We will start with the performance indicator: Understands "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow." Like so many other performance indicators in the language development section, this one very much depends on the child's language exposure. Those children that have language delays will have trouble with this one. Those that do not will conquer it easily. These concepts are picked up in conversations with adults. For the adults, this will mean that they will have to constantly correct the child's wrong notions of time over and over and over when they are 3 years old. Many adults do not bother with this very critical step. Therefore, many children will not conquer this one until they are 5 or 6 years old.
The next performance indicator is: May use slang (e.g., "Give me five," "Cool!"). Unlike proper language, slang tends to be the one thing most children pick up quite quickly. I had one little boy that was three years old. He called the police "Po Po," which we all found quite amusing. However, this little boy really thought that is what the police were called. Obviously, every adult around him called the police that, and so he thought that is what they were called. Adults sometimes forget how powerful their influence can be on the children around them. Many, many a cuss word has come out of small children's mouths because the adults in their life do not filter their language around the children. Children pick up slang without effort. Please, remember that.
That brings us to the next performance indicator: Generally uses sentences with correct grammar. This one depends so greatly on a child's language experiences that it should shame adults into using better grammar around their children. Children that have educated parents and have been read to regularly conquer this one easily. Children with uneducated parents that never or rarely read to them, use the same level of grammar correctness of the people in their lives. Children with uneducated parents that try to read to them regularly but still use horrible grammar in their everyday speech will still have children that struggle with this performance indicator. Remember, I told you in the previous paragraph that children pick up slang without effort. Picking up correct grammar usage takes time and practice. It is like everything else in life. The bad comes easy. The good comes with hard work and effort.
The next performance indicator is: Pronounces new words easily. This one hits on the growing issue of speech problems I have touched on in other posts. I am seeing more and more speech problems with 3 and 4 year olds than I have seen before. Children are having more and varied problems with consonant and blend sounds. I have called this phenomenon "lazy tongue" because most of the problems have to do with tongue placement and usage to create the sounds. I still have not pinpointed what is causing this problem. It may be a conglomeration of many different trends coming together to create this particular issue. Whatever the cause, I am having to work much harder at teaching phonemic awareness and letter sounds these days. For many of the sounds I am having to break it down to its mechanics and teach the children where to place the tongue and lips to make each sound. What amazes me is how hard it is for many of the children to do. The tongue muscle is so underdeveloped that is takes days and sometimes weeks of trying to get the sounds correct. I have never seen anything like it.
The last performance indicator for this post is: Has expanding vocabulary (keep in mind that a child knows more words than he says). This holds true for most 4 year olds. However, the amount of vocabulary from one four year old to another four year old can vary astronomically. Some 4 year olds have vocabulary of 1000 words or more. Some 4 year olds have barely 100 words. Language delays play heavily into the level of vocabulary a child has. This one is also heavily affected by how much the child has had an adult read to them. This diversity of ability makes the jobs of preschool and Headstart teachers difficult. Trying to catch the children at the bottom end of the skill level up with those at the top level proves impossible in just one year of preschool. Therefore, this problem spills over into kindergarten and beyond. Truthfully, those children at the bottom never catch those at the top. Many of those children at the bottom of the skill level need two years of preschool before kindergarten not just one. I fear politics will never allow these children to receive the additional instruction they need because many would construe the practice as racist since minority children tend to be the majority of children at the bottom of the skill level. That is unfortunate for these children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! https://linktr.ee/natawade
