Chapter four of our text was full of helpful and informative
information on language acquisition from birth through elementary school. On
page 103 of the text there is a list of ten things that caregivers should do to
encourage a child’s use of language between birth and age three. These ten
things are common sense to the majority but while reading this section myself,
I got to thinking about the students who do not get these ten things. Many
students hopefully at least get a few out of the ten but what about those
students that get only one or two? Are those children already being left in the
dust? Since the list is suggested for birth to age three, I personally believe
the student has plenty of time to receive these ten things later in life but is
that going to be as effective for their language development if it is delayed?
The list of ten things on page 103 also got me thinking about technology. Many of the activities on the list are now just a click or a swipe away for
children, and many households have electronic tablets that children are proficient at
using. Would technology make it easier or harder for caregivers to provide all
ten of the suggested activities? If technology were to make life easier for
caregivers would that really be a good thing for students? So many of today’s
students get lost behind computer screens for hours, I would not want to
encourage caregivers to just hand a student a computer and leave them alone to engage
in all the activities on the list by themselves. It is important that
caregivers are involved in language acquisition and part of that involvement is
engaging with the child one on one to check the child’s progress.
Language can be a complex and daunting subject but chapter
four provides many helpful activities and insights on how language is developed
to help teachers better understand future students’ language needs.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteThis is such an insightful post! What I have read says that the delay in language development can have a longer term effect on children. But I really believe that with enough guidance and hard work a child can succeed and be equal to another child who's language development was highly fostered in the very early years of their life. I am so on the fence when it comes to technology, I mean I would rather my students go home and use ABC Mouse on their tablet than just sit around and watch television. But then again if I had the option between a caregiver encouraging language development or a computer then I would choose a caregiver hands down. I think technology is helpful in some ways, but to me you can never beat someone teaching and encouraging a child in real life. You talk about the suggestions given by the book to encourage language between students, I also was drawn to this section! I really like the idea of fostering interaction between students because it does benefit their language development and stimulating this in a way that is fun but educational for children is very ideal in my opinion.
Lauren, I remember talking in class and reading in the book about the fact that some of the connections in our brain for language learning are gone after only six months. I think this applies to the list of ten language activities suggested in the text. I believe the list of ten should be done during the ages of birth to three, or like learning a language after you have grown older is hard, it will be harder to acquire those language skills. Technology will make it easier to provide enrichment of the ten language activities. I think that it is more important to provide the first ten from birth to age two without technology since children should not be exposed to technology until after the age of two. From ages two to three I believe that technology should or can be used to enrich children’s knowledge on the ten skills that they have already been exposed to in the earlier years of life.
ReplyDeleteLauren-
ReplyDeleteVery interesting thoughts, especially about technology! I believe that technology should be incorporated in a child's life but there is a certain amount they should be limited to. Children can learn so much from technology but sometimes it is a little too much. I feel as if there needs to be a balance between technology and having structured learning opportunities for the students.Students are not going to be able to learn the ten things about language just through technology but rather technology can reiterate those ten things. Language should be incorporated into daily activities for your students whether that is small discussion, one on one, or language activities even in the science area. Language is so important especially at a young age and care givers for these children need to be aware.
Lauren, I found your post to be very insightful and I myself was wondering what would happen if they did not meet those ten things a caregiver should do as well. I thought it was interesting that you brought up technology because I honestly did not think of that. I found your question of if it would make providing these things easier or harder something to think about. I thought the pages about incorporating language activities in other subject areas to be interesting as well. I like how detailed the author is when she gives the examples. I found that to be really helpful.
ReplyDeleteLauren,
ReplyDeleteI believe that technology is opening doors for children to learn certain skills even before the enter school and I think that is wonderful. To answer your question, yes, I believe that the use of technology plus some support and help from their parents I believe that they will meet all ten of the things caregivers need to provide their children with. To add on to that I don't believe that they can get all ten from just technology alone because human interaction provides so many more experiences than just listening to someone speak in a video on Youtube. I loved also how you talked about incorporating language development into different subjects, even in science when they were talking to each other about the gerbil. These simple language ideas can really provide so much growth for a children and sometimes we don't even realize it. This book provides so many great ideas and I will definitely be using some of them in my future classroom.