Activities That Foster Language Development
Activities that foster language development help prepare young children for future success with reading, writing and speaking. Two key elements of early language development are oral vocabulary and phonemic awareness, which is the ability to understand, hear and manipulate sounds within words. Both play important roles in development and are crucial to early literacy success. Playing language games with young children is a simple and enjoyable way to encourage early literacy skills.
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Blending
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Blending phonemes, or sounds, is an easy way to incorporate phonemic awareness into everyday language. Blending involves saying each sound in a word separately and asking the child to put them together. For example, the word "sun" would be separated into three sounds: /s/ - /u/ - /n/. As simple as it sounds, young children may initially have a difficult time blending. However, with practice, blending becomes easier and more fluent. Try turning blending into a simple guessing game. Instead of telling the child what is for dinner, say each sound in the word and have her blend them together. If children are struggling with blending, try separating only the initial sound from the word to make the task easier. For example, instead of separating "dog" into /d/ - /o/ - /g/, try using /d/ - og. As children become more comfortable with blending, try more difficult or longer words. Children use blending skills later when learning to decode and read independently.
Segmenting
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Segmenting is the opposite of blending. In this activity, instead of blending sounds together to make words, children deconstruct words into separate sounds. For example, a child would segment the word "apple" into /a/ - /p/ - /l/. Children will later use segmenting when learning to sound out and spell words in writing. However, do not use written words during segmenting activities. Segmenting should occur strictly verbally and should incorporate short, familiar words initially. Praise any early success with segmenting, even if the child omits sounds. Segmenting often takes children longer to master and requires more practice. Segmenting works well in language-rich environments, such as the grocery store. Challenge children to segment favorite words, such as types of fruit or cereal. Work together to segment the names of each family member. Once children are consistently successful with segmenting, try counting and comparing the number of sounds within words.
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Positional Words
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Working with positional words can practice two important language skills: oral vocabulary and following oral directions. Positional words explain the spatial relationship of an object, often in comparison to another objects. Some examples of positional words are over, under, first, last, behind, in front of, next to, in between, outside and inside. Starting with easy, one-step directions, guide the child to perform an action with an object using positional words. For example, ask the child to put the teddy bear behind the chair. Make sure to model each action in order to ensure the child's understanding of the vocabulary word. As the child's comfort and knowledge level matures, use more complex directions. For example, challenge the child to place the red ball inside the box behind the couch. Young children naturally enjoy this type of game and will also take pleasure in giving the directions. Encourage the child to use positional words to give directions and then check the accuracy of the performance.
Compound Words
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Exploring compound words is a way to engage young children in oral vocabulary and word manipulation. A compound word is created when two words are joined together. For example, the word "butterfly" is created by joining the words "butter" and "fly." Young children find word play amusing and enjoy games manipulating words. After introducing the child to the concept of compound words, use actions to manipulate the words. Say the first part of the word and hold up one fist. Say the second part of the word and hold up the other fist. Put the two fists together and say the compound word. Take one fist away and challenge the child to say what is left without that part of word. Switch fists and challenge the child to say what remains without this part. For example, use one fist for "cup" and one fist for "cake." By putting them together, the compound word "cupcake" is formed. By raising the first fist, the child would say "cake," or the part of the word that remains. By replacing the first first and raising the second fist, the child would say "cup." Children learn this concept quickly and excel at finding and manipulating compound words around them.
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