The following series of posts are part of my research during my Early Childhood Teaching Bachelor Degree, more than five years ago.
Nowadays many students in Prek and K present problems at speaking, that is, their oral language development. This post and the following ones are going to help understand it a little more, or at least I hope so.
Language is a complex function that allows expressing and perceiving affective states, concepts, ideas... through acoustic or graphic signs. The function of the language implies:
• A system of rules: language is the one that specifies the way to use verbal material to mean (symbolize) external or imaginary reality.
• The materialization of this system of rules in oral and writing language.
Language is the most characteristic feature of the Human Beings and is distinctive with respect to other species. All animal species have behaviors to communicate, but in none of them we can find something similar to language. By language it is necessary to understand "that complex function that allows to express and perceive affective states, concepts, ideas, by means of acoustic or graphic signs"
The language is a system of signs or symbols that are used for communication in a particular coding, for the representation of objects, people, events, thoughts... this representation involves physical and physiological (acoustic-perceptive), cognitive, emotional and social processes.
The development of the linguistic system is essential for social and intellectual development and vice versa. Therefore, to evaluate the development of language is to evaluate the development of an interactive communication system that serves to establish contact with our surrounding world, to establish relationships to learn and be able to think (Del Barrio, 1997).
The functions of language are communication and representation.
Language enhances cognitive development, and vice versa. Language is acquired in and through the social medium; the social environment, in turn, conditions the type of language.
The language is affected by affective deficiencies.
What is the acquisition of language?
It represents a great change, since the communicative possibilities with itself and with others are extended. Language is an instrument of knowledge and transformation of reality.
Children begin to use language not because they have an ability to use language, but because they need to achieve the realization of things that their use confers on them. Parents help them with a similar spirit: they want to help them become civilized human beings, not just language speakers. (Bruner, 1986).
In my next posts I´ll talk about the dimensions of language.
Después de la feria del libro en nuestra escuela, los niños están emocionados de leer (o pretender leer) sus increíbles libros. Los padres y educadores deben saber cómo motivarlos durante la actividad de lectura.
Hacer preguntas.
Los niños desarrollan el lenguaje más rápido cuando se les pide que lo hablen. Después de hacer una pregunta, espere hasta que el niño tenga la respuesta preparada; Dale tiempo. Él confirma lo que quiere decir al usar algunos términos que él no sabe. Presta más atención al significado que a las palabras específicas. Quiero compartir algunos pasos o preguntas:
Primera pregunta:
¿De qué crees que se tratará el libro? ¿Por qué?
Próxima pregunta
Mira la imagen en la primera página. ¿Qué puedes decir sobre ______? (foco en el personaje(s), eventos,...)
Próxima pregunta
Lea el título, si no pueden leer, podemos invitarlos a reconocer las letras.
Predecir de qué crees que se tratará este libro.
Próxima pregunta
Comencemos a leer.
Ahora, dependiendo de su nivel (reconocimiento de letras y sonidos, lectura), puede invitar a su hijo a reconocer letras y sonidos o a leer.
Próxima pregunta
¿Qué puedes decir sobre la página siguiente?
Repetimos los dos últimos pasos para el resto del libro, cambiando el enfoque de la pregunta: personajes, acciones, detalles, ...
El final
Antes de leer, pregúntale al respecto. ¿Qué piensas de lo que está sucediendo ahora?
Después de leer, intenta inventar un nuevo final.
Después de leer actividades:
Cuénta tu propia historia.
Se álbumes de fotos del niño como inspiración para hablar sobre el evento retratado. Las vacaciones de primavera, las vacaciones de verano o el viaje a la casa de la abuela pueden convertirse en una obra de ficción, pero a la vez desarrollan un sentido de la narración.
Conviértase en un transcriptor
Pídale al niño que dicte historias para que escriba o escriba una carta para un amigo o pariente. Dígale que garabatee su firma o escriba su nombre lo mejor que pueda. Tu capacidad para escribir irá detrás de tu imaginación por muchos años, así que no dejes que eso te detenga. Ayúdelo a escribir sus pensamientos, sin olvidar que son valiosos y que la palabra escrita es la manera en que otros pueden conocer sus ideas.
Haga un "glosario" con las palabras principales y el vocabulario del libro. Es importante agregar imágenes e imágenes a las palabras y sus definiciones.
Dramatiza y realiza algunas escenas del libro.
Crea el disfraz y los detalles de tus personajes favoritos.
Crea una nueva historia con tus personajes favoritos.
Grabe o grabe en video su sesión de lectura y compártala con otros.
¿Los niños y niñas pequeños se comportan por igual?
¿Los niños son más inquietos y las chicas más tranquilas?
¿Son verbalmente más enérgicos y más competentes?
Cuando nace el bebé, su cerebro tiene cien mil millones de neuronas. Las conexiones entre las neuronas o sinapsis comienzan a formarse: solo el 10% de ellas están presentes en el momento del nacimiento; el 90% restante se construirá más tarde. En los procesos del desarrollo del cerebro, los estímulos ambientales son esenciales para guiar el establecimiento de redes neuronales para asegurar las principales funciones sensoriales, motoras y cognitivas.
Es el medio ambiente como un todo el que participa e influye en la construcción del cerebro. Gracias a las nuevas técnicas de imágenes cerebrales, como la resonancia magnética, podemos ver que el cerebro cambia según el aprendizaje y la experiencia.
Los cambios que ocurren en el desarrollo del niño durante los primeros años de su vida son excepcionales. El progreso del niño se puede ver cuando comienza a sonreír, reír, sentarse, gatear, balbucear y hablar. El niño comienza a socializar y jugar con otros niños. Adquiere las habilidades necesarias para llevarse bien con los demás, como esperar su turno, compartir y seguir las instrucciones. También aprende las habilidades que lo ayudarán en su carrera escolar, como dibujar, contar, leer y escribir.
Es importante dejar al niño libre en sus elecciones, porque sus opciones son un reflejo de lo que se encuentra en la sociedad. Un niño que juega con la muñeca también es un niño que se familiariza con el papel de un padre. Si el niño es el tipo contemplativo, es preferible respetar esta faceta de su personalidad en lugar de la fuerza, por ejemplo, para participar en la práctica de un deporte.
Por ejemplo, las niñas son en promedio mejores que los niños en lectura, escritura y fluidez verbal, mientras que los niños son mejores en las pruebas que requieren manipulación y uso de representaciones en el espacio. Los resultados en la memoria se comparten, las diferencias de sexo van en direcciones opuestas, dependiendo de los tipos de memoria.
Las diferencias
Los cerebros de los niños y niñas son diferentes: por ejemplo, la corteza cerebral, lo que determina la inteligencia, se desarrolla primero en fetos femeninos, sobre todo el lado izquierdo, responsable del pensamiento. Por otro lado, el peso y el volumen del cerebro del niño son de 10 a 15% más altos que los de la niña. Los estudios de imágenes cerebrales (MRI) indican que algunas áreas crecen más rápido en el cerebro femenino, mientras que otras crecen más rápido en el cerebro masculino:
* El lóbulo cerebral izquierdo de los niños (el área responsable del control del pensamiento) se desarrolla más lentamente que el derecho (el oficial de control espacial). Gracias a esta maduración asimétrica de los lóbulos cerebrales, los niños son más hábiles en matemáticas y menos en lenguaje y literatura.
* Las niñas tienen una maduración cerebral más homogénea. Los dos lóbulos cerebrales maduran al mismo tiempo, lo que permite que ambos hemisferios se utilicen para la lectura y la conciencia emocional.
* El cerebro femenino secreta más serotonina, un neurotransmisor que, entre sus funciones, es responsable de inhibir la agresividad.
* El cerebro masculino produce mayores cantidades de testosterona, una hormona que promueve la agresividad.
Los cerebros de los niños y niñas de la misma edad podrían estar en diferentes etapas de desarrollo. Sin embargo, con el tiempo uno se une al otro.
El impacto biológico
Los últimos estudios muestran que las hormonas tienen un impacto en el desarrollo del cerebro, especialmente en la orientación espacial y el lenguaje.
Estas diferencias anatómicas están en el origen de las diferencias de comportamiento y no de las diferencias intelectuales. Cada sexo evoluciona a un ritmo diferente y desarrolla habilidades en diferentes áreas.
El desarrollo del cerebro en el niño del feto en el útero es estimulado por la testosterona. Un estudio de la Universidad de Maryland descubrió que los recién nacidos tienen el mismo nivel de testosterona que un varón adulto. Se desvanece rápidamente y no comenzará a aumentar nuevamente hasta la pubertad, pero la presencia de testosterona en el desarrollo fetal influye en el cerebro al "fortalecer" ciertas áreas, como el razonamiento espacial. Las niñas también tienen testosterona, pero en una cantidad mucho menor que los niños.
Aparentemente, es la testosterona responsable de la "masculinización" del cerebro, la razón por la cual los niños tienen más habilidades que las niñas pequeñas, el aspecto motor y la percepción visual (visión profunda) que las niñas durante la infancia. Por ejemplo, esta habilidad para ponerse debajo de una mesa cuando camina a cuatro patas.
Se ha demostrado que, en el desarrollo del lenguaje, las hormonas femeninas son un factor facilitador. Es decir, el estrógeno tiene influencia en el desarrollo del cerebro, lo que facilita el desarrollo del lenguaje. Esta es la razón por la cual las niñas tienen más facilidades de comunicación que los niños y desarrollan el lenguaje más rápidamente.
La amígdala está más desarrollada en el niño pequeño, un área del cerebro, situada cerca del lóbulo temporal, donde se generan y controlan emociones fuertes. Los niños reaccionan con emociones e impulsos más fuertes y fuertes, como la agresión.
Algunos estudios informan que el área del cerebro responsable de controlar las emociones y el lenguaje, el núcleo caudal, tiende a ser más grande en las niñas pequeñas.
El cuerpo calloso, la estructura que se encuentra en la mitad del cerebro y permite la conexión entre los dos hemisferios, es funcional antes en la niña, y generalmente muestran mejores habilidades de lectura.
Las niñas tienen más capacidad para realizar ciertas tareas al mismo tiempo, mientras que para los niños es más complicado. Los estudios sugieren que esto puede deberse al hecho de que el cuerpo calloso es más grande en las niñas que en los niños. Cuanto mejores sean las conexiones de los callos del cuerpo, más hábiles serán en hacer las cosas simultáneamente.
El desarrollo del hemisferio izquierdo, más avanzado en la niña, le confiere mejores habilidades relacionadas con el lenguaje. En cuanto al niño, su hemisferio derecho tiene más conexiones nerviosas, lo que podría explicar por qué tienen una mejor percepción espacial.
La corteza de las niñas se agrava dramáticamente en algunas áreas clave involucradas en el control emocional y del lenguaje. Esto hace que las niñas hablen mejor y antes que los niños.
La corteza de los niños se vuelve más gruesa que la de las niñas en áreas dedicadas a la visualización tridimensional y las operaciones mentales, como las rotaciones virtuales de objetos complejos.
Las chicas hablan mejor que los chicos
Investigadores de la Universidad de Northwestern en los Estados Unidos y la Universidad de Haifa en Israel han auscultado a la luz de la imagen por resonancia magnética (MRI) y se encontró que en los varones, el lenguaje hablado y el lenguaje escrito no estimula las mismas regiones del cerebro.
Empiezan a hablar antes, adquieren vocabulario más rápido y hablan más espontáneamente. Las niñas están mejor equipadas que los niños para hablar, escribir o leer.
Las niñas muestran más actividad que los niños en algunos centros de idiomas, mientras que los niños activan áreas adicionales en función de la modalidad visual o auditiva en la que se les presenta la información. Por lo tanto, no importa si las palabras se leen o se escuchan, las niñas convierten la información en pensamiento abstracto, derrotado de su contexto de aprendizaje. Para los niños, dependiendo de si la información es hablada o leída, no la recordarán de la misma manera; está filtrado Los investigadores también encontraron que en las pruebas de Q.I, las niñas se desempeñaron mejor.
Los autores concluyen que los niños activan las áreas cerebrales relacionadas con la percepción sensorial. Dependiendo de si se ve o escucha la palabra, el niño usa su sistema visual o auditivo. Las niñas, por otro lado, en ambos casos utilizan las mismas regiones del cerebro, las relacionadas con el análisis del lenguaje, que leen o escuchan. Más específicamente, los resultados de las pruebas se correlacionaron, en las niñas, con la activación mayor o menor de estas áreas del lenguaje.
Según los autores, estas diferencias no necesariamente persistirían en los adultos. Principalmente reflejarían un cambio en la madurez cerebral entre niñas y niños de la misma edad, el último mostrando un desarrollo más lento.
Los chicos retienen lo esencial. Para que los niños retengan la información a la perfección, debe leerla y escribirla al mismo tiempo. Los niños reaccionan a las asociaciones. Ven un objeto o una palabra y les hace pensar en algo. Cualquier información adicional se experimenta como una distracción de la información principal.
Impacto social
La ciencia moderna tiende a mostrar que las diferencias entre niños y niñas se derivan esencialmente de la sociedad.
Las interacciones con el entorno determinarían la esencia de la construcción del cerebro.
La socialización de género se refiere al proceso mediante el cual los niños aprenden las expectativas, actitudes y comportamientos sociales típicamente asociados con niños y niñas.
Los estudios muestran que la mayoría de las diferencias psicológicas entre niñas y niños provienen de la educación y las actitudes sociales. Los adultos tienen una actitud diferente hacia ambos sexos. Por ejemplo, las niñas se hablan con más frecuencia, lo que mejora la adquisición de sus habilidades verbales. Mientras que con los niños, la fuerza física se valora y la agresión física es más tolerada. Las chicas también son agresivas, pero de lo contrario. Desde la edad de 4 años, practican una agresión más indirecta (y verbal), como hablar en la espalda o montar un grupo en contra de alguien.
En cuanto a otras habilidades sociales como el intercambio, la cooperación y la empatía, las diferencias serían menores. Un estudio realizado en la Universidad Laval llegó a esta conclusión al observar niños pequeños de 4 años. Aunque los educadores vieron a las niñas como más sociables que los niños, los investigadores no encontraron diferencias significativas en los comportamientos de los niños.
Niños
1. Son más impulsivos y preocupados.
2. Están menos ordenados.
3. Tienden a buscar la gratificación inmediata. Comen rápido, saltan de una actividad a otra.
4. Se concentran inmediatamente en resolver un problema, incluso en una situación muy emocional.
5. Prefieren participar en actividades que crean tensión (un deporte, una pelea y juegos) que les permite liberar energía.
6. Se centran en una tarea y reaccionan de forma más agresiva a las interrupciones.
7. Participan en juegos que requieren más espacio.
8. Necesitan estar afuera por más tiempo.
9. Tienen un mejor razonamiento aritmético.
10. Destacan en habilidades mecánicas y visoespaciales.
11. Tienen mayores dificultades para expresar sus sentimientos.
12. Pueden tener problemas con la disciplina y la agresión.
Niñas
1. Las actividades motoras de las niñas son más lentas, menos vigorosas.
2. Usan más de los cinco sentidos.
3. Tienen una mayor fluidez verbal, su lenguaje aparece y se desarrolla antes que el de los niños.
4. Tienen instalaciones para el cálculo aritmético.
5. Tienen mejores habilidades manuales: un mejor control de la muñeca y los dedos es una buena psicomotricidad (aprenden a abotonar y desabotonar delante de los niños).
6. Aprenden a vestirse solos antes y mejor que los niños.
7. Son más hábiles en todos los trabajos que requieren destreza y velocidad manual.
8. Destacan en la percepción rápida de detalles y en tareas que implican atención y memoria.
9. Tienen una mejor coordinación física y un desarrollo anterior.
10. Se calman más fácilmente de su enojo.
11. Son más expresivos en lenguaje verbal y gestual.
12. Son más disciplinados, obedientes y, en general, más callados.
Las diferencias que inicialmente existen entre el cerebro de una niña pequeña y el cerebro de un niño pequeño son mínimas. Parece que, en general, los niños pequeños realizan sus etapas de maduración más tarde que las niñas. Esto no significa que tengan menos éxito, sino solo que tengan una tasa de crecimiento diferente.
Seguimos aprendiendo con nuestro libro. En esta ocasion mostramos como podemos ampliar nuestro vocabulario con el uso de letras para aprender a leer y escribir.
Elegimos una imagen y vamos separando los sonidos, uno a uno. Por ejemplo, en el video tenemos "jabon" y a partir de ahi vamos sacando en primer lugar los sonidos para poder elegir las letras.
J
A
B
O
N
Cuando las tenemos todas en orden: J A B O N, ya podemos ayudarles a leer la palabra, primero por silabas, luego la palabra completa.
Para terminar podemos escribir la palabra de la imagen, podemos usar lapices, colores, marcadores,... incluso la pueden decorar a su gusto, si lo desean.
Cuando las tengamos todas podremos pasar a la siguiente actividad. Cuantas tienes ya escritas?
Exploring and experimenting are key in our first years of life. Our own nature pushes us to learn by seeing, touching, smelling, listening, tasting,... all our senses are needed in this process.
Everyday in my classroom I can see my students enjoying with the hands-on activities, the materials in the workstations,... They always approach the stations of learning and attracted by the materials begin to use them and admired make comments to others. These experiences are precious since they develop many skills as cognitive, communicative, social,... It´s sad when sometimes we hear just at this moment the voice of the teacher/parents/legal guardian to keep silent and to make a line, indicating "it is not worth touching, just seeing".
Many theories of learning tells us that the child's learning in our early years has to do with our thinking levels; it is necessary to keep in mind the object and not only to observe it but to interact with it if we want them to question, reflect, imagine, generate ideas,... The object, by itself in front of the person who learns about it, does not serve as mediator of learning, it is not through a merely contemplative act (visual) as knowledge is constructed, that is, the object is an instrument whose function is to trigger cognitive development. (see my post about Bloom´s Taxonomy)
The first impulse of children when they are in front of an object is to touch it and ask. These are opportunities to foster the intellectual curiosity that surely leads to cognitive development. Touching the object is synonymous with questioning about it. For this reason, the adult must be close to them to answer their questions, to ask them questions, to explain its characteristics. The role of the teachers (and educators/parents/legal guardians) is to solve the doubts of children, trying to offer real explanations that stimulate their curiosity and cognitive processes.
Learning from the use of objects (Vigotsky, 2000)
Parents/legal guardians/educators should invite children to manipulate the objects and ask him interesting questions that awake their interest and stimulate their expression (communicative skills), reflection and analysis (thinking levels).
In fact there are those researchers who affirm that intelligence is measured by the use of instruments to solve problems, based on the Latin origin of the word:
inteligere, composed of intus (between) and legere (choose);
so we can deduce that being smart is knowing how to choose the best option among those given to solve a problem
When children look at an object they immediately have the desire to understand it, and manipulating it is the best way to do it. The work in the classroom must include the contents within natural situations making connections with situations of real life and this implies the interaction of the children with real objects.
To prevent children from mistreating objects, we are only showing our dark side of the teaching. If it is a very delicate or dangerous object for the child, we must help him with care to touch him and explain the reasons for it.
Interact with the reality is the basis of learning, questioning reality and recreating it to understand it is the body, develop cognitive processes and generate knowledge is its maximum expression. Even adults need to touch objects, for example: to show us a shirt is not enough to tell us it is cotton, we immediately touch it. To ask toddlers/young children not to touch and only observe is to attempt against their nature and their right to learn.
As parents and educators at Roosevelt ES (Houston ISD) we are concerned about this part of the education, we have decided to work together and dedicate one day a week to work on this life-safety project. From the very first moment we mentioned to do that, they couldn't wait to come to our room and start with our Dual-Language Prek students.
Why Child Road Safety at schools?
The doors of the schools in the hours of entry and dismissal become a real chaos where personal interests are a priority to the rules of coexistence and civic behavior of road safety.
Paradoxically these behaviors of individual overprotection that we intend for our children, wanting to take them to the same door of the center, translates into risk behavior for children, families, drivers and pedestrians, in addition to a negative model for the little ones.
For all this, we wanted to pick up a decalogue with the positive guidelines that we should establish in the children's voices.
A decalogue focused on nursery schools that due to the special characteristics of the users (SRI, strollers, motor skills, etc.) are more exposed to risks and is the basis of the education, training and awareness that is intended.
The road safety of school environments is everyone's responsibility, let's begin to apply common sense and we will achieve adequate and safe environments, sowing awareness in our children to collect self-protection and citizenship in their development.According to Unicef data, thousand and thousand children from one year to 14 years of age are killed in traffic accidents in rich countries every year. The survey concludes that this is because children do not use security systems or do it incorrectly, or at home they are not well trained.
The best way to prevent accidents is education. With good information and awareness, in addition to the use of child safety system, the number of children killed in traffic accidents could be reduced by 75%. Parents should assume that they are solely responsible for the safety of their children when traveling by car, that's why their active participation is very important.
The consequences for the child of not traveling safe baby in car seat:
A strong impact can cause serious injuries to babies and children. In 80% of cases, the most affected areas are the head and neck. While for an adult the head represents an eighth of the total weight, for a child it represents a quarter, since 25% of the weight of the children is in the head. By not having well developed neck muscles, it could not withstand a violent shock, which can have serious consequences, such as injuries to the vertebrae and spinal cord.
Traffic accidents are the most frequent cause of multiple injuries in children:
- A child can suffer a traumatic brain or spinal injury, visceral injuries, or fractures of extremities.
- When a child is in a vehicle that collides with a pole or a tree, or collides with another car, if it has an adequate restraint system, it may have thoracic and abdominal injuries. If you do not have an adequate restraint system, you can die immediately or suffer a traumatic brain injury.
- When a child goes by motorcycle or bike. Children, when traveling with an adult on a motorcycle or bicycle, even if they go in a specific seat for them, can suffer injuries in the upper and lower extremities, including amputations of hands and feet.
The example of parents in terms of road safety
Children learn by imitating behavior, so it is imperative that parents are the first to set an example. If the children see that their parents are wearing the seat belt, they will also do the same and will not discuss the use of the safety systems as soon as they enter the car. There are cases in which children themselves warn their parents when they break this traffic rule. For this reason, it is very important that the elderly have the most correct behavior possible. The most convenient thing is to teach children the use of the indicated security systems, whatever the route. In this way, children will get used to using it as a rule every time they get into the car. Remember that the safety of children in the car depends on the adult.
The awareness of drivers with children
The seats or safety seats for babies and children are the most effective measure to prevent traffic accidents. Therefore, to protect the lives of babies and children it is essential to use safety seats in the car. It is necessary to emphasize the importance of protecting children. That the drivers of the children are more aware of, for example, speed. It is physically proven that at a speed of 60 km / h, no arm is capable of retaining a child weighing 18 kilos. In the event of a frontal collision, its weight would reach more than one ton.
Some recommendations
Part of this post has been adapted and translated (free and non-commercial purpose) of the article Seguirdad Vial Infantil.
Welcome to this online part of the community of this amazing club!
We, Ms Kaplan and Mr Usero, are going to share with you many materials, resources, videos,... that will help you learn the language you want: English or Spanish. During our face-to-face sessions we will be focused on the oral skills with the help of our awesome students.
Ms Kaplan y Mr Usero compartiremos con ustedes una gran cantidad de materiales, recursos, videos,... que le ayudarán en el aprendizaje de la lengua que usted quiera: inglés o español. En las clases presenciales nos centraremos más en las destrezas orales, con la ayuda de nuestros magníficos estudiantes.
It´s going to be a good opportunity to the school community to build something important together, where everyone can add something from their experience to others with a same goal: be multilingual, be multicultural.
Esta va a ser una buena oportunidad para la comunidad escolar para construir algo importante juntos, donde cada uno puede aportar algo de su propia experiencia a otros con un mismo objetivo: ser multilingüe, ser multicultural.
Why multicultural? As an expert in bilingual education we can confirm that learn a language cannot be possible without the cultural components, that´s why we add cultural topics to our lessons too.
¿Por qué multicultural? Como experto en educación bilingue podemos decir que para aprender una lengua necesitamos de sus componentes culturales, es la razón por la que trataremos, también, temas de la cultura en nuestras clases.
I´d like to share with you all my blog maestrousero.blogspot.com where you will find lots of posts about bilingualism and other articles and researches that may be interesting for you.
Me gustaría compartir con usted mi blog maestrousero.blogspot.com donde encontrará una gran cantidad de publicaciones sobre bilingüismo y otros articulos e investigaciones que podrán ser de su interés.
We appreciate your participation and collaboration in this innovative and enriching project.
Agradecemos su participación y colaboración en este proyecto innovador y enriquecedor.
Early Childhood Education is the foundation of everything, including the love of reading.
Our children love to be read and told stories, but we can do many more for them, such as those proposed here:
To start talking about READING, and they way we can have fun by doing so, we can start with an important general idea: The need of reading ALSO after school.
Why isn't the family going to help with reading?The family environment is an important factor in helping children with learning, in general. Families can contribute to provide an environment that encourages positive developments in the reading of the youngest students:
Talk with your children. Gradually they will increase their vocabulary, stimulate them to ask questions about everything that interests them, surround and answer them. The more words they hear the more words they will know and the more words they can use in their daily conversation.
Listen to them and teach them how to listen to others. The more you talk and appreciate what you say, the better you can develop appropriate language patterns.
Read them. Every time you read, you are developing your love and interests for books and for reading; by reading you are helping them acquire a more elaborate language, which is ideal for their intellectual development.
HERE YOU HAVE SOME IDEAS THAT CAN HELP YOU TO GET IT
Turn off the TV. Make it normal to have it turned off. Turn it on only to see a specific program. Television, in addition to distracting attention, does not encourage reading.
With younger children, look at children's picture books and tell stories. Stay alert to what you are interested in each time, to provide books that speak of it.
When you start reading, help you choose books of interest. You can ask your teachers for information, in libraries or bookstores.
After reading a book, talk about it together. Let him realize that for you the book is an important thing, as it will be for her or him.
Often visit the library with your son or daughter. Explain how and where you can get the books, and where you should leave them. Give him time to look at them and read them, even if he does not know the letters yet.
Have your daughter or child see you enjoying a book, magazine or newspaper. Tell them what you think about reading and invite them to participate.
Read with him or her for at least 15 minutes a day. EVERYDAY. And value these moments as true acts of communication and fun; never as an obnoxious obligation.
Take advantage of the moment when your sons and daughters go to read stories and stories with them. Get accustomed to reading a few minutes every night.
CONCRETE READING ACTIVITIES THAT WE CAN DO AT HOME
Read to your son or daughter. Show them the various forms of literature through the writings: stories, poetry, comics, comics, journalistic narration, ... Show them also different texts that we can see at home customarily: bills, letters, recipes, cinema, the notes we send from school, and all the written texts you have.
The stories are the first contact of the boy and the girl with the books. When you tell or read a story you create a fantasy world that allows you to stimulate your child's imagination. Apart from having fun, they can be used to introduce new vocabulary, to use new expressions of the language, to learn to listen, to attend, to read.
The stories that come out on TV replace those you can tell them. The exchange is different. The words read are not directly associated with any image, which causes a freer development of the imagination.
Look for bookstores, books, stories, magazines of interest for your child, according to their age and interests. Learn to choose what you like, while you guide.
Read a story but skip a word from time to time. Ask him to say a word that fits the meaning of the phrase.
Write words on tokens and ask them to associate them with drawings or objects at home. Write several letters in chips and ask your child to make words.
Take responsibility for a family calendar where you have to register and keep up with family events: parties, anniversaries, birthdays, trips, excursions ...
If there is a computer give your son or daughter the opportunity to use it. Maybe start by putting your names or by copying phrases from your favorite book.
Have her look for photos she likes in old magazines. Ask him to cut them and put titles to each one. Make them cut out words from newspaper headlines or commercials. Have them stick on a notebook and draw pictures in relation to those words.
Leave some time to sing songs or nanas with your son or daughter. Ask him to repeat his favorite children's songs or those we sing in class.
Cut out comic strips from the newspaper or magazines and ask your child to put the bullets in the correct order.
Ask her what words she would like to learn. Write them down in sheets and have your child place them alphabetically or by topic in a specially prepared box.
While preparing the meal, ask him to help you by reading parts of the recipe or by making a special menu.
Before the family embarks on a trip, have your child help with the preparations by writing a list of things to take, reading the road map ...
Read a story and ask him to invent a new title.
Read part of a story but skip the end. Ask him to come up with a new ending.
Constantly ask your son or daughter about the "why" of things, not only about the stories you read, but also about everyday incidents in the home or neighborhood.
Ask your son or daughter about your favorite part of the book or story you just read. Tell her.
Use the newspaper as a reading textbook. Ask your child to locate certain articles in different sections of the newspaper.
When you go shopping at the supermarket, have your son or daughter help you make the shopping list, and then check that you are buying everything.
When you receive letters or emails from friends or relatives, let your children read the parts that interest them, and also take care of answering some words.
When you go on the street with your son or daughter, read together the posters of the stores, the names of the streets, the commercials.
And of course everything that happens to you.
If your child picks up a story and sits down to look at it and goes through the pages telling it to their shape, they are already taking the first step toward reading. I love it when I see that they do it in the corner of the library.
Para la propuesta de unidad estas son algunas de las actividades que he disenado para el repaso del vocabulario de la unidad "Sano como una pera"
Tambien puedes acceder a la unidad a traves de la pagina de Procomun.
Una vez se ha presentado el vocabulario con flashcards y una presentacion, es tiempo de empezar a trabajar con lo aprendido. Es importante mencionar las oportunidades de comunicacion, por lo que despues de cada actividad se les ofrecera la oportunidad de poder decir una oracion con las palabras trabajadas a sus companeros/as de clase.
Las actividades propuestas son las siguientes:
- Emparejar las imagenes con las palabras.
Cuando se consigue crear una pareja, seria recomendable realizar la accion y decirla.
- Crucigramas y Sopa de letras.
Son actividades basicas para trabajar con las letras y la escritura.
(realizado con http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/)
- Relacionar por grupos.
En esta actividad analizamos, identificamos y agrupamos acciones.
Estas son algunas de las actividades que se han planteado para esta unidad con el objetivo de aprender el vocabulario y las expresiones necesarias para llevar a cabo la tarea final.
We know that motivation is a great part of our learning process. This video sums up how motivation affects our efforts and results when learning.
In the following document you can read about motivation and other aspects, authors and theories that contribute in Foreing/Second Language Acquisition/Learning.
First of all, we would like to start by defining the concept of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning - coined in Europe in the early nineties (Coyle et al (2010)), and those concepts and key aspects around this approach. Many of which will need to be considered when designing activities for the CLIL classroom that will not help our students develop and improve their communicative and foreign language skills, but their learning process.
Why CLIL?
The 21st Century educational landscape has undergone important innovations in the last decades, one of them is the introduction of technologies in the classroom and the other notable change is related to the teaching of languages being part of a connected and globalized world, it should be one objective that everyone in the world can talk other languages in addition to the mother tongue. This method started in Europe, due to the great language and cultural diversity of the country members of the European Union.
These two aspects, the introduction of ICT and the learning of languages are well reflected in the White Paper on Education and Training: Teaching and Learning - Towards the Learning Society published in 1995 by the Commission of the European Community and in later publications1 where Action Plans to promote language learning and the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) are established. Both points are among the priorities for the member states in the document published in 2012 Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes where the priorities are "To increase the supply of transversal skills that increase employability, such as Entrepreneurship, digital skills and languages "and" Intensify the use of ICT-assisted learning and access to high quality OER "(p.17).
I would like to highlight this excerpt from the “White Paper on Education and Training”:
“Building skills for the 21st century
Transversal and basic skills
Efforts need to be concentrated on developing transversal skills… Modern, knowledge-based economies require people with higher and more relevant skills. CEDEFOP forecasts predict that the proportion of jobs in the EU requiring tertiary level qualifications will increase from 29% in 2010 to 34% in 2020, while the proportion of low skilled jobs will fall in the same period from 23% to 18%. Transversal skills such as the ability to think critically, take initiative, problem solve and work collaboratively will prepare individuals for today's varied and unpredictable career paths. …particularly entrepreneurial skills…”
This is not happening only in Europe, but worldwide. And I would like to add something more than preparing future workers or employees as it is said, since from my point of view the socio-emotional aspects of students are empty in this document, and nowadays many researchers have proved the importance of those aspects. Learning is a beautiful part of our lives, since it opens our eyes to new landscapes and windows that go beyond our native communities. Learning lets us go beyond, above all, foreign language acquisition and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) since the current conditions of living are globalized and it is our duty to prepare good citizens equipped with a lot of skills and tools to live in this globalized world. Opportunities can be given in any point of the world and we should be ready to get them, regardless the nationality or other bureaucratic issues. I am talking from my own experience: a Spanish teacher who has educational experience in many countries besides of my home country, Spain. Nowadays I’m teaching in Houston, Texas (USA).
Multilingual programs
In this context, a great number of bilingual programs have been implemented over the last decade, many of which use the AICLE approach in Spanish: Integración de Contenidos y Lengua Extranjera; EMILE in French: Enseignement De Matières Par Integration D'une Langue Étrangère or CLIL in English: Content Language Integrated Learning. This method can be used with any language in the world.
D. Coyle et al. (2010) distinguish two main reasons for the interest in CLIL within a country or region. One of them is a proactive reason, as a way to promote the learning of a language for political, economic and social reasons. This is the case of the French immersion programs of Canada, as a way of supporting bilingualism, or the CLIL programs that promotes the policy of the European Union to strengthen relations and mobility between the countries of the same. The European Union has essentially become a territory without borders, where all citizens have the right to live, study or work where they wish; However, not knowing languages still represents an invisible barrier to free movement that needs to be eliminated and bilingual programs are one of the most effective measures.
From a pedagogical point of view there are many reasons why bilingual and CLIL programs are recommended:
First, they offer advantages for students' cognitive development (Bialystock, 2009).
They bring significant gains in the target language (L2) as evidenced by numerous studies on language immersion in Canada and CLIL in Europe.
They favor the collaboration of teachers with each other and with the administration of the center since much of the community will be involved in learning the language and content.
He observes how in the following video Hugo Baetens, referring in bilingualism and CLIL of the Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB) alludes to the expressed in the previous point.
This is one of my first activities to plan a CLIL unit with sports:
“Early language and communication skills are crucial for children’s success in school and beyond”
“Children who develop strong language and communication skills are more likely to arrive at school ready to learn and are more likely to have higher levels of achievement”
Oral communication is an essential aspect for the integral development of the child. The development of thought, memory, imagination, the ability to learn, to know the environment around him, to learn to transform it as well as many other cognoscitive skills.
The progressive characteristics of the development of verbal language in the different levels of age, are ascribed to the stages of integral development of the child, being closely associated with the following aspects:
• The maturation process of the nervous system, both central (CNS) and peripheral, correlating its progressive changes with motor development in general and with the particular vocal apparatus.
• To the cognitive development that includes from the perceptual discrimination of spoken language to the function of the processes of symbolization and thought.
• And, to socio-emotional development, which is the result of the influence of the socio-cultural environment, child interactions and reciprocal influences
And why are they so important? Because by developing language and communication skills children can develop different actions that improve their self-image and esteem, since they can understand others and can explain themselves, what make them feel motivated to communicate with others. Communication involves using words, body language, gestures, or facial expressions. Toddlers who develop conversation skills are more likely to succeed academically. Besides, they develop problem-solving skills that help them have higher stages of achievement.
The interactions that children have with adults have an effect on how children broaden and analyze. Those interactions should start with the family, since parents and siblings talk with the child, and later, at school, with their teachers and classmates. As a result, at school Early Childhood teachers offer them multiple opportunities with interactions which support kid's improvement. It is important to underline the fact of language instruction in early stages of education: simple sentences, adapted to children’s level of comprehension and checking questions. These characteristics of adult-child communication will help children foster their increase and improvement in language interaction and conversation.
In this process, adults should use nouns, adjectives, and actions that form part of the child's daily life. This undoubtedly contributes directly and effectively to the development of language, intelligence and other areas with which this learning will be carried out.
Stages of Language Development
According to the previous references and taking into account the contributions of different researchers, here we divided the development of the language in two main stages:
• Prelinguistic Stage
• Linguistic Stage
Each of these stages is marking the emergence of new properties and phonemic, syntactic and semantic qualities as the child grows, as we will describe below.
• Prelinguistic Stage (preverbal stage - from 0 to 12 months of age)
It is characterized by the expressions with mouth movements and sounds which in itself has hardly any communicative value, most of the sounds emitted are onomatopoeic. During this stage, which covers the first year of life, the communication that establishes the child his environment (family), especially and particularly with his mother, is emotional and gestural. As part of a proper language stimulation, the word should always accompany the gesture and activities of the mother with her baby.
Lately, neuroscience and neurolinguistics have proved the importance of this preverbal stage, that has a relevant and transcendental value in the configuration of the bases of Linguistic development, since both vocal expressions (sounds or group of sounds of simple signification) and verbal expressions (sounds, group of sounds, isolated words, etc.) influence in a decisive way in the later development of the linguistic communication of the child.
This stage comprises, in turn, substeps or stages with particular characteristics that are in agreement with the chronological sequence of the integral development of the child, which we describe:
a) From birth to month and/or two months
During this period the only expression that is heard of the baby is crying, which is the first sound manifestation purely mechanical or reflective and, as such, undifferentiated in tone, whatever the reason of its state.
With crying, the baby puts into operation the speech apparatus, allowing him also oxygenation of the blood and the establishment of normal breathing. After this period, usually at the beginning of the second month, crying is no longer a phenomenon or a mechanical and undifferentiated manifestation, but the tone of the sound changes with the emotional content of pain, hunger or other discomfort; that is, the variation of the tonality is related to the state of well-being or discomfort of the baby. With the crying the baby manages to communicate his needs to the world around him and, as he realizes that thanks to crying his needs are satisfied, he will use it voluntarily, no longer being then a reflex or undifferentiated sound. That way the baby is communicating with its immediate surroundings, especially with master, understanding better and better what it communicates to him, although he is incapable of expressing it.
b) From 3 to 4 months
At the beginning of the third month the baby produces guttural sounds and vowels that last 15 to 20 seconds. It responds to Human sounds through smiling, cooing or murmuring.
At this age the baby already distinguishes between the sounds: / pa /, / ma /, / ba /, / ga /. Their vocalizations can already show joy or other feelings. The baby knows how to distinguish, affectionate intonations, reacting with joy, surprise or fear to the tone of voice, especially of their parents. At three months appears the babbling, which consists of the emission of sounds through redoubled syllables like "ma ... ma" , "Ta ... ta" and others.
In this way the child is progressing and increasing his vocalizations, which are already close to the word and, as such, are loaded with communicative intention with the mother. These varied vocal sounds and phonations close to the word that the child directs to the mother, must be attended to, understood, interpreted and answered by it in a repetitive way, stimulating and thus promoting its linguistic development.
c) From 5 to 6 months
The “babbling” (first attempt of communication) extends until the eighth or ninth month, progressing in the fifth and sixth month towards what is called "imitation of sounds". This begins in the form of self-limitations of the sounds produced by the child (circular reaction). Later it begins to repeat sounds that the adult or another child produces.
In this age there are clearly discernible intonation structures in certain contexts in which it emphasizes and excites.
The earliest vowel utterances are phonetic realizations that appear in the following order:
• / a / and variants close to the phoneme / e /, although before they usually emit sounds similar to / oe /
• Then the / or / and finally appears / i /, / u /.
The sounds of the consonants appear later in the following order:
• Labials: p (pa
-b) m (ma-ma) b (ba-ba)
• Dentales: d (da-da) t (ta-ta)
• Velopalatales: g (ga-ga) j (ja-ja)
In this way the child usually emits the first vowel and consonant elements, being an important progress with respect to the cries and different laryngeal sounds of the first months of life. As the child progresses, he will gradually replace gesture communication with verbal language.
Here it is important to emphasize the utmost importance of maternal language directed to the child during the middle of the first year of life, in which not only it is convenient to increase vocalizations, gestures, smiles and other expressions within the home, but also verbal communication should be something common among adults and the child.
d) From 7 to 10 months
Bruner (1979) points out that between 7 and 10 months the child progressively shifts from the "modality of demand" to the modality of exchange and reciprocity in child-child interactions. The giving and receiving of objects pronouncing the name of each one, while looking at the mother and son face and looking at the object together, manages to multiply and enrich the linguistic and communicative capacity of the child, this "conversation" forming a training exercise for speech , As well as for his nascent socialization. At this age the child performs multiple spontaneous vocalizations, both vocalic and consonantal, and even syllables and diphthongs. These vocalizations next to the word, are those that will soon lead the child to utter his first words. Here the alternating vocalizations between mother and child will allow early access to language.
e) From 11 to 12 months
The 11-month-old baby has more than five words in his linguistic repertoire. In this age the child uses the same words as the adult, but does not attribute the same meaning to them. However, as it progresses in this process, the meanings that are attributed to the words are approaching the meanings attributed by the adult.
In this way the child is forced to simplify adult language, without this meaning that he does not understand, but his expressive capacity is still very limited. However, according to some specialists, at 11 or 12 months the child usually articulates his first words "fingers" direct syllables: "mom", "dad", "poop", "tata", starting the next sentence or denominated linguistic or verbal, progressively sign language and "overcoming" the simplification of adult language as it increases his/her vocabulary.
With regard to the appearance of the "first word", it should be clarified that this depends on the moment the parents identify him as such, since the units of meaning that the child uses correspond to segments of speech. The child of this age (a year) usually occupies the center of attention of the family, whose actions, thanks and occurrences are usually celebrated and applauded, reinforcing the behavior, which will be repeated over and over again. This is good because it helps the child feel and live their own identity. In addition, the mimic and verbal gesture exchange of his communications with the adult, accompanied by the "giving and taking" behavior, allows the greater development of language.
• Linguistic Stage
a) From 12 to 18 months
Within his lexical repertoire he counts with 5 to 15 or 20 words, and each time he will demonstrate greater increase in his vocabulary by means of the inflections of his voice when he wants to identify something. Einsenson maintains that in this stage the true speech arises and it indicates that the child uses words to produce events or attract the attention of others. In some fairly advanced children, it is usually observed the use of some phrases with two words, mainly objects or actions, without ruling out in certain cases, also, the use of adjectives (qualifiers). However, before being able to make word-finger combinations, he will often continue to use a single word to refer to many objects. This semantic extension in childhood vocalizations will continue to accompany him for a long time. But as you increase your vocabulary and evolve your speech, you will progressively reduce this semantic extension.
From 16 or 17 months to two years of age, you will increasingly make the use of spontaneous combinations of several words and phrases, increasing the flow of words in its expression.
At 17 months the child increasingly extends his linguistic repertoire and begins to make combinations of two words. At this age, the identification and naming of objects, figures and different parts of one's body are highly recommended exercises for the development of the child's verbal language.
b) From 18 to 24 months
During this period, most children have a vocabulary greater than 50 words, going on to combine 2 to 3 words in a sentence, beginning with "syntactic" speech, that is, the child begins to articulate words in sentences and simple sentences. In their verbal expressions they use nouns (Names), verbs (actions) and qualifiers (adjectives and adverbs). Among these grammatical classes usually establish the following relationships:
• Between two names/nouns: "Shoe dad" (possessor and object possessed) "soup chair" (fortuitous relationship)
• Between name and verb: "Open door" (verb and object) "Papa eats" (subject and verb)
• Between qualifiers and adjectives: "Beautiful doll" (qualifier plus name) "More game" (qualifier plus verb) "More beautiful" (qualifier plus qualifier)
By the age of two, the child has a vocabulary of approximately 300 words. In their expressions, the use of the personal pronouns "I" and "You" and the possessive "My" and "Mine" are also observed. His phrases express intention and action: "he does what he says and says what he does".
At this age the symbolic function in the child arises and the predominance of the intelligence-motorist gives rise to the representational intelligence. With the symbolic function the child has the ability to mentally represent things and evoke them without the need for them to be present. With the symbolic capacity, gestures and verbal expressions of the child begin to refer more and more frequently to more abstract realities, becoming more dominant In language. (Significant) symbols come to play a unique role in the development of the child afterwards, since these are the ones that will allow us to construct the codes on which the bases of the higher functions conform.
Through these codes is that we access emotions, abstract realities, language and convert the implicit explicit. This symbolic ability allows the child to explore and increase their verbal language, expressing interest in hearing stories about themselves or their family, in Which vacapt the sense of the words and sentences of the stories that the parents give.
Here you can find more information about the importance of language development at the age of two.
c) From 2 to 3 years old
There is a rapid increase in vocabulary, an increase that is much greater than what will occur later, reaching an average of 850 words and at three and a half years more than 1200 words (Smith, 1980).
The child in his verbal expressions already employs auxiliary verbs "to have" and "to be" and gives a certain prevalence to the determined article. In the course of this age begins to use the propositions and the child already has a understandable language use, even for people outside the family, manifesting a mastery of the majority of the grammar of their mother tongue (syntax), so that the specialists pronounce him as the period of "syntactic competence".
D) From 4 to 5 years old
At the age of four, the child virtually dominates the grammar, but begins expressing and pointing out. The child begins to use the pronouns in the following order: I, You, He, She, We-you, You; With a vocabulary of 1,500 words and at five years, 2,300 words approximately.
Among the 4 or 5, the child is usually already trained to answer questions related to the social behavior learned, since their language already extends beyond the immediate environment. This is due to the symbolic capacity of the child and, as such, can mentally evoke and represent things, actions and situations, transcending the reality and the present. This ability and the need to communicate, make possible a greater and rapid development of children's language, Also facilitating the development of intelligence.
If you are interested in "More Than Baby Talk" with its 10 ways to promote language development, click on here.
This is a brief summary of the process of verbal language development that occurs in average children, such as evolutionary psychology, psycholinguistics and others describe it. In this process many factors intervene, all closely linked to the development of the child. It should be noted that the development of verbal expression is usually after the understanding of language, that is, the development of the capacity for comprehension is anticipated to that of the verbal expression.
