Language Development:

Preschoolers &Early School Age

EDU 280Fall 2014

CharacteristicsYoung preschoolers:

2-3 years oldOlder preschoolers:

4-5 year olds

Characteristics

Young Preschoolers Vocabularies

range from between 250 to over 1,000 words.

An average of 50 new words enter the child’s vocabulary each month.

CharacteristicsVerb forms

regularization: a child’s speech behavior that indicates the formation and internalization of a language rule (regularity)

Sequence in formed rules for past tense verb usage:

Uses irregular tense endings correctly: ran, came, drank

Forms an internal rule when discovering that “ed” expressed past events: danced, called, played

Overregularizes: adds “ed” to all regular and irregular verbs that were formerly spoken correctly: “camed,” “dided,” “wented,” “breaked”

Learns that both regular and irregular verbs express past tense and uses both

Plurals In using plural noun forms the following sequence

is common: Remembers and uses singular forms of nouns

correctly: ball, dog, mouse, bird Uses irregular noun plurals correctly: men feet,

mice Forms an internal rule that plurals have “s” or “z”

sounds Applies rule to all nouns: balls, mens, dogs, feets,

birds, mices, or ballsez, dogzes, feetsez Achieves flexible internal rules for plurals,

memorizes irregular plural forms, and uses plurals correctly.

Characteristics

Key Word Sentences Sentences are about 4 words long

Pronouns often used incorrectly Me finish all milk

Questions“Wh” questions appear

Overlapping concepts Overextension Underextension

Characteristics

Running Commentaries Repetition Lack of clarity

About one in every 4 words of the young preschooler is not readily understandable

Young preschoolers are only 40-80% correct in articulation

Characteristics

Typically articulation of all English speech sounds is not accomplished until age 7 or 8

Vocabulary of over 1500-2000 words Sentences of 5 or 6 (or more) words Exploring the Conventions of

Conversation Relational Words Impact Words Sound Words Reality and Nonsense

Older Preschoolers

Articulation of letter sounds still developing About 75% of the English letter sounds

are made correctly Omissions and substitutions are still

present

Older Preschoolers

Myths Concerning Speech and Intelligence

A large and mature vocabulary at this age is not necessarily an indicator of intelligence.

5 Year Olds Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-

both adjectives and adverbs

Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heavy-light, etc

Has number concepts of 4 or more

Can count to ten Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite

of articulation problems

Should have all vowels and the consonants, m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n,ng,y (yellow)

5 Year Olds Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine

words

Should be able to define common objects in terms of use (hat, shoe, chair)

Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions

Should know his/her age

Should have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after while tomorrow, yesterday, today

Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences

Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct

6 Year Olds In addition to the above consonants these should

be mastered: f, v, sh, zh, th, l

Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful

Should be able to tell one a rather connected story about a picture, seeing relationships between objects and happenings

By this age a child understands 13,000 words

7 Year Olds Should have mastered the consonants s-z, r,

voiceless th, ch, wh, and the soft g as in George

Should handle opposite analogies easily: girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-sharp short-long, sweet-sour, etc

Understands such terms as: alike, different, beginning, end, etc

Should be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words

can now understand 20,000-26,000 words,

8 Year Olds Can relate rather involved accounts of events,

many of which occurred at some time in  the past

Complex and compound sentences should be used easily

Should be few lapses in grammatical constructions-tense, pronouns, plurals

All speech sounds, including consonant blends should be established

Should be reading with considerable ease and now writing simple compositions

8 Year Olds Social amenities should be present in his speech

in appropriate situations

Control of rate, pitch, and volume are generally well and appropriately established

Can carry on conversation at rather adult level

Follows fairly complex directions with little repetition

Has well developed time and number concepts