Adaptive Learning
This month we will take a look at language development milestones. Communication starts all the way from the first coo from your infant, expressing their needs, moving from expressive language to receptive language. If skills become delayed it can affect students academic performance, social interactions, and at times their confidence which has a toll on their emotional stability. This month we will focus on language- communication milestones and how you can support your student in building their language skills.
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
Often when we hear this and think of developing grammar or just speaking. But language is the process of communicating. This includes receptive language which is understanding what is communicated and expressive language the ability to share information, feelings, thoughts, and ideas. We often believe language is just spoken but also includes non-verbal cues and written.
MILESTONES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
Children vary in their development of speech and language. However, there is a progression for mastery of each of the language skills. Here is a list of general age and time when most children meet these milestones.
4 to 6 months
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Looks or turns toward a new sound
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Responds to “no” and changes in tone of voice
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Vocalizes back when talked to
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Begins to repeat sounds (such as, “ooh,” “aah,” and “ba-ba”)
7 to 11 months
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Responds to his or her own name, telephone ringing, or someone’s voice even when not loud
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Knows words for common things (such as, “cup” or “shoe”) and sayings (such as, “bye-bye”)
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Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba," "ma-ma" or "da-da")
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Tries to communicate by actions or gestures
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Looks at things or pictures when someone talks about them
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Starts to respond to requests (such as, “come here”)
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Enjoys games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake
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Makes babbling sounds, even when alone
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Imitates simple words and sounds; may use a few single words or baby signs meaningfully
12 to 17 months
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Understands simple phrases (such as, “put the ball in the box” or “put the car on the table”)
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Enjoys being read to
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Follows one-step commands when shown by a gesture
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Answers simple questions by shaking his/her head or going to get an item when asked
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Says two to three words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)
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Tries to imitate simple words
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Vocabulary includes four to six words or more
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Says more words as each month passes
18 to 23 months
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Understands the meaning of action words (such as clap, sit or jump)
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Points to some body parts when asked
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Understands and answers simple “yes-no” questions (such as, “Are you hungry?”)
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Understands “not now” and “no more”
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Chooses things by size (such as, “big” or “little”)
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Uses a vocabulary of 50 words, pronunciation is often unclear
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Asks for common foods by name
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Makes animal sounds (such as, "moo")
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Starts to combine words into 2- to 3-word phrases to talk about and ask for things (such as, "more milk")
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Begins to use pronouns (such as, "mine")
2 to 3 years
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Knows some spatial concepts (such as "in" or "on")
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Understands and uses more pronouns (such as, "you," "me" or "her")
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Knows descriptive words (such as, "big" or "happy")
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Answers many simple questions
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Follows two-step commands (such as, “Get your shoes and come here.”)
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Uses three- to four-word sentences
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Uses at least 100 words by 2 years of age
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Uses question inflection to ask for something (such as, "My ball?")
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Begins to use plurals, such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs (such as, "jumped")
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Speech pronunciation is improving, but may still leave off ending sounds; strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said
3 to 4 years
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Answers simple questions (such as, "What do you do when you are hungry?")
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Groups objects into categories (such as, foods or clothes)
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Recognizes colors
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Uses 300 to 500 words by 3 years of age
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Describes the use of objects (such as, "You eat with a fork")
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Has fun with language; enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities such as, "Is that an elephant on your head?")
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Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him
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Uses verbs that end in "ing" (such as, "walking" or "talking")
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Uses most speech sounds, but may distort some of the more difficult or later developing sounds, (such as l, r, s, sh, ch, v, z, th)
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Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words. Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but tries to say them
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Strangers are able to understand much of what is said
4 to 5 years
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Answers "why" questions
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Lists items that belong in a category (such as, animals or vehicles)
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Understands more abstract spatial concepts (such as, "behind" or "next to")
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Understands complex questions
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Uses some irregular past tense verbs (such as, "ran" or "fell")
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Describes how to do things (such as, painting a picture)
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Speech is understandable, but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words (such as, "hippopotamus")
5 years
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Understands time sequences (such as, what happened first, second, or third)
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Carries out a series of three directions
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Understands rhyming
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Engages in conversation
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Produces sentences that can be eight or more words in length
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Uses compound and complex sentences
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Describes objects
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Uses imagination to create stories
AREAS THAT CAN AFFECT THEIR ACADEMICS
Expressive Language:
Expressive language affect how a child communicates their thoughts, ideas, and needs. Students often know what they want to say but may struggle to form complete and organized sentences to clearly verbalize what they would like to share. When they try to communicate, their words may be grammatically incorrect, repeat words, mix up verb tenses, omit words, or have difficulty retrieving the word they want to use. These challenges can affect their confidence in engaging in conversation, asking or answering questions, telling a story, or even expressing how they are feeling.
Receptive Language:
Receptive language affects how a student understands and interprets the meaning of words they hear and read. Any delays in this area can in turn affect their understanding of new concepts, ability to listen attentively to follow directions, and comprehend what they have read.
Many studies have shown that a child’s communication skills are correlated with their literacy development. This is due to reading and writing being such language based activities. Learning to read involves multiple facets of language. A child must establish the skills of
-Hearing the alphabet sung and repeating the song pattern
-Connecting spoken sounds and recognize the symbols (ABC’s) for each letter
-Learning that each symbol has both a name and a sound (letter sounds)
-Blending those sounds to form words (decoding). Not to mention they also have to remember the language’s complex and often inconsistent rules.
-Recognizing that each word has meaning (vocabulary)
-Understanding that words combine to create meaningful sentences (comprehension)
Throughout this whole process is the interchangeable ability of using receptive (listening and comprehending sounds and language) and expressive (orally producing sounds and words)
When writing, students must use:
-Known vocabulary to share meaning
-Correct grammar and sentence structure in order that the sentence is written clearly and makes sense
-Strong expressive language to communicate thoughts and ideas clearly
-Writing conventions are used to check punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.
While students are writing, they are using many facets of language all at the same time. They not only have to remember what they are trying to communicate but also have to retrieve known words they want to use and then encode (spell) each one correctly
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Talk, talk, talk! Use new or interesting words in daily conversations. Keep the discussion going by asking questions, sharing ideas, and inviting children into the conversation.
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Expand on things that children say by paraphrasing their thoughts using some new vocabulary words. For example, if the child says, “It’s cold outside”, you might reply, “It is a bit chilly today, but it’s really cold when it snows!
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Use your body language. Gestures and facial expressions are powerful tools to express tone and emotion.
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Encourage opportunities to engage in song, rhyme, and word play to introduce them to new vocabulary.
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Read aloud to children daily. Children who have parents, guardians, and/or caregivers that read aloud and share picture books are exposed to 2-3 times as many sophisticated words and more complex sentence structures than children would be by just conversing with them.
SIMPLE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR STUDENTS LANGUAGE, READING, AND WRITING SKILLS
Continued exposure to new words is crucial for continued oral language growth. What are the best ways to have children engage with new words?