sound (ph & f) They’re, their and there

Spelling strategies:

Rhymes Learning in groups Making spelling fun Acronyms Word roots Context

Gentry – spelling development:

Pre communicative:

Child begins to understand symbols on a page have meaning Mix of numbers and letters

Upper and lower case used randomly No spacing

Semi phonetic:

Children understand letters have sounds Using alphabet/letter formation Sometimes they only write the start of the word

Phonetic:

Spelling mirrors phonetic sound Word spacing is evident Letter formation is largely accurate Letter patterns are evident Awareness of syllables and consonants are usually accurate

Transitional:

Normal patterns of English spelling are evident Vowels are used mostly accurate Mis-spellings are often phonetic attempts Prefixes and suffixes are mostly accurate

Correct:

Basic knowledge of English spelling used accurately Understanding of prefixes and suffixes is evident Accurate use of double consonants