Nursery Clusters
Every child
talking
Supporting speech, language and
communication skills
Nursery Clusters
Cluster 3
Expressive Language
Objectives
•To share information on the development of :
Expressive Language
•To explore how we support development of these
language skills in Nursery
Expressive Language
speech
vocabulary
phonological
awareness
grammar
narrative
Vocabulary
• Object names (Nouns)
• Action names (Verbs)
• Adjectives (Adjectives)
• Requires semantic (meanings) and phonological
(sounds) knowledge
• Vocabulary size at age 6 = 10 000 – 14 000
• Learn 6 new words/day from 18mths – 6 yrs
• Storage
– Word meanings
– Sounds in words
– Associated information
Vocabulary is often used to judge intelligence.
"I don't like country music, but I don't mean to
denigrate those who do.
And for the people who like country music,
denigrate means ‘put down’."
How do we learn words?
• Attention and Listening
• Auditory Memory
• Must be heard in context (10 – 20 times)
• Associations and connections
• Must use it
Strategies for supporting vocabulary
• In context:
–
–
–
–
Repeat
Explain
Encourage child to say
Use vocabulary wheel
Activities for developing vocabulary
• Categorising games
• Describing games
• Guessing games
• Odd one out
Allow
opportunities for
lots of repetition
of vocabulary
and consolidate
storage and
retrieval
Grammar
Involves sentence building and grammatical markers
including:
•Pronouns
•Verb tenses
•Word order
•Plurals
•Possessives
I drawed a picture
hims got my car
Modelling
Skills required for narrative
• Recall of event
• Vocabulary
• Sequencing
• Sentence building
• Social skills
Phonological awareness
• awareness of the sound structure, of language
• ability to manipulate the sound structure
• a strong predictor of reading success
• a listening skill that does not involve print.
.
Why is Phonological Awareness Important?
“The phonological awareness performance of preschool children may be a better predictor of
reading and spelling development
than variables such as: intelligence scores,
age, socio-economic status
or vocabulary development”
Bryant et al (1989)
Steady Beat
Children with good mastery of steady beat are much
more likely to do well at reading and writing
•Maintaining a steady beat
•Repeating rhythms using
clapping/instruments/voices
•Songs with rhythm and rhyme
Concept of a word
• Real object
• Children make up the phrase
• Start with two word phrases
e.g. big car
Syllable Awareness
Syllable segmentation:
•Fun
•Modelled incidentally throughout the year
Syllable
Syllable
The Importance of Rhyme
Repetitive patterned language is ideal for tuning
a young child’s ears into the sounds of speech
Rhyme
Hearing rhyme doesn’t come naturally to some children.
Lots of repetition is necessary.
Rhyme Awareness
•Exposure to Rhyme
•Concept of Rhyme
•Rhyme Completion
•Rhyme Judgement
•Rhyme Sort
•Rhyme Odd One Out
•Rhyme Production
Speech
Articulation
The physiological movements involved in modifying
airflow, to produce the various speech sounds.
Phonology
The way sounds are stored and organised in the mind.
The relationship between articulation and phonology
is complex, both are important in speech production.
Articulation
The place of articulation is the point of contact, where an
obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active
(moving) articulator (typically some part of the tongue)
and a passive (stationary) articulator (typically some part
of the mouth).
Development of Articulation
Articulation skills develop as a child gradually learns to
control the movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and soft
palate and coordinate these movements with the
production of an air stream.
By 4, the physical ability to control these movements
should be almost 100% except for ‘r’ and ‘th’.
Phonology
The way sounds are stored and organised in the mind.
STORAGE
OUTPUT
INPUT
Phonology
All children make predictable pronunciation ‘errors’ when they are
learning to talk like adults. These 'errors' are called phonological
processes.
Phonological processes are a common and predictable part of
phonological development often mistaken as simple pronunciation
errors.
Phonological processes have usually 'gone' by the time a child is
five years of age.
Examples of Phonological Processes
•Reduplication: daddy – dada, water – wawa
•Fronting: car – tar, get – det
•Stopping: zoo –doo, Jane – dane
•Voicing: cup – gup, pear – bear
•Final Consonant Deletion: nice – nie, bag -ba
my tosin Dane do a
nie bat tat
Hearing
Attention and Listening
Modelling
Auditory Memory
Helping with speech sounds
Ensure the child feels communication success
Check hearing, listening and auditory memory skills
Model - Don’t correct
Assist effective storage memory
phonological awareness
Check if attending SLT
Language learning does not happen in isolation,
it takes place within meaningful everyday interactions
with adults and peers.