This post will finish the discussion of language development for the area of learning - Communication. I will finish the performance indicators for the component - Expressive Language, and then move on to the component - Speech. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
First, we will look at the last two performance indicators for the component - Expressive Language. We are still in the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. The first performance indicator is: Uses new vocabulary and grammatical construction in language. This performance indicator does not have as definite a benchmark as some of the others have had. Therefore, I would say that all 3 to 4 year olds conquer this one. They all incorporate new vocabulary and grammatical construction in language as they gain exposure. Can this vary wildly from child to child? Absolutely. The level of competence for this one directly depends on the amount of language exposure the child receives. Those that get more will have a greater level of competence unless they have physical developmental issues holding them back.
The last performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Talks in complete, complex sentences 4-8 words in length. I know the authors of these standards tried to hit the middle of the road on this one as of the time the standards were written. However, nowadays the 4 word sentences might be closer to the middle even though I have seen children talk in complete, complex paragraphs at 4 years old. Again, the level of the competence depends on the amount of language exposure the child has received. This past week I was the guest speaker for a literacy night at an urban school. I told those parents that the importance of reading to your children every single day could not be overemphasized. I explained to them that I can tell when a child has or has not had adequate language exposure as soon as they walk in my door. I think that might have shocked a great deal of them. Many parents do not think it is such a big deal, and to find out that I can tell that quickly made many of them uncomfortable. Then I told them that if they will only do one thing for the development of their children and read to them, it will make a huge difference in the academic life of their child.
Now, we will shift gears to the component of Speech. The learning expectation is: Speech is clear enough to be understood by most people. The first performance indicator is: Uses some slang words and common colloquial expressions like "Mama carried grandma to the doctor." Slang and colloquial expressions represent some of the first items of speech a child will conquer. In fact, once established these types of language uses are extremely difficult to correct especially in spoken speech. As a Southerner, I will say certain things in spoken language that I would never dream of using in written language especially in academic work. We all seem to learn this one well.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Produces most of the consonant sounds of our language correctly. This one has gone downhill very quickly in the last 3 to 5 years. I am seeing speech issues I have never encountered. One of the families I serve has a mom and grandmom that are speech therapists, and they, too, have not encountered many of the speech issues that I have seen recently. Some of it is pure laziness because we will correct one problem only to have that consonant sound be the one that replaces everything. A great deal of it is underdeveloped tongues, and I have not figured out what is causing that issue yet. If I ever go back for a second degree, I will get it in speech therapy because I spend a great deal of my day acting as a speech therapist anyway. My thesis proposal for graduate school revolved around how phonics reading instruction helped children with speech issues. Because of the emphasis on whole language instruction in the early childhood field, phonemic awareness has taken a backseat, and it is affecting children's speech and reading abilities. However, something physical is causing the underdeveloped tongues, and that one still has me greatly puzzled.
The third performance indicator is: May still have difficulty saying certain sounds that are hard to produce, most frequently with (r), (er), and (l). So that I do not repeat myself let me give you a list of sounds that are now becoming an issue - (k), (g), (f), (v), (th), (ch), (y), (t), and the list grows with every new kid I encounter. I have several speech therapists that are friends of mine, and they will attest to the fact that the old standby problems do not even cover the new extent of the problem. I may have to break down one of these days and actually conduct a study on the underlying causes of this explosion in speech issues.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Says multi-syllable words easily (balloon, dinosaur, umbrella, automobile). My experience with this one is that the children attempt multi-syllable words but very often the middle or ending sounds are not correct. I am working on as many middle and ending sounds of words as onset sounds. Many times when I correct the pronunciation at the onset of the word, we have to then concentrate on that same sound in the middle or end of the word. People, we have serious speech issues here. If anyone else figures out why we are having such problems with underdeveloped tongues, I would love to hear their ideas.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment