Transcript That’s Easy For You to Say

That’s Easy For You to Say
The Amazing Acquisition of Oral Language in Preschool
Children
Glenn Weybright, M.S., CCC-SLP
Oregon Branch, The International Dyslexia Association
Corvallis, Oregon: Friday, February 22, 2008
What is Language?
• A set of agreed-upon symbols used to
send and receive messages
• Symbol types: written words, pictures,
spoken words, American Sign Language
signs, movements of a signal flag or…..
Language Can be Oral or Written
• Oral language: receiving through hearing
and sending through speech
• Written language: receiving through
reading and sending through
spelling/writing
What is Speech?
• The act of shaping air from the lungs to
make sounds
• One type of delivery system for the
language message
Understanding and Using Oral
Language
• Children innately “wired” to learn to talk
• No direct, deliberate teaching required
Understanding and Using Oral
Language
• There are language prerequisites
Prerequisites for Language
Development
• An intact nervous system
• Adequate hearing
• Exposure to the language to be learned
• Interaction
• Leading to…
Understanding and Using Oral
Language
• By age five years, the typically-developing
child has mastered the essentials of
language and is able to communicate with
adults
Oral Language Components
• Receptive language
• Expressive language
• Articulation/Phonology
• Fluency
• Language pragmatics
Receptive Language
• Language comprehension
• The hidden part of the iceberg
• Learning a word’s meaning receptively
precedes its use expressively
Receptive Language
• Auditory processing
– Can refer to the act of processing: going
through the required steps to decode an
incoming message
– Can refer to various auditory processes:
auditory memory, auditory discrimination,
auditory figure ground, sound localization
Receptive Language:
Understanding What is Said
• Receptive vocabulary
• Expressive vocabulary
Receptive Language Development
Highlights
• 6 to 12 months: Follows line of regard.
Responds to “no.” Responds differentially
to a variety of sounds. Responds to
name.
• 1 to 2 years: Responds to “show me the
(object, picture, body part).” Will follow
one-part commands (when in the mood).
Receptive Language Development
Highlights
• 2 to 3 years: Will demonstrate
understanding of modifiers. Will identify
objects by function. Will respond to
prepositions. Demonstrates
understanding of pronouns.
Receptive Language Highlights
• 3 to 4 years. Will follow a two-part
command. Understands categories. Will
identify colors and number concepts to
three. Responds to more prepositions.
Demonstrates understanding of adverbs.
Receptive Language Development
Highlights
• 4 to 5 years. Follows a three-part
unrelated command. Identifies number
concepts to five. Begins to understand
time.
Receptive Language Development
Highlights
• 5 to 6 years. Understands sequence.
Understands words like “half/whole, same/
different” and “if.” Understands
opposites. Phonological awareness
begins: the ability to think and talk about
the sounds of language.
Expressive Language: Language
Use
• Sentence length
• Grammar and syntax
• Expressive vocabulary
• Sentence content
Expressive Language Highlights
• 6 to 12 months. Looks at parent and then
points to desired items to request
• 12 months. First words.
Expressive Language Highlights
• 18 months. May use 20 words.
• 18 to 24 months. May use up to 50 words,
begins to use 2 word phrases.
• 24 months. May use 150 to 300 words.
Expressive Language Highlights
• 2 to 3 years. Uses 500 words. Begins to ask
questions; begins to use phrases to answer
“what” questions. Begins imaginary play. Uses
one or two prepositions. Begins to learn
pronouns “me, I, my, mine.”
• 3 years. Is using on average 3 to 4 words per
sentence.
Expressive Language Highlights
• 3 to 4 years. Uses “I, you, me” correctly.
Answers “who, what, where, when” questions.
May use 900 to 1000 words. Begins primitive
narratives with one character, attributes, cause
and effect.
• 4 years. Begins to use the “to be” verb. Is using
4 to 5 words per sentence on average. Begins to
consistently use complete sentences.
Expressive Language Highlights
• 4 to 5 years. Begins to use compound and
complex sentences. Uses regular past tense
correctly. Lengthy narratives have a central
character and events; may mix fact and fiction.
• 5 years. Most sentences have correct grammar
and syntax. True narratives begin with
sequence, characters, linked events, and
cohesive language.
Challenges to Fluency:
Developmental Stuttering
• Disfluent speech may occur between 2 and 5
years but especially between 2.5 and 3.5 years
• Involves the “sinc” ing of language and speech
• In some children, the desire to use language
leaps ahead of the motor ability to send the
language message
Challenges to Fluency:
Developmental Stuttering
• Most typically-developing children who go
through developmental stuttering will be
disfluent for one to three months then return to
fluency
• The speech disorder of stuttering also begins in
this preschool period
• How we make the differential diagnosis
Phonology
• The speech sound system of a language
• Children at birth have the potential to
make all sounds of all languages, but…..
• American English has sounds not found in
other languages and there are sounds in
other languages not found in English
Phonology
• Children learning to talk sort out the
sounds needed in their language and
discard those not needed.
• They study their language and learn its
rules
Phonology
• In American English, voiceless stops are
combined with /s/; voiced stops are not
• The sound “h” is not used at the end of a
word and the sound “ing” is not used at
the beginning of a word
Phonology
• Phonological processes are rules some
children use to simplify speech
• Final consonant deletion, weak syllable
deletion, and cluster reductions are
examples
Phonology
• Using the process of final consonant
deletion, the child may drop the “t” sound
in “hat”
• He may however be able to articulate, or
produce the “t” sound in the initial
position in words.
Phonology
• Most children will drop the use of these
rules by age 5
• A phonological disorder occurs when a
child uses one of more of the simplifying
rules longer than age-level expectations
Articulation
• The act of shaping air from the lungs to
make sounds.
• Speech sounds develop in order from
those easy to articulate to those more
complex to articulate.
Articulation
• The ability to physically produce speech
sounds
• Improves with age
• Certain sounds are expected at certain
ages
Articulation
• Most vowels are learned by age two.
• A word about vowels
• The first consonants typically mastered are
bilabials “p, b, m”
• A word about mastery
Articulation
• A word about consonant pairs and voicing
• Speech sounds “t, d, k, g, f, v, n, w,” are
typically mastered by age four
• A word about speech-motor complexity
Articulation
• Speech sounds “l” and “y” are mastered
by age five
• A word about initial “ing” and voiced initial
“sh”
• Speech sounds “s, z, sh, ch, j, are
mastered by age six
Articulation
• Speech sounds voiced and voiceless “th”
are mastered by age seven
• The complex consonant and semi-vowel
“r” is mastered by age eight
• A word about consonant clusters
Articulation
• Do articulation errors show up consistently
as later spelling errors?
Intelligibility
• How much of the child’s speech is
understandable?
• There are expectations at each age level.
Intelligibility
• At age two, 50 per cent of speech should be
intelligible
• At age three, 75 per cent of the child’s speech
should be understandable
• At age four, 100 per cent of speech should be
understandable (there may still be articulation
“errors”)
Phonological Awareness
• Develops between ages 5 and 6
• Words are made of sounds and can be broken
into sounds
• Sounds can be combined to make words
• Sounds can be represented by letters
Language Pragmatics
• The unwritten rules for social use of language
• The keys to being able to have a conversation
• Unlike other aspects of communication,
language pragmatics are learned over a longer
period of time but begin in the preschool years
Language Pragmatics
• Eye contact
• Taking turns talking
• Staying on a topic
• Knowing what to say and what not to say
Language Pragmatics
• Rephrasing when misunderstood
• How close to stand to someone when
speaking
• How to use facial expression
Language Pragmatics
• Knowing how to change language due to the
needs of the listener or situation
• Talking differently to a baby than to an adult
• Giving background information to an unfamiliar adult
• Speaking differently in a classroom than on a
playground
Transitioning to Reading
• There are oral language landmarks important to
the later development of reading
• Development of the ability to use narratives (the
bridge to reading) at ages 3, 4 and 5.
• Development of the ability to rhyme ( by age 5)
• The development of phonological awareness
(age 5 to 6)
Transitioning to Reading
• The development of pre-literacy skills
(throughout the preschool years)
• Hearing stories read
• Learning that stories go from left to right
• Learning that stories go from top to bottom
• Learning that books tell stories
Transitioning to Reading
• Some speech-language problems in
preschoolers may suggest the possibility
of later difficulty with reading
Oral Language Problems Which
May Suggest Later Reading
Difficulty
• Difficulty with word retrieval: uses vague words,
uses circumlocutions, uses pronouns instead of
nouns, combines gestures and words, uses
words like “stuff, thing, thingy.”
• Difficulty with auditory processing, especially
understanding and responding to “wh”
questions. May show confusion between
familiar words and similar- sounding unfamiliar
words
Oral Language Problems Which
May Suggest Later Reading
Difficulty
• Difficulty producing motorically-complex multi-syllable
words like “magazine, attractive, helicopter, binoculars .”
• May reverse syllables so that “bulldozer” becomes
“dullbozer.”
• Articulation or phonological problems alone are not
sufficient to suggest reading problems
References
• Apel and Masterson. Beyond Baby Talk. Roseville, California:
Prima Publishing (2001).
• Hamaguchi, P. Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening
Problems: What Every Parent Should Know. New York: John Wiley
and Sons (1995)
• Hulit and Howard. Born to Talk: An Introduction to Speech and
Language Development. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company
(1993).
• Lombardino, L., Riccio, C., Hynd, G., and Pinheiro, S.,
“Linguistic Deficits in Children with Reading Disabilities.”
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 6, (1997).
References
• Mahoney and Perales. Developmental Rainbow: Early
Childhood Developmental Profile. Cleveland, Ohio: Case
Western Reserve University (2005).
• Meyers, Robert. The Child Development Institute:
Language Development in Children (an Internet
resource).
• Paul, Rhea. Language Disorders From Infancy Through
Adolescence: Assessment and Intervention. New York:
Mosby (1995).