Communication Language and Literacy

If a child or young person needs more than the support of the school environment, then a multi-agency team will be involved. This would involve the child’s teacher, teaching assistant, the school SENCO, qualified and experienced professionals, for example Speech and Language Therapists and most importantly parents. This might be through a recognized programme such as the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme, Language through Reading or Social Use of Language Programme, or through a combination of approaches tailored to suit the individual child or young person.

In this essay I will be talking about speech, language and communication skills and how they affect several areas of development. I will talk about the impact of speech, language and communication (SLC) difficulties and how adults can support children and extend their SLC. I will also talk about the positive effects of adult support and the different levels of speech and language between children entering an early year’s provision.

4.1 Analyse the importance of early identification of speech, language and communication delays and disorders and the potential risks of late recognition. It is essential that speech, language and communication delays and disorders are noticed early so the relevant interventions can be used to support the child or young person. Answer the questions below.

From this case study we understand it is important to act quickly to support children who have speech and language or communication needs, as language is crucial to learning and enables one to express thoughts in an organised way. Children with language delay may also find it harder to communicate and form relationships with others. They may become frustrated, leading to possible behaviour problems. Very young children in particular do not have the experience to recognise the reason for their

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

Language is shared among all humans, but it is hardly straightforward. As mentioned in our many lectures, Ferdinand de Saussure described language as “…series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.” As such, there is a linguistic influence on our thoughts. Language is much more than communicating because it can also be representational on how we think about ourselves and the world that surrounds us. It is because we use language to express our thoughts, feelings, and ideas, that these communications shape the process of how we think and feel. It is something that is continuously evolving over time. Some languages can cease to exist, but new forms can arrive in their place. This is especially so when two different languages make contact. However, it’s not necessarily the languages themselves making contact, but the people who speak those languages.

Using literacy in another primary language for different cultures. Growing up learning English for me was difficult due to my cultural language is the first language we are supposed to learn. I could not speak fluent English when I was young because it was difficult to learn English when you are used to speaking the Samoan language at home. Now that I appreciate how to speak English has improved my Samoan literacy vocabulary.

The way we read literacy is dependent on language and how choices of language relate to the context. If one was to read an email, book or application, there are different measurements to take note of to grasp an idea on specifications. An application, for example, would involve much more formal language compared to an email directed at a close friend, or a scientific report paralleled to a fictional novel. These exemplars also highlight the manner of communication used and the audience to whom it is presented. A register is a term referring to grammatical choices that depend on situational context, relationships of participants in conversation and the channel of communication. These can be easily summarised respectively as the field, tenor

Throughout the many years’ humans have been on earth we have always been studying other animals, and the way they communicate, and through the many discoveries we have found many animals that have shown incredibly communication abilities, like dolphins who are able to communicate with a complex language and Titi monkeys who talk with sentence structure.

The study was performed in England where children with speech and language impairments represent significant proportions of the children with special needs with 46.3% with statements of special educational needs having identified speech and language problems. There is very little quality research regarding effectiveness of interventions on children with speech and language impairments. The study is focused on mainstream primary school setting on children with pragmatic language impairment. These children provide great challenges to speech and language therapists as well as their teachers. A study nationwide in England conducted that there is very little intervention for children in secondary to be utilized due to local policy, funding, and retention of staff. It has not been

Literacy is not simply being able to read and write. There are many different definitions of literacy for instance the NCTE states that Literacy is thought of as a purposeful social and cognitive process. Another definition by the IRA states that Literacy is the ability to read, write, understand, interpret and discuss texts. Empowering Literacy encompasses both of these definitions, but also includes the consideration that Literacy Empowers one to take control of their own life. Empowering Literacy enables one to improve their life or to improve the lives of others.

Based on my own experience I would like to dive into my position on the issue of childhood communication that directly affects a child’s development and education. Communication is essential to human life. We learn how to communicate first and foremost from our parents, or those who raise us. These people whom we depend on are who determine how we learn to communicate with and understand others. When children are growing up communication is crucial to their innate human nature, and the way they develop as adolescents is a building block to the kinds of relationships they form later in life. Childhood growth and development are indefinitely affected by different environmental and cultural situations in which a child is subject to. When acknowledging the undeniable gaps in maturity between children many factors come into account; money and environment. More importantly my standpoint on this issue would be the idea that children who grow up in a relatively less affluent household/area are more likely to face much more problematic issues with learning and communicating. I argue that the more impoverished an area is the less advanced the communication is between parents and children, but I also believe that there is a disparity between the children who grow up in an affluent setting.

In the bible says “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

AK is a nine year old ELL student in Mrs. Tobin’s fourth grade classroom. He was five years old and entering Kindergarten when his family moved to the United States of America from Macedonia. This means he’s been in the country for four years and he has received all of his formal schooling here in the United States, and as a result he has never learned to read or write in his native Macedonian language. AK speaks English at home with his mother, but she has a very distinct accent, which does affect some of her pronunciation of English words. This has helped him develop conversational English language proficiency or Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) that are average for a fourth grader. However, he struggles with Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) and his writing reflects it.

Language can be analysed as an item or material object and by doing so we can identify that language is made up of words and a series of rules to help us form sentences. However, if language is only viewed as a material object and not a social process, language becomes purely vocabulary and learning grammatical rules. In this case, language would be “fixed and finite” and wouldn’t “explore the complexities involved in using language for communication” (Scarino & Liddicoat, 2009, p. 16). The main function of language is to help us communicate with one another in a clear and concise manner. Language appears on advertisements, books, online in chat rooms or social media, speeches, recordings from the past and it is always in our minds; all day, every day. Language is systematic, indicating that it is governed by a set of rules to make meaning out of words, phrases and sentences. However, language is also shaped by the social context, which is greatly influenced by the relationship of the speakers (Gardner, 2017a, s. 13). According to Chomsky (2006, pp. 99-100), we all have an innate language makeup which begins to develop language structure in utero. This is demonstrated through all of us having been exposed to various experiences and training, however, still acquiring grammar that is extremely similar. Australia is very culturally diverse and because of this, teachers may find that some students may experience difficulties with their language development due to their