Language is made up of 5 domains: syntax (word order in phrases and sentences), semantics (vocabulary, the literal meaning of words), phonology (the sound system of a language), morphology (the words themselves and the smallest units, morphemes, that can change the word meaning like adding an -ed, -ing, or an -s to the end of a word), and pragmatics (the social and non-literal parts of language). Within the school setting, a speech-language pathologist's role is to help students who are having difficulties in one or more of the areas of language as it relates to their educational and academic success. While technically a part of language, difficulties with phonology, for example a student who says a /w/ when they should say an /r/, is most often put under the umbrella of a "Speech" within the school setting.
Creating a Language Rich Environment
(for our earliest learners and beyond!)
Click on this image for info on how to teach phonological awareness.
Creating a language rich environment at home is a huge way you can help your child develop their language skills. This is really important for our earliest learners, birth through age 5, but continues to be important for children as they continue to develop during their primary years. Some simple ways to create a language rich environment is to talk to your child and talk about what you are doing, talk about what you are doing while you're playing with your child, read with your child for at least 20 minutes every day, sing songs and nursery rhymes, practice rhyming, and describe pictures or illustrations as you look at them together. Explore the links below for ideas about creating language learning, and how to support the continued growth of developmental language for the birth through 5 age group or friends who have more significant delays or difficulties with their use or understanding of language. Phonological and phonemic awareness are also incredibly important foundations of reading; click on the image below to go to a site that contains more information about both and ideas for how you can work on both skills at home.
Play-based learning activities for toddlers, preschool, and kindergarten friends!
Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. It's FREE and also has activity guides for parents with each story.
EPIC is is offering a free 30 day trial for parents. Then it is $7.99 a month.
A great Youtube channel for young kids to learn concepts and words through music!
Another Youtube channel with lots of great kid songs for learning!
Academic Language (Kindergarten through 5th grade)
Within the school setting, students who have language difficulties may have a hard time with reading or listening comprehension, oral or written expression of their thoughts and ideas, or difficulties with pragmatic language (building friendships, understanding the complexities of unspoken language like body language or inflection, understanding figurative language like idioms and metaphors). Speech teachers within the school work to support students with reading comprehension difficulties by helping them to build their vocabularies and understanding of different morphemes (those smallest parts of a word, like adding a -s to the end of a verb to say "he walks" or -s to the end of a word to make it plural (dog versus dogs), or prefixes and suffixes). In addition to working on vocabulary, you may want to focus on sight words with your child as well to increase their reading fluency. To work on auditory comprehension (listening comprehension) you can read a short story aloud to your child and ask them to recall key details about it (character, setting, problems, solutions, etc.), or answer WH questions (who, what, where, when, why). The area of language and how it relates to a students ability to perform well in their ELA studies is very complex, and the greatest area of need varies from child to child. If your school-age child is having a difficult time with ELA at school, you can start by trying to expand their vocabulary (by focusing on Tier 2 Vocabulary Words, linked below), sight word knowledge, and general understanding of the different parts of language. As always having your child read at least 20 minutes a day is incredibly important; if your is a struggling reader, you can read with them. Ask them to read alone for at least 20 minutes at their reading level, and you can read to them at a more advanced reading level so they are introduced to more complex ideas, concepts, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Please explore the links below for resources. Also review the 50 Activities to Promote Language Learning shared above for more ideas.
Additional Resources for Language Learning Activities:
Click here to access and Online Literacy Program that focuses on building important skills for listening (auditory) comprehension and memory and phonological awareness skills needed for reading. It is a GREAT resource, with a *Free Trial* through the end of June!
A Free Online Children's Dictionary (you may just need to create an account, but so far it does not seem like they will charge a fee). Search for child friendly word definitions in the main search box. The Picture Dictionary may be helpful for PreK - 1 friends who are learning words that start with a specific letter. World and Collections tabs were also cute.
Pink Cat Games: a cute *FREE* resource with online "games" that are for learning.
After you select "Play" you can search by grade (PreK- Grade 12) and subject area to find an activity!
Some of these Apps are for adults or are for SLP use only, but most can be used at home by parents too!
Click here and scroll to near the bottom of the page!