Ben's Pre-Emergent Stage Of Language Development

Achievement standards:

At the end of Early Stage 1 Ben should be able to identify and describe likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events (ACARA,2014), he is however having difficulties expressing himself with spoken language. Ben also finds speaking in a class setting challenging, he uses short simple sentences to communicate but is unable to clearly ‘retell events and experiences with peers and known adults’ (ACARA,2014) this effect Bens use of ‘rhyme and orally blend and segmenting sounds in words (ACARA, 2014).

Ben’s strengths:

Ben has good receptive language, he is able to decode and comprehend the language of the speaker. In general, receptive vocabulary is largest form of vocabulary, ‘we can understand

Children learn language in speech rich communities (Hill, 2012). The behaviourist perspective describes environments that are rich in use of language and experiences are beneficial for children in the early emergent stage of language development. (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014). Ben’s Nanna describes their home environment and life as being very quiet, this leads to a lack of diversity and exposure for Ben to imitate and develop his language skills. Children need multiple meaningful exposures to new words to learn them (Coyne, McCoach, Loftus, Zipoli Jr,& Kapp, 2009).

SECTION 3: Assessment tools

The case study showed Ben was lacking in his expressive language skills, he was unable to use complex sentences and found it difficult to speak in classroom environments even when directed to do so. The tools below will assess Ben’s development regarding expressive language and will be used in the future to help Ben progress his oral language skills, interaction skills and reading.

1. Australian Curriculum: Retell events and experiences with peers and known adults

Vygotsky (1978) states that “students of different strengths and needs can assist each other with their learning through the process of scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978).

Section 5: Support Community

Bens lack of expressive language could be seen as language delay. Language delay is evident in children who have difficulty answering questions or use little or no sentence structure. Some factors that can contribute to language delay could be ‘physiological or intellectual development’ (Cowley, 2012, P.28). A support structure such as speech or language pathologist would be beneficial for Ben as ‘speech pathologists perform specific assessments to identify the areas of language that a child finds difficult’ (Department of Health & Human Services, 2017). The speech pathologist will help Ben with semantics and syntax, this will increase Ben’s ability to communicate and interact with others.

To assist Bens literacy improvement, Nanna needs to ensure Ben has interaction with other children outside of school, this will encourage Ben’s play and speech. Nanna could enrol Ben in a team sporting group, church group, library group or simply ask neighbours or children from school over for a play