1. CHAPTER 6: Language Development in Preschoolers
Revised by Dr. Laura McLaughlin Taddei
Language Development in Early Childhood Education
Fourth Edition
Beverly W. Otto

2. Case Study Discussion
Break up into small groups and discuss case studies: Think of the five aspects of language development. Observe and write down ways the children are developing in these areas: Talking about Mustaches during Snack Time Maurico Reading Books Asia and Lyric Building a Road Together

3. Contexts of Language Development in Preschool Years
Home, School, Community influences
How a child’s home and community support and guide their explorations influences their language and cognitive development

4. Speech
Preschool Child – their speech is a direct reflection of what they are thinking
Not yet capable of private or internal
speech
Telling preschool children to sit and
just listen is essentially telling them to
sit and not think

5. Development of Phonological Knowledge
Patterns of development
Order of phoneme development reflects complexity in producing phoneme – see page 171
Variation between children of same age

6. Development of Phonological Knowledge, continued
Phonemic awareness
Words are composed of separate sounds
Sounds in words can be manipulated
Evident in children’s
“sound play”
Rhyming with Mr. Mike Video
attempts to match speech sounds to print – see words and begin to associate sounds

7. Development of Semantic Knowledge
Experiential basis for semantic knowledge
Assimilation
Accommodation
Overextensions and underextensions
Book sharing experiences

8. Reading Aloud Assignments coming up – Due April 8th:
Research the importance of using read alouds with young children to help develop language:
Due April 15th – Read Aloud Lesson Plan
Interactive Read Aloud Video

9. Development of Semantic Knowledge, continued
Figurative language: children are beginning to understand similes and metaphors – hop on over here, sleep on it…
Preschoolers’ narratives – storybook experiences help preschoolers when they tell stories; examples?

10. Development of Syntactic Knowledge
Mean length of utterance/MLU – Mommy eat one carrot (4) Mommy eats carrots (5) – more complex why?
Noun and verb phrase complexity
Negation (no, not)
Interrogatives (questions)
Passive sentences

11. Development of Morphemic Knowledge
How words change to indicate
Past tense
Possession
Plurality
Comparison

12. Development of Morphemic Knowledge, continued
Role of experimentation
Begin to distinguish irregular words and regular words
Example: go-went vs. walk-walked
Overgeneralizations may still occur
go-goed
good-gooder-goodest

13. Development of Pragmatic Knowledge
Using language differently for different purposes
Evidence from
Dramatic play
Ethnographic research

14. Development of Pragmatic Knowledge, continued
Preschoolers’ oral narratives
Preschooler’s interactions with print

15. Development of Pragmatic Knowledge, continued
Environmental print
Early writing
Literacy-related drama
Storybook experiences