Content, Pedagogy and Knowledge Flashcards
Generally describe three periods of communication development normally occurring within a child’s first five years of life.
Language and communication development depend strongly on the language a child develops within the first five years of life. During this time, three developmental periods are observed. At birth, the first period begins. This period is characterized by infant crying and gazing. Babies communicate their sensations and emotions through these behaviors, so they are expressive; however, they are not yet intentional. They indirectly indicate their needs through expressing how they feel, and when these needs are met, these communicative behaviors are reinforced. These expressions and reinforcement are the foundations for the later development of intentional communication. This becomes possible in the second developmental period, between 6 and 18 months. At this time, infants become able to coordinate their attention visually with other people relative to things and events, enabling purposeful communication with adults. During the third developmental period, from 18 months on, children come to use language as their main way of communicating and learning. Preschoolers can carry on conversations, exercise self-control through language use, and conduct verbal negotiations.
Identify some milestones of normal language development in children by the time they are 2 years old.
By the time most children reach the age of 2 years, they have acquired a vocabulary of about 150 to 300 words. They can name various familiar objects found in their environments. They are able to use at least two prepositions in their speech, for example in, on, and/or under. 2-yearolds typically combine the words they know into short sentences. These sentences tend to be mostly noun-verb or verb-noun combinations (e.g. “Daddy work,” “Watch this”). They may also include verb-preposition combinations ( e.g. “Go out,” “Come in”). By the age of 2 years, children use pronouns, such as I, me, and you. They typically can use at least two such pronouns correctly. A normally developing 2-year-old will respond to some commands, directions, or questions, such as “Show me your eyes” or “Where are your ears?”
Give a summary of some salient general aspects of human language abilities from before birth to five years of age.
Language and communication abilities are integral parts of human life that are central to learning, successful school performance, successful social interactions, and successful living. Human language ability begins before birth: the developing fetus can hear not only internal maternal sounds, but also the mother’s voice, others’ voices, and other sounds outside the womb. Humans have a natural sensitivity to human sounds and languages from before they are born until they are about 4½ years old. These years are critical for developing language and communication. Babies and young children are predisposed to greater sensitivity to human sounds than other sounds, orienting them toward the language spoken around them. Children absorb their environmental language completely, including vocal tones, syntax, usage, and emphasis. This linguistic absorption occurs very rapidly. Children’s first 2½ years particularly involve amazing abilities to learn language including grammatical expression.
Identify some milestones of typical child language development by the ages of 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months.
Individual differences dictate a broad range of language development that is still normal. However, parents observing noticeably delayed language development in their- children should consult professionals. Typically, babies respond to hearing their names by 6 months of age; turn their heads and eyes toward the sources of human voices they hear; and respond accordingly to friendly and angry tones of voice. By the age of 12 months, toddlers can usually understand and follow simple directions, especially when these are accompanied by physical and/or vocal cues. They can intentionally use one or more words with the correct meaning. By the age of 18 months, a normally developing child usually has acquired a vocabulary of roughly 5 to 20 words. 18-monthold children use nouns in their speech most of the time. They are very likely to repeat certain words and/or phrases over and over. At this age, children typically are able to follow simple verbal commands without needing as many visual or auditory cues as at 12 months.
Identify some developmental milestones associated with the normal language acquisition and communication of children at the age of 3 years.
By the time they are 3 years old, most normally developing children have acquired vocabularies of between 900 and 1,000 words. Typically, they correctly use the pronouns I, me, and you. They use more verbs more frequently. They apply past tenses to some verbs and plurals to some nouns. 3-year-olds usually can use at least three prepositions; the most common are in, on, and under. The normally developing 3-year-old knows the major body parts and can name them. 3-year-olds typically use 3-word sentences with ease. Normally, adults should find approximately 90 percent of what a 3-year-old says to be intelligible. Children this age comprehend most simple questions about their activities and environments and can answer questions about what they should do when they are thirsty, hungry, sleepy, hot, or cold. They can tell about their experiences in ways that adults can generally follow. By the age of 3 years, children should also be able to tell others their name, age, and sex.
Identify some of the milestones of typical language development in children at the age of 4 years.
When normally developing children are 4 years old, most know the names of animals familiar to them. They can use at least four prepositions in their speech (e.g. in, on, under, to, from, etc.). They can name familiar objects in pictures, and they know and can identify one color or more. Usually they are able to repeat four-syllable words they hear. They verbalize as they engage in their activities, which Vygotsky dubbed “private speech.” Private speech helps young children think through what they are doing, solve problems, make decisions, and reinforce the correct sequences in multistep activities. When presented with contrasting items, 4-year-olds can understand comparative concepts like bigger and smaller. At this age, they are able to comply with simple commands without the target stimuli being in their sight (e.g. “Put those clothes in the hamper” [upstairs]). 4-year-old children will also frequently repeat speech sounds, syllables, words, and phrases, similar to 18-month-olds’ repetitions but at higher linguistic and developmental levels.
Define personal narratives and their import relative to early childhood language development. Identify some elements necessary to personal narrative development and some of its benefits.
Personal narratives are the way that young children relate their experiences to others by telling the stories of what happened. The narrative structure incorporates reporting components such as: who was involved; where the events took place; and what happened. Understanding and using this structure is crucial to young children for their communication; however, many young children cannot follow or apply this sequence without scaffolding (temporary support as needed) from adults. Adults can ask young children guiding questions to facilitate and advance narratives. They can also provide learning tools that engage children’s visual, tactile (touch), and kinesthetic (body position and movement) senses. This reinforces narrative use, increases the depth of scaffolding, and motivates children’s participation. Children learn to play the main character; describe the setting; sequence plot actions; and use words and body language to express emotions. Topic-related action sequences or “social stories” are important for preschoolers to comprehend and express to promote daily transitions and self-regulation. Such conversational skills attainment achieves milestones in both linguistic and emotional-social development.
Identify four achievements or processes that young
children’s oral language skills development enables.
Summarize the relationship between early oral
language development and later literacy achievement, according to research findings. Summarize the general
character of oral language skills in typical infants,
toddlers, and young preschoolers.
Crucial oral language development skills enable children to (1) communicate by listening and responding to others’ speech; (2) comprehend meanings of numerous words and concepts encountered in their listening and reading; (3) acquire information on subjects they are interested in learning about; and (4) use specific language to express their own thoughts and ideas. Research finds young children’s ability to listen to, understand, and use spoken and written language is associated with their later reading, spelling, and writing literacy achievement. Infants typically begin developing oral language skills, which continue developing through life. Babies develop awareness of and attend to adult speech, and soon begin communicating their needs via gestures and speech sounds. Toddlers express emotions and ideas and solicit information via language. They start uttering simple sentences, asking questions, and giving opinions regarding their likes and dislikes. Young preschoolers expand their vocabularies from hearing others’ speech and from books. They describe past and possible future events and unseen objects; tell fictional “make-believe” stories; and use complete sentences and more complex language.
Identify some milestones indicating typical language development in 5-year-old children.
Once most children have reached the age of 5 years, their speech has expanded from the emphasis of younger children on nouns, verbs, and a few prepositions, and is now characterized by many more descriptive words, including adjectives and adverbs. 5-year-olds understand common antonyms, e.g. big/little, heavy /light, long/short, hot/cold. They can now repeat longer sentences they hear, up to about nine words. When given three consecutive, uninterrupted commands, the typical 5-year-old can follow these without forgetting one or two. At age 5 most children have learned simple concepts of time like today, yesterday, tomorrow; day, morning, afternoon, night; and before, after, and later. 5-year-olds typically speak in relatively long sentences, and normally should be incorporating some compound sentences (with more than one independent clause) and complex sentences (with one or more independent and dependent clauses). 5-year-old children’s speech is also grammatically correct most of the time.
Explain how play-based activities for young children have underpinnings of narrative thought and planning, and how such play activities can facilitate conflict resolution.
When young children play, they often enact scenarios. Play scenarios tell stories that include who is involved, where they are, what happens, why it happens, and how the “actors” feel about it. Children engage in planning when they decide first what their playing will be about; which children are playing which roles; and who is doing what. This planning and the thought processes involved reflect narrative thinking and structure. Children who experience difficulties with planning play are more likely to avoid participating or to participate only marginally. Since playing actually requires these thought and planning processes, children who do not play spontaneously can be supported in playing by enabling them to talk about potential narratives/stories as foundations for play scenarios. When conflicts emerge during play, conversation is necessary to effect needed change. Narrative development constitutes gradual plot development; play conflicts are akin to fictional/personal narrative problems and result in changed feelings. Adults can help young children discuss problems, identify the changed feeling they cause, and discuss plans/actions for resolution.
Discuss natural vs. intentional conversation of adults
with young children; general ways adults can provide linguistic interactions to develop young children’s oral language skills and the implications of these for later
learning; and some important ways whereby young
children build language skills in listening and
speaking.
Children enjoy conversing with significant adults, including parents, caregivers, and teachers; and they require practice with doing so. Caregivers tend to talk with young children naturally, sometimes even automatically, throughout the day, which helps children develop significant language skills. However, caregivers can enhance young children’s oral language development further through intentional conversations. One element of doing this is establishing an environment that gives the children many things to talk about and many reasons to talk. Another element of intentionally promoting oral language skills development is by engaging in shared conversations. When parents and caregivers share storybook reading with young children, this affords a particularly good springboard for shared conversations. Reading and conversing together are linguistic interactions supplying foundations for children’s developing comprehension of numerous word meanings. Researchers find such abundant early word comprehension is a critical basis for later reading comprehension. Asking questions, explaining, requesting what they need, communicating feelings, and learning to listen to others talk are some important ways whereby children build listening, understanding, and speaking skills.
Note some elements that adults should include in their
conversations with young children for building strong oral language skills and some things adults should
consider regarding their linguistic interactions with
young children to ensure they incorporate these
elements.
Adults should converse with young children so the children get practice with: hearing and using rich and abstract vocabulary and increasingly complex sentences; using language to express ideas and ask questions for understanding; and using language to answer questions about past, future, and absent things rather than only about “here-and-now” things. To ensure they incorporate these elements in their conversations, adults can consider the following: in the home, care setting, or classroom, whose voices are heard most often and who does the most talking; the child, not the adult, should be talking at least half of the time. Adults should be using rich language with complex structures when conversing with young children. Adults should be talking with, not at children; the conversation should be shared equally rather than adults doing all the talking while children listen to them. Adults should also ask young children questions, rather than just telling them things. Additionally, adult questions should require that children use language to formulate and communicate abstract ideas.
Explain some of the benefits of adults having 1:1
conversations with children, including repetition,
extension, revision, reflection, contextualization, and abstraction.
When parents, caregivers, or teachers converse 1:1 with individual children, children reap benefits not as available in group conversations. Caregivers should therefore try to have such individual conversations with each child daily. In daycare and preschool settings, some good times for caregivers to do this include when children arrive and leave; during shared reading activities with one or two children; and during center time. 1:1 talk allows the adult to repeat what the child says for reinforcement. It allows the adult to extend what the child said by adding more information to it, like new vocabulary words, synonyms, meanings, or omitted details. It allows the adult to revise what the child said by restating or recasting it. It allows the child to hear his or her own ideas and thoughts reflected back to them when the adult restates them. Moreover, 1:1 conversation allows adults to contextualize the discussion accordingly with an individual child’s understanding. It also allows
ad tilts to elicit children’s comprehension of abstract concepts.
Identify some techniques whereby teachers can support young children in attaining in-depth
comprehension of word meanings, including an example.
To support deeper word-meaning comprehension, teachers can give multiple definitions and examples for the same word and connect new vocabulary with children’s existing knowledge. For example, a teacher conducting a preschool classroom science experiment incorporates new scientific concepts with new vocabulary words and conversational practice: pouring water on a paper towel, the teacher asks children what is happening to the water. A child answers, “It’s going into the paper.” The teacher asks how. Another child says, “The paper’s soaking it up.” The teacher confirms this, teaches the word “absorb,” compares the paper to a sponge, and asks how much more water will be absorbed. A child responds probably no more since water is already dripping out. The teacher pours water on a plastic lid, asking if it absorbs. Children respond, “No, it slides off.” Confirming, the teacher teaches the word “repel.” This teacher has introduced new science concepts and new vocabulary words; engaged the children in conversation; related new concepts and words to existing knowledge; and added information to deepen comprehension.
Discuss some of the beneficial effects extended
conversations and turn-taking have on young
children’s oral language development, including an example of how adults can apply these.
When adults engage young children in extended conversations including taking many “back-and-forth” turns, these create the richest dialogues for building oral language skills. Adults make connections with and build upon children’s declarations and questions. Adults model richer descriptive language by modifying/adding to children’s original words with new vocabulary, adjectives, adverbs, and varying sentences with questions and statements. For example, a child shows an adult his/her new drawing, saying: “This is me and Gran in the garden,” the adult can build on this/invite the child to continue: “What is your gran holding?” The child identifies what they planted: “Carrot seeds. Gran said to put them in the dirt so they don’t touch.” The adult can then encourage the child’s use of language to express abstract thoughts: “What could happen if the seeds were touching?” The adult can then extend the conversation through discussion with the child about how plants grow or tending gardens. This introduces new concepts, builds children’s linguistic knowledge, and helps them learn to verbalize their ideas.
Explain some kinds of oral language skills that are
promoted in young children by adults’ narration of child activities and actions, and some general ways
that early childhood caregivers and teachers can do
this.
One oral language development technique adults can use is to narrate, i.e. describe what a child is doing as s/he does it. For example, a caregiver can say, “I see you’re spreading paste on the back of your paper flower-not too much so it’s lumpy, but not too little so it doesn’t stick. Now you’re pressing the flower onto your poster board. It sticks. good work!” Hence narration can be incorporated as prelude and segue to verbal positive reinforcement. This promotes oral language development by introducing and illustrating syntaxes. Communicating locations and directionality employs verbs and prepositions. Describing intensity and manner employs adverbs. Labeling objects/actions that are currently present/taking place with new vocabulary words serves immediately to place those words into natural contexts, facilitating more authentic comprehension of word meanings and better memory retention. Caregivers/teachers can narrate children’s activities during formal instructional activities and informal situations like outdoor playtime, snack time, and cleanup time, and subsequently converse with them about what they did.
Identify some general types of topics that young
children enjoy talking about, with brief examples. Give a couple of examples of how a teacher can recast and
extend children’s statements to increase new
vocabulary and make complete sentences.
Personal content is important with young children, who enjoy talking about themselves; e.g., what their favorite color is or where they got their new shirt; about their activities, like what they are constructing with Legos or shaping with Play-Doh; or about familiar events and things that access their knowledge, like their family activities and experiences with neighbors and friends. Here is an example of how a teacher can make use of children’s conversation to reinforce it, expand it, and teach new vocabulary and grammar. The teacher asks a child what s/he is building and the child answers, “A place for sick animals.” The teacher asks, “You mean an animal hospital [or vet clinic]?” and the child confirms. When a child says someone was taken to a hospital “in the siren,” the teacher corrects the usage: “They took him to the hospital in the ambulance with the siren was sounding?” This recasts “siren” with the correct word choice, “ambulance.” It incorporates “siren” correctly and extends the statement to a complete sentence.
Use some examples illustrating how teachers can support young children in using storytelling to organize their thoughts, practice new vocabulary, and exercise their imagination.
Young children like to communicate about their personal life experiences. When they can do this through narrative structure, it helps them use new words they are learning, organize their thoughts to express them coherently, and engage their imaginative powers. Teachers/caregivers can supply new words they need; model correct syntax for sentences by elaborating on or extending child utterances and asking them questions; and build further upon children’s ideas. For example, a teacher asks a child what they did at her sister’s birthday party. When the child describes the cake and makes gestures for a word she doesn’t know, the teacher supplies “candles,” which the child confirms and repeats. When the child then offers, “Mom says be careful with candles,” the teacher asks what could happen if you’re not careful, the child replies that candles can start a fire. In this way, teachers give young children models of sentence structure, teach vocabulary, and guide children in expressing their thoughts in organized sequences that listeners can follow.
Discuss some ways that shared reading of books with young children builds oral language skills; the best general book characteristics for preschoolers; and some recommended book types and features.
and discuss the content, giving great opportunities for building oral language through conversation. Books with simple text and numerous, engaging illustrations best invite preschoolers to talk about the characters and events in the pictures, and the plotlines they hear. Children’s listening and speaking skills develop; they learn new information and concepts; their vocabularies increase; and their ability to define words and explain their meanings is enhanced through shared reading. Many children’s books include rich varieties of words that may not occur in daily conversation, used in complete-sentence contexts. Teachers should provide preschoolers with fictional and nonfictional books; poetry and storybooks; children’s reference books like picture dictionaries/encyclopedias; and “information books” covering single topics like weather, birds, reptiles, butterflies, or transportation whereby children can get answers to questions or learn topical information. Detailed illustrations, engaging content, and rich vocabulary are strong elements motivating children to develop oral language and understand how to form sentences, how to use punctuation, and how language works.
Identify some things early childhood teachers can do during and after shared book reading with children to promote their development of abstract thought, including some examples.
Abstract thought is stimulated by asking young children to think about things not observed and/or current. During/after sharing books, teachers can ask children what else might happen in the story; what they imagine the story’s characters could be feeling or thinking-which also engages their imaginations; and ask them the meaning of the story’s events using questions necessitating children’s use of language to analyze this meaning. Teachers can ask younger children vocabulary words: “What did we call this animal?” and encourage them to use language by asking them to describe story details, like “How do the firemen reach people up high in the building?” Once younger children are familiar with a story, teachers can activate and monitor their retention and recall: “Do you remember what happened to Arthur the day before that?” Teachers can ask older children to predict what they think will happen next in a story; to imagine extensions beyond the story (“What would you do if…?”); and make conclusions regarding why characters feel/behave as they do.
Explain how new experiences and information
stimulate extended conversations with young
children, and how discussing events from different
times and places stimulates abstract thinking, while giving an example.
Topics with interesting, rich content that stimulate young children’s thinking are likelier to encourage them to engage in extended conversations. A teacher can base such conversations on experiences like exposure to interesting new objects/field trips. It is also a critical skill for young children to have conversations about past, future, and distant events. Their thinking is mostly concrete; getting them to discuss things that are not right here, right now, promotes their ability to think abstractly. For example, a teacher asks children what they saw visiting a construction site. One child says “a giant thing;” another supplies the word “crane;” a third specifies, “But a truck, not a bird.” The teacher asks what it was doing, and one child says, “Picking up a big thing.” The teacher supplies the term “I-beam,” and asks, “Why do you think that’s its name?” A child volunteers, “Because it looks like a big T?” The teacher affirms the response and then asks the children what they think I-beams are used for in construction.
Describe some techniques early childhood teachers can use to enhance the effects of shared reading on oral language development.
According to researchers’ findings, the effectiveness of shared reading experiences is related to the ways that adults read with young children. Rather than merely labeling objects or events with vocabulary words, teachers should ask young children to recall the shared reading, which monitors their listening comprehension and retention abilities. They should ask children to predict what will happen next based on what already happened in a book; speculate about what could possibly happen; describe characters, actions, events, and information from the shared reading; and ask their own questions about it. Shared reading with small groups of 1-3 children permits teachers to involve each child in the book by questioning and conversing with them about the pictures and plots. To teach vocabulary, teachers can tell children word meanings; point to illustrations featuring new words; relate new words to words the children already know; give multiple, varied examples of new words; and encourage children to use new words they learn in their conversations.
Explain how repeating shared readings of the same books builds young children’s language development, and how a thematic approach to shared reading also
does this.
Young children develop preferences for favorite books. Once they know a story’s plot, they enjoy discussing their knowledge. Teachers can use this for extended conversations. They can ask children who the characters are; where the story takes place; and why characters do things and events occur. They can ask specific questions requiring children to answer how much/how many /how far a distance/how long a time, etc. Teachers can also help children via prompting to relate stories to their own real-life experiences. In a thematic approach, teachers can select several books on the same theme, like rain forests or undersea life. This affords richer extended conversations about the theme. It also allows teachers to “recycle” vocabulary by modeling and encouraging use of thematically related words, which enhances memory and in-depth comprehension of meanings. Teachers can plan activities based on book themes, like painting pictures/murals, sculpting, making collages, or constructing models, which gives children additional motivation to use the new language they learn from shared readings of books.
Define print awareness in early childhood by identifying what components it includes.
Even before they have learned how to read, young children develop print awareness, which constitutes children’s first preparation for literacy. Children with print awareness realize that spoken language is represented by the markings on paper ( or computer screens). They understand that the information in printed books adults read comes from the words, not the pictures. Children who have print awareness furthermore realize that print serves different functions within different contexts. They know that restaurant menus give information about the foods available; books tell stories or provide information; some signs show the names of stores, hotels, or restaurants, and other signs give traffic directions or danger warnings. Moreover, print awareness includes knowledge of how print is organized, e.g. that words are combinations of letters and have spaces in between them. Children with print awareness also know that [English] print is read from left to right and top to bottom; book pages are numbered; words convey ideas and meaning; and reading’s purpose is to understand those ideas and acquire that meaning.
Cite some examples of things adults can do before reading a story aloud to young children that can enhance their development of print awareness, including examples of desirable child responses.
Before reading a story aloud, adults should tell young children its title and the author’s name. Then they can ask the children what an author does ( children should respond “write stories” or something similar). Giving the illustrator’s name, the adult also can then ask the children what illustrators do (children should respond “draw pictures” or something similar). Holding up the book, an adult can identify the front, spine, and back and ask the children if we start reading at the front or back ( children should respond “at the front”). Adults can show young children the illustration on the front cover of the book and ask them,
“From this picture, what do you think is going to happen in this story?” and remind them to answer this question in complete sentences. These exchanges before reading a story aloud activate children’s fundamental knowledge regarding print and books, as well as the last example’s exercising their imagination and language use.
Summarize some techniques a teacher can use during and after reading a story aloud to young children to enhance their developing print awareness and language skills.
When a teacher is reading a story aloud to young children, after reading each page aloud, s/he should have the children briefly discuss the picture illustrations on each page and how they relate to what the teacher just read aloud. After they read aloud each plot point, action, event, or page, they should ask the children open-ended (non yes/no) questions about what they just heard. This monitors and supports listening comprehension and memory retention/recall and stimulates expressive language use. When children associate something in the story with their own life experiences, teachers should have them explain the connection. As they read, teachers should stop periodically and ask the children to predict or guess what will happen next before continuing. This promotes abstract thinking, understanding of logical sequences, and also exercises the imagination. After reading the story, teachers should ask children whether they liked it and why /why not, prompting them to answer using complete sentences. This helps children to organize their thoughts and opinions and to develop clear, grammatical, complete verbal expression.
Give some examples of environmental print. Give examples of some ways adults can use environmental print to help young children develop prereading and reading skills.
Street signs, traffic signs, store and restaurant names, candy wrappers, food labels, product logos, etc.-all the print we see in everyday life are environmental print. Just as parents often play alphabetic games with children in the car (“Find something starting with A…with B…” etc.), adults can use environmental print to enhance print awareness and develop reading skills. They can ask children to find letters from their names on colorful cereal boxes. They can select one sign type, e.g. stop, one-way, or pedestrian crossing, and ask children to count how many they see during a car trip. They can have children practice reading each sign and talk about the phonemes ( speech sounds) each letter represents. Adults can take photos of different signs and compile them into a little book for children to “read.” By cutting familiar words from food labels, they can teach capitalized and lowercase letters; associate letters with phonemes; have children read the words; and sort words by their initial letters and by categories ( signs, foods, etc.).
After a teacher has elicited young children’s basic print and book awareness, describe some specific things s/he should do immediately before reading them a story aloud that will enhance their vocabulary learning, memory, spoken language use, and relation of written stories to real/personal life.
Just before reading a story aloud to young students, the teacher should identify vocabulary words in the story that s /he will need to go over with the children. The teacher can write these words on the board or on strips of paper. Discussing these words before the reading will give the children definitions for new /unfamiliar words, and help them understand word meanings within the story’s context. Teachers can also give young children some open-ended questions to consider when listening to the story. They will then repeat these questions during and after the reading. Questions should NOT be ones children can answer with yes/no. When discussing vocabulary words, the teacher can also ask the children to relate words to personal life experiences. For example, with the word fish, some children may want to talk about going fishing with parents. Teachers can encourage children to tell brief personal stories, which will help them relate the story they are about to hear to their own real-life experience, making the story more meaningful.
Define the alphabetic principle. Explain its significance
relative to print awareness and reading skills. Summarize the order in which children gain alphabetic knowledge, giving some examples of
activities wherein children learn, respectively, the
names and shapes of letters.
The alphabetic principle is the concept that letters and letter combinations represent speech sounds. Children’s eventual reading fluency requires knowing these predictable relationships of letters to sounds, which they can then apply to both familiar and unfamiliar words. Young children’s knowing the shapes and names of letters predicts their later reading success: knowing letter names is highly correlated with the ability to view words as letter sequences and to remember written/printed words’ forms. Children must first be able to recognize and name letters to understand and apply the alphabetic principle. Young children learn letter names first, via singing the alphabet song and reciting rhymes and alphabetical jump-rope chants (“A my name is Alice, I come from Alabama, and I sell Apples; B my name is Betty… “ etc.). They learn letter shapes after names, through playing with lettered blocks, plastic/wood/cardboard letters, and alphabet books. Once they can recognize and name letters, children learn letter sounds after names and shapes and spellings after sounds.
Give some general guidelines for instructing young children in the alphabetic principle.
To help young children understand that written or printed letters represent corresponding speech sounds, teachers should teach relationships between letters and sounds separately, in isolation, and should teach these directly and explicitly. They should give young children daily opportunities during lessons to practice with letter-sound relationships. These opportunities for practice should include cumulative reviews of sound-letter relationships they have already learned and new letter-sound relationships as well. Adults should begin early in providing frequent opportunities to young children for applying their increasing knowledge and understanding of sound-letter relationships to early experiences with reading. They can do this by providing English words that are spelled phonetically (i.e. spelled the same way that they sound) and have meanings that are already familiar to the young learners.
Give an example of how an early childhood teacher can assess a young child’s print awareness.
One way in which a teacher can get an idea of whether or to what extent a young child has developed print awareness is to provide the child with a storybook. Then the teacher can ask the child the following: “Show me the front of the book. Show me the back of the book. Show me the spine of the book. Where is the book’s title? Where in the book are you supposed to start reading it? Show me a letter in the book. Now show me a word. Show me the first word of a sentence. Can you show me the last word of a sentence? Now will you show me the first word on a page? Please show me the last word on a page. Can you show me a punctuation mark? Can you show me a capital letter? Can you find a small
letter /lowercase letter?” The teacher should also praise each correct response, supply the correct answers for incorrect responses, and review corrected answers.
Define the term self-concept relative to early childhood. Identify and define three types of “Self’ of which young children develop concepts.
Self-concept development begins during early childhood. Children come to identify characteristics, abilities, values, and attitudes that they feel define them. From 18-36 months, children develop the Categorical Self. This is a concrete view of oneself, usually related to observably opposite characteristics, e.g. child versus adult, girl versus boy, short versus tall, and good versus bad. A four-year-old might say, ‘Tm shorter than Daddy. I have blue eyes. I can help Mommy clean house!” Young children can also describe emotional and attitudinal aspects of self-concept, e.g. “I like playing with Joshua. I’m happy today.” Preschoolers do not usually integrate these aspects into a unified self-portrait, however. Also, many preschoolers do not yet realize one person can incorporate opposite qualities; a person is either good or bad to them, rather than having both good and bad qualities. The Remembered Self develops with long-term memory, including autobiographical memories and things adults have told them, to comprise one’s life story. The Inner Self is the child’s private feelings, desires, and thoughts.
Discuss some considerations related to the instruction of young children in phonics, including instructional rate and sequence.
Because children display individual differences in their speeds of learning sound-to-letter relationships, instruction should consider this; there is no set rate. Generally, a reasonable pace ranges from two to four sound-letter relationships per week. Relationships vary in utility: many words contain the sounds/letters m, a, t, s, p, and h, which are high utility; but x as in box, -gh as in through, -ey as in they, and the sound of a as in want are lower-utility. High-utility sound-letter relationships should be taught first. Teachers should first introduce consonant relationships using f, m, n, r, and s, which are continuous sounds children can produce in isolation with less distortion than word-initial or word-medial stops like p, b, t, d, k, and g. Teachers should also introduce similar-sounding letters like b and v or i and e, and similar looking letters like b and d or p and g, separately to prevent confusion. Single consonants versus clusters/blends should be introduced in separate lessons. Blends should incorporate sound-letter relationships children already know.
Identify some basic guidelines for early childhood teachers to promote print awareness in young students.
Teachers should show young children the organization of books and the purpose of reading. When they read to them, they should use books with large print, which are more accessible for young children to view and begin to learn reading. Storybook text should use words
familiar /predictable to young children. While reading together, teachers should point out high-frequency words like the, a, is, was, you; and specific letters, words, and punctuation marks in a story. Teachers can use index cards to label objects, areas, and centers in the classroom, pairing pictorial labels with word labels, and direct children’s attention to them. They can invite preschoolers to play with printed words by making greeting cards, signs, or “writing” shopping lists and personal letters. They should point out print in calendars, posters, and signs. Also, teachers can have children narrate a story using a wordless picture book; write down their narrative on a poster; and reinforce the activity with a reward related to the story (e.g. eating pancakes after narrating the book Pancakes).
Summarize some key elements of the philosophy and general methods of the whole language approach to teaching child literacy.
The whole language approach is based on constructivist philosophy and psychology: children construct their own knowledge through their interactions with their environments. In contrast to analytical approaches like phonics and alphabetic learning, constructivism views learning as an individual’s unique cognitive experience of acquiring new knowledge, shaped by the individual’s existing knowledge and personal perspective. Whole language instruction emphasizes helping children create meaning from their reading and express meaning in their writing. The whole-language philosophy emphasizes cultural diversity, integrating literacy instruction across subject domains, reading high-quality literature, and giving children many opportunities for independent reading, small-group guided reading, and being read to aloud by teachers. Whole language believes children learn to read by writing and vice versa. Realistically purposeful reading and writing are encouraged, as is using texts that motivate children to develop a love for literature. Early grammatical/spelling/technical correctness is not stressed, which can be problematic for children with reading/language processing disorders, who need explicit instruction in decoding skills and strategies.
Define the Language Experience Approach (LEA). Identify a unique benefit of this method. Summarize four steps for implementing the LEA with young children.
The LEA teaches beginning reading by connecting students’ personal life experiences with written/printed words. A unique benefit is students using their own language and words, enabling them to interact with texts on multiple levels simultaneously. They thus realize they acquire knowledge and understanding through not just instruction, but also their own experiences. Four steps for implementing the LEA with EC groups: (1) Children and teacher choose a topic, like an exciting trip, game, or recent TV show, to discuss with teacher guidance. (2) Each child takes a turn saying a sentence using his/her own words that advances the discussion/story. The teacher writes the children’s words verbatim without corrections, visibly and clearly. (3) Every few sentences or several words, the teacher stops and reads the record aloud for children to confirm accuracy. ( 4) Record review: the teacher points to each word, they read aloud together, or children repeat after the teacher. The teacher gives children copies of the record for independent review and possible compilation into books of LEA stories.
Identify four steps in the directed reading activity
(DRA) practice of teaching lessons using the basal
reader approach. Characterize the nature of the directed reading-thinking activity (DR-TA) using basal
readers and its two main phases.
Using basal readers, the ORA comprises: (1) The teacher prepares children for reading by stimulating their motivation and introducing new concepts and/or vocabulary. (2) Students read silently, guided by teacher questions and statements. (3) The teacher develops student comprehension and students discuss characters, plots, or concepts to further comprehension. ( 4) After silent reading, students read aloud and read answers to teacher questions, known as “purposeful rereading.” (5) Students’ follow-up workbook activities/practice review comprehension and vocabulary. Some selections may include enrichment activities relating them to writing, art, drama, or music. The DR-TA approach is designed to develop critical readers through instruction in group comprehension. It requires children’s active engagement in reading by processing information, asking questions, and receiving feedback as they read. The first phase of DR-TA is the teacher’s direction of student thought processes throughout reading. The second phase involves developing student skills according to their needs as identified in phase 1, and additional extension or follow-up activities.
Explain in summary how the whole language teaching
approach addresses young children’s early mechanical errors in learning reading and writing, and when
more analytical methods are indicated. Name five
components researchers have identified as essential in any effective program for reading instruction.
The whole language approach concentrates on children’s seeking, finding, and constructing meaning in language. As such, young children’s early technical correctness is not the priority. Whole language teachers do not ignore children’s errors. However, they do not make correction more important than overall engagement, understanding, and appreciation of reading, writing, and literature. Instead, teachers make formative assessments taking into account the errors each child makes. Then they design learning experiences for children that give them opportunities and assistance in acquiring mechanically correct linguistic forms and structures. While this holistic approach finds analytical techniques that break language down into components like phonemes and alphabet letters less useful, children with language
processing/reading problems need to learn phonemic awareness, phonics, and other decoding skills to develop reading fluency. The National Reading Panel conducted a study (1997-2000) to resolve controversy over phonics vs. whole language as the best teaching method, finding that any effective reading instruction program must teach phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension.
