PRESCHOOLERS’ DEVELOPING MORPHOSYNTACTIC SKILLS

Power Point Outline** I. Mastering Grammatical Morphemes II. Developing Syntactic Elements III. Basic Sentence Structure

I. MASTERING GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES** Around 18 mos. of age, when children start putting two words together, we see grammatical morphemes emerge For the test, please know Table 9.1 on page 255

MorphemeAge Mastery** -ing19-28 mos. Regular plural –s27-33 mos. Possessive –s26-40 mos. Past tense –ed26-48 mos. Regular 3 rd person –s26-46 mos.

To assess children’s morphosyntactic skills:** We calculate MLU, or mean length of utterance Instead of counting words, we count actual morphemes Remember, we have free and bound morphemes

Words vs. morphemes** We wanted to eat cookies. 5 words 7 morphemes The PRAXIS always asks you to count the # of morphemes in an utterance

How many morphemes?** The three boys wanted five candies. We played all day with my friend’s toys. He’s going to cook eggs and bacon.

Count the morphemes in Mark McKibbin’s utterances:** (2.5 yrs old) “I need to get my shoes and socks on because the stones will hurt my feet.” (3 yrs old) “I will give my old pillow to the poor children so they can sleep better.” (3 yrs. old) “Madame Blueberry was sad because they didn’t have happy hearts at the Stuffmart.”

II. DEVELOPING SYNTACTIC ELEMENTS A. Basic Sentence Constituents

2. Clause

3. Sentence

4. Noun phrase** Sentence role filled by people and objects The boy is blowing out his candles.

5. Verb phrase** Actions or relationships that are central to the sentence The girl lifts the beach ball.

**The little red henwas eating corn. NPVP The studentsare taking notes. – NPVP The leaveswere falling down. NPVP The babywas laughing at the dog. NPVP

Youtube Weird Al Yankovich Word Crimes

B. Noun Phrase Elements

2. Pronouns — a group of forms that can replace nouns or entire noun phrases** I, he, she, we, you, it, they (and variations of those) Common errors: me/I, him/he, her/she, them/they 3. Noun suffixes comparatives, superlatives, derivationals; preschoolers begin to use these accurately between 3-5 years of age

The derivational noun suffix - er

C. Verb Phrase Elements

Copula verbs– to be verbs that serve syntactically as the main verbs in sentences

More examples of copula verbs:** He is a boy scout. They were in their car. I am happy.

**State verbs —express static or unchanging condition. (That tree is old. The building stands next to the tree.) Process verbs —internal activity or gradual changes in people or things (thinking, hearing, stressing, growing, digesting, learning)

By 5 years of age…** Children have mastered most verb forms

Youtube examples…

III. BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE (review) A. Types of Sentences

3. Passive** Noun in subject phrase is passive and is acted on by noun in verb phrase The toy was played with by the child. The boat was painted by the woman. The notes were taken by the students.

4. Negative

B. Complex and Compound Sentences** Independent or main clause—can stand alone Dependent or subordinate clause—cannot stand alone

1. Complex sentence: Has indep. clause and dependent clause** We will go to the party if it is not raining. (main/indep. clause) (subordinate/dep. clause) I talked to the boywho has red hair. (main/indep. clause) (subordinate/dep. clause)

2. **Compound sentence: 2 independent clauses are linked together by a conjunction We ate cookies and they were good. – (main/indep. clause)(main/indep. clause) – John liked her but she didn’t like him. – (main/indep. clause)(main/indep. clause)

Coordinating conjunctions:

Examples of sentences using coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences:** I wanted to get an A on the test, so I studied hard. We could eat popcorn or we could have Doritos. She wanted to go shopping, but she didn’t have any money.

Rescorla, L., & Turner, H.L. (2015, April). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, ** This study looked at late talkers (at age 2) in comparison to typically- developing children Late talkers usually understand what they hear, but they are late in expressive language

The study found:

Thus…

How can we help parents be motivated to seek early intervention for their LTs?

Power Point Outline** I. Mastering Grammatical Morphemes II. Developing Syntactic Elements III. Basic Sentence Structure