This post will deal with language development instead of cognitive development. I will discuss the component of Receptive Language with its learning expectation and some of the performance indicators. The rest of the performance indicators will be covered in Part 2 and 3. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The learning expectation for the component Receptive Language is as follows: Understands questions, some abstract concepts, and simple directions. The first performance indicator is: Knows and answers "who" and "what" questions. As I have stated before the TN-ELDS goes under the assumption that a child has had quality developmental experiences up until this point in his/her life. In reality we know that unfortunately having quality developmental experiences can be the exception instead of the rule in today's culture. The ability to answer "who" and "what" questions will greatly depend on how well-developed a child's language skills are at this point in his/her life. It has been my experience that some children have well-developed language skills at this point and some are barely talking. What makes the difference? Most of the time it involves the level of conversation that takes place in the home. Also, the level of the parents education also plays a huge role. Parents with higher levels of education tend to have more conversations in the home using a wider vocabulary than parents with a high school diploma or less. In today's culture, another huge factor involves the use of cell phones and other technology by the parents. It is just a sad fact of life that if a parent constantly talks or texts or goes online on his/her cell phone, the amount of real conversations that a child has will be significantly less. This particular new phenomenon has actually made children of degree bearing parents fall into the same category as those from parents with only a high school diploma. Language does not develop in the absence of language. Parents put up your cell phones and talk to your children.
The next performance indicator is: Recognizes objects and pictures by use of (depicted) object (e.g., "Show me what you sit on."). As will be the theme of this particular domain, how well-developed a child's language skills are will determine if they conquer this particular performance indicator by the age of 3 years old. Both this performance indicator and the previous one need for an adult to sit down with a child using either pictures or books designed for this purpose to develop these skills. They can emerge from just life experience by the age of 4, but that will put the child in a terrible position when he/she hits kindergarten. This pointing at pictures and asking questions of the child should start between a child's first and second birthday. In recent years I have had to incorporate these types of activities into my preschool repertoire because I had so many children lagging in these types of language skills. The older children pull up quickly, but I have to lay a foundation first to build other skills.
Next on our list of performance indicators involves: Easily follows simple conversation. Again, this one will be determined by how much a child gets to hear conversation. However, this particular component involves receptive language and not expressive language. A child will understand conversation much faster than he/she will be able to carry on a conversation. A child that is barely talking can still understand quite a bit of what is said to that child. If a child is not showing signs of being able to follow a simple conversation by the age of 3 years old, it might be prudent to have that child tested for developmental delays and/or hearing issues.
The last performance indicator I will cover in this post is: Understands basic concepts and contrasts (e.g., big/little, up/down, yes/no, come/go, run/stop). This has been one of those areas that has left me flabbergasted over the years. I have had 4 year olds come through my door that had difficulty with many of what I call "position and direction" words. After I establish that a child knows basic body parts, this is the next subject I tackle before we move on to other areas. I have learned to never take for granted that a child knows anything these days. I cover everything to be sure and dig in when I find a problem. I have forty pairs of position and direction words that I cover. Usually I will take a week and cover one pair with 2 year olds. With 3 and 4 year olds I cover one pair for three days instead of a week unless I see the child having major difficulties. This is yet another clue that a child might have developmental delays if a 4 year old cannot hang with the three day schedule. Sometimes I have had to wait to cover these concepts until a child is 3 years old or older. When I encounter difficulties, I will expand the time we cover each pair of words. Do not expect children to pick up these concepts simply from life experience. This will be an area that needs direct instruction and adult supervision in today's culture.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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