1. Are You Talking to Me?: The Development of Language Skills in Young Children 92 nd Street Y WonderPlay Conference November 2012 Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. lsoifer@soifercenter.com www.soifercenter.com

2. (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 2 November 2012

3. What do you mean when you say…? Speech Language Communication (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 3 November 2012

4. Oral Language is the Foundation of Literacy (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 4 November 2012 Speak Write Listen Read Components of Language Form UseContent

5. The Components of Language FORM – Sound system – Word structure – Grammar CONTENT – Meaning component – Vocabulary and beyond USE – Reasons to use language (purposes) – How to use language (intentions) (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 5 November 2012

6. How Talking and Listening Become Reading and Writing Form – Sound System - the essence of decoding – Word Structure - rules for word formation Spelling and pronunciation – Grammar - rules for understanding and creating sentences Reading comprehension and writing Content – Meaning component of language World knowledge, vocabulary, word knowledge and use Use – Purposes and intentions of language Reading with intent; purposes for reading/writing; monitoring comprehension (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 6 November 2012

7. It All Happens So Fast!! 18 to 24 months (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 7 November 2012 Understands 300 words Uses 50 recognizable words Speaks more than gestures Wants to hear stories over & over Uses rising intonation to ask a question Shakes head to answer questions Follows 2 related commands Begins to use verbs e.g., “do”, “go” Starts to ask, “What’s that?” Talks about what is happening in the moment Combines two words e.g., “more juice” and “go car” Tells name when asked Points to 6 or more body parts when asked Turns pages of a book Imitates housework Joins in songs and familiar rhymes

8. Two to three years (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 8 November 2012 Understands over 500 words Uses 500 words Is intelligible 50-75% of the time Engages in eye contact during a conversation Holds a conversation for two turns Uses words to express frustration Listens to a story for 10-20 minutes Answers simple “who”, “where”, “what” questions Understands and uses simple prepositions (in, on, out) Begins to ask “yes/no” questions Uses negative phrases, “no want” Talks to self while playing Begins to use past tense, “kissed” Forms plurals by adding –s Refers to self by name and with the pronoun, “me” Uses many 2-3 word utterances Names pictures; points to pictures when named Matches a few colors Knows “big” and “little” Holds up fingers to tell age

9. Three to Four Years (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 9 November 2012 Understands over 1,000 words Uses eye contact consistently in conversation Asks many questions, including, “What do” and “Who” Understands simple time concepts, morning, lunch time, night, tomorrow Understands spatial words, in front of, behind Begins to use –s for the 3rd person present tense Uses can’t and won’t Uses and Uses 3-4 word sentences Uses more than one sentence type Can tell a story Can speak about events in the recent past Uses language to comment, question and respond Stays with an activity 10-15 minutes Is 75% intelligible to a stranger

10. Four to Five Years (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 10 November 2012 Understands over 2000 words Uses 1500-2000 words Speaks clearly most of the time Describes pictures in complete sentences Makes up stories Uses all simple pronouns correctly Speaks in 4-5 word sentences and some longer utterances Uses past, present, and future tenses Uses irregular verbs (ate, slept, drank) Asks, “why” Knows common opposites Can speak of some imaginary conditions, (I wish…) Uses some complex sentences Plays dramatically Talks a lot Listens and attends to stories, conversations and movies Pronounces most sounds correctly Discusses remote events Defines objects by use Understands “same” and “different” Stays with an activity for 15 minutes Uses many sentence types

11. Verbal Techniques to Facilitate Thinking and Problem Solving with Language (Paul, 1995) Questions to help children formulate ideas Summarizing Cloze statements Requesting elaboration Preparatory sets Contingent queries Comprehension questions Turn-taking cues Either – or choices (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 11 November 2012

12. Gingerbread Man Creating Communication Challenges in the Context of a Thematic Activity Questions to help children formulated ideas – “I think the Gingerbread Man was mean to run away from the old woman. How do you think she felt?” Summarizing – “Who can tell us all the animals who chased the Gingerbread Man? (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 12 November 2012

13. Gingerbread Man Gingerbread Man (continued) Creating Communication Challenges in the Context of a Thematic Activity Cloze statements – “When the old woman made the Gingerbread Man, she used ________.” Requesting elaboration especially with conjunctions – Child: The Gingerbread Man ran. – Teacher: Yes, he ran as fast as….” – Child: The cow chased him. – Teacher: The cow chased him because…” (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 13 November 2012

14. Gingerbread Man Gingerbread Man (continued) Creating Communication Challenges in the Context of a Thematic Activity Preparatory sets to let the child know what needs to be communicated – “You need to ask her for the glue to finish your mask.” Contingent queries used to prompt the child to provide a missing piece of information. – Child: “Want crayon.” – Teacher: “Which crayon do you need?” (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 14 November 2012

15. Gingerbread Man Gingerbread Man (continued) Creating Communication Challenges in the Context of a Thematic Activity Comprehension questions can be used to elicit successively higher levels of information starting with simple perceptual judgments to more complex inferential comprehension. – “Which animal was the biggest?” – “Why did the fox say he’d give the Gingerbread Man a ride?” (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 15 November 2012

16. Gingerbread Man Gingerbread Man (continued) Creating Communication Challenges in the Context of a Thematic Activity Turn-taking cues that put the conversational ball back in the child’s court – “Oh?” (or an expectant pause at the end of an adult utterance) Either-or choices used to provide the child with alternative comments to be used in a situation – “Do you want more crackers? You can say, ‘Yes, please’ or ‘No, thank you’ “ (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 16 November 2012

17. Early Signs of Learning Disorders Three to Five Year Olds Poor understanding of classroom instructions Limitations in language expression Problems comprehending language Problems learning new words Problems mastering speech sounds Poor retention of information when listening or being read to aloud Poor or inconsistent mastery of number or letter symbols (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 17 November 2012

18. Early Signs of Learning Disorders Three to Five Year Olds Early Signs of Learning Disorders Three to Five Year Olds (continued) Limitations in social interactions Limitations in play Poor graphomotor skills Memory problems Difficulty with time, space, and number concepts Difficulty learning sequential information Problems with visual discrimination and/or visual-spatial weaknesses (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 18 November 2012

19. Early Signs of Learning Disorders Three to Five Year Olds Early Signs of Learning Disorders Three to Five Year Olds (continued) Difficulty learning color and shape names Trouble remembering classmates names Word finding problems Problems learning nursery rhymes Persistent articulation/speech problems Difficulty learning sound patterns and/or sound-symbol associations Short attention span for language related activities (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 19 November 2012

20. (c) 2012 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved. Slide 20 November 2012

21. Are You Talking to Me?: The Development of Language Skills in Young Children 92 nd Street Y WonderPlay Conference November 2012 Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. lsoifer@soifercenter.com www.soifercenter.com