Language Development in Early School Years PDF

Language and its Importance in Schools To begin thinking about language and its use in school, read and reflect on the following question: What school subjects do not require language? Please make sure you have answered the question before you continue reading. You may be tempted to answer “math.”...

Language and its Importance in Schools To begin thinking about language and its use in school, read and reflect on the following question: What school subjects do not require language? Please make sure you have answered the question before you continue reading. You may be tempted to answer “math.” Surely math doesn’t require language. But what about all the quantity concepts, such as “more/less,” “some,” “none,” “few/many,” that are essential to early mathematical skills? What about the language involved in solving math problems? You remember: “The train left the station at such and such a time.” “Gym” may seem like a better guess for a subject that doesn’t require language. But what if a teacher tells “Jordon” to “put on a red pinny, get a dodgeball, and go to the centre of the room” and Jordon just stands still frustrated and confused because he can’t understand three-part directions? Once again, language plays a key role. In fact, “What school subjects do not require language?” is a trick question. All subjects require language! Language is an integral part of learning, both in and out of school. Children use language to recall, describe, and interpret their learning experiences. In doing so, they develop additional language skills and new uses for those that they already have. During the preschool years, an important part of a child’s development is building a strong language base. Then, in the school years, children use that language base to gain more knowledge and additional skills. The shift from learning language as a preschooler to using language in school can be summarized by the following statement: Initially, children learn to use language. Then, they use language to learn. The Big Picture Please see the reading titled Language Development from Birth – Early School Age (that was adapted by J. Marshall from Kaderavek (2011). We initially reviewed this graphic in Module 7: Communication Development in Preschool (36–60 months). In our current module—Language Development in Early School Years— we’ll explore language development in the early grades. In Pragmatics, we’ll look at the remarkable achievements in conversation skills and also review true narratives and the use of story grammar. In Semantics, we’ll learn more how words fit together and explore nonliteral (figurative) language. Finally, in Syntax and Morphology, we’ll review derivational morphemes (prefixes and sudixes) and other later developing forms, such as reflexive pronouns and irregular past tense verbs and more complex sentence structures including passives. To start thinking about school-aged semantic development, let’s do a short exercise. You will be given a key word. Close your eyes and think of that key word. Then open your eyes, and for two to three minutes, write down quickly everything you can think of about that word. On your mark, get set, your key word is “Santa Claus,” go! (Continue reading after you’ve completed the above activity.) Let’s look at the words and phrases you came up with. You may have ideas such as “gives presents,” “red and white suit,” “large,” “goes down chimneys,” “Christmas,” “famous person,”“St. Nicholas,” “rosy cheeks,” “North Pole,” “elves,” “reindeer,”and “sleigh.” The more cynical of us may have written that he can be found at every shopping mall! You likely have many words and ideas listed. How were you able to retrieve them so quickly? It is because you have them organized, or categorized, in your head. In fact, you’ll likely be able to sort your words under various headings. For example: Label: Santa Claus Attribute: large, rosy cheeks Associations: elves, reindeer, sleigh Location: North Pole, malls Function: goes down chimneys, gives presents Category: Christmas figure Synonym: St. Nicholas The ability to classify and organize words, which starts in preschool years, develops in the early school years, and is an important skill for learning and accessing words. Classification helps us decide “where to store” new words in our brains and also helps us to retrieve them ediciently (Fahey et al., 2019). We will further discuss word classification in subsequent pages. 2.1. Receptive/Expressive Vocabulary By age 6, a child typically has a receptive vocabulary of approximately 20,000–24,000 words and an expressive vocabulary of 2,600–2,700 words (Reed, 2018). A school-aged child is also learning new ways to use words and refine word meanings. As vocabulary language skills develop, they learn to use more diderentiated vocabulary. For example, rather than using the word “small,” a school-aged child is able to choose a more specific word with similar meanings, such as tiny, little, petite, midget, or miniature. As children in early elementary grades progress, they also learn to diderentiate fine meanings between words (e.g., love vs. adection vs. fondness vs. adoration). Basic concept skills also improve; they understand and use more complex concepts, such as left and right, and temporal (time) concepts, such as before/after, and first, second, and third. You may recall that temporal concepts in particular were challenging at the preschool age. Children in the early school years are now comfortable with decontextualized language that, as you have learned, requires discussing events and concepts beyond “here and now.” Gradually, children understand and use abstract meanings that are independent of particular contexts or individual interpretations and these are reflected in their word definitions. This is important for learning as much of the language used in the classroom is decontextualized (Owens, 2020). 2.2. Word Relationships In the early school years, children learn word relationships are contrasted, based on meaning, pronunciation, and spelling. Common relationships, according to Pence Turnbull and Justice (2017) are below: Synonyms: Same meanings, diderent pronunciations and spellings couch and sofa Antonyms: Opposite meanings, diderent pronunciations and spellings hot and cold, big and little Homophones: Diderent meanings, same pronunciations, diderent spellings flower and flour Heteronyms: Diderent meanings, diderent pronunciations, same spellings suspect (noun) versus suspect (verb); tear (when crying) versus tear (rip paper); close (the door) versus close (not far) Homonyms: Diderent meanings, same pronunciations and spellings (often referred to as multiple meaning words). saw (for cutting) and saw (past tense of see); bat (night flying animal) and bat (baseball bat) Homonyms and homophones often lead to an expanded understanding and use of humour, since the mechanism of many riddles and jokes is a play on words, such as the following: Why did the clock to the principal’s odice? For tocking too much. How do you stop any elephant from charging? Take away his credit card. How do you catch a squirrel? Climb up a tree and act like a nut. What happened with the teacher tied all the kids’ shoelaces together? They had a class trip. 2.3. Word Definitions A significant change in vocabulary growth is seen in defining words. Preschoolers typically define words narrowly, in terms of their own experiences (Owens, 2020). Their definitions tend to be context bound. School-aged children use increasingly more details in descriptions. They also use more socially shared meanings; for example, a preschooler may know the word block as a small, square object that they play with. A school-aged child, however, comes to appreciate multiple word meanings, such as “walk around the block” and “don't block the entrance.” 2.4. Classification and Categorization Children in the early elementary grades learn to classify and categorize words via their attributes, as was demonstrated with words linked to Santa Claus during our opening activity. Classifying and categorizing words facilitates learning and retrieval of words and also strengthens description skills. According to Dewitt (n.d.), attributes assist language acquisition by creating a map in the brain around the new vocabulary word. By knowing the characteristics of an object, the student gains a broader understanding of what that object is. This “map” can also assist in word retrieval, which is the ability to think of the name of an object when needed, by creating more pathways to where the name of the object is stored in the brain. Dewitt (n.d.) provides the following example of describing a red and black ball cap through its attributes. “A baseball cap.” What is it called? “You wear it on your head. It keeps the sun out of your Label: What do you do eyes.” with it? Function: “At a baseball park.” “At a “Where do you find Location: store.” one/buy one?” “It is a type of clothing.” “What group does Category: it belong to?” “It is made of fabric.” Composition: “What is it made “It has a brim and a strap (to of?” adjust the size.)” Parts: “What parts does “It is smaller than a cowboy Size: it have?” hat.” Shape: “What size is it?” “It is rounded on top with a flat Colour: brim.” “What shape is it?” “The part that goes on your “What color is it?” head is red and the brim is black.” Naming the attributes of objects also gives opportunities to expand vocabulary to other nouns, verbs, and adjectives. For example, when learning the word “Saturn,” one might describe a giant (size), gaseous (composition), planet (category) with rings (parts) that orbits the sun (function). In addition to supporting vocabulary acquisition, retention and recall, description skills also encourage students to expand their writing. As Dewitt (n.d.) remarks, “the large grey mountain goat that loved to hop onto high places” is much more interesting to read than “The goat.” Finally, through learning to classify and categorize vocabulary, children also build both divergent and convergent skills.  Divergent skills involve producing a greater variety of words, word associations, and phrases from a given topic. (That is what you practiced with the Santa Claus example). Convergent skills require the ability to select a unique semantic unit (word) given a specific linguistic restriction. For example, “the opposite of up is ______” has limited correct possibilities. 2.5. Figurative Language A school-aged child is also beginning to understand and use figurative language, also known as nonliteral language. Nonliteral language has meaning that exceeds the literal words of the sentence (Fahey et al., 2019). The ability to use figurative language develops well into adolescence. There are many types of figurative language: Metaphors involve implied comparisons, and they use a likeness to stand for a word, a reference, or an idea, such as “Her eyes were ice,” “He has a heart of stone,” or “It’s a refrigerator in here.” Similes are a form of comparison that use the words “like” or “as” to establish that comparison, such as “It’s as light as air” and “The car was as black as night.” Idioms present a figurative, nonliteral meanings that are widely understood and accepted within a particular language or culture. Idioms often convey a message or idea through metaphorical or symbolic language, such as, “kick the bucket,” “break a leg,” “hit the roof,” or “raining cats and dogs.” According to Fahey et al. (2019), idioms are the most common form of figurative language used in conversation as well as within classroom contexts. Proverbs are sayings that express broad truths. They express conventional values, beliefs, or wisdom of a society (Pence Turnbull & Justice, 2017). Children are usually unable to interpret proverbs until adolescence because they are the most abstract category of figurative language. Examples include “The early bird catches the worm” and “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” It is important for students to understand figurative language as teachers commonly use a lot of figurative language in a classroom setting. Examples include: You’re as loud as elephants. Put your heads together. Ants in your pants.  Keep your nose to the grindstone. Hit the nail on the head. In this next section, we will explore morphological development and syntax (sentence structure) development in the early school years. 3.1. Morphological Development Morphological Development Grammatical Morphemes As we have learned, most grammatical (inflectional) morphemes, such as regular plurals, possession, and past tense, are mastered prior to school age (Otto, 2018). During the early school years, the remaining grammatical morphemes—mostly irregular forms—continue to develop. These include irregular plurals (e.g., ox/oxen, mouse/mice). In kindergarten, more irregular verbs are mastered (e.g., went, gone, caught). According to Otto (2018), kindergartners will occasionally still overgeneralize (e.g., gived, singed.). Irregular verb forms (e.g., drink/drank; sing/sang) continue to develop until age 9 (see p. 349 in your Owens (2020) reading for Table 10.8 School-Age Development of Irregular Verbs). Derivational Morphemes In kindergarten, children continue to develop their understanding and use of comparatives and superlatives (e.g., softer/softest). At about age 5, children appear to be aware that there are two ways of making superlatives comparatives. One way is adding -er and -est to the root word; another is to use more and most in front of the root word. In working out their hypotheses regarding how to construct comparatives, we may hear both forms used as in “even more dirtier” (Otto, 2018). According to Reed (2018), even by age 7, children have not completely mastered their use of comparatives and superlatives. As mentioned in the preschool language module, some authors class comparatives/superlatives as derivational morphemes, while others class them as inflectional morphemes. (You may want to review your reading, Shipley and McAfee (2021), p. 235 - Table 7-3 Derivational and Inflectional Bound Morphemes prior to our continued discussion about derivational morphemes.) According to Pence Turnbull and Justice (2017), significant morphological developments in the school-age years include use of derivational prefixes and derivational sudixes. Unlike grammatical morphemes, derivational morphemes change the word’s meaning or the part of speech of a word; they change the way words function in a sentence such as comfort/comfortable, quiet/quietly (Owens, 2020). When we add a derivational prefix to the beginning of a word, it changes the word’s meaning (e.g., mount/dismount; heat/preheat; happy/unhappy). When we add a derivational suMix to the end of a word, it can change the word’s form class, meaning, or both (e.g., paint (verb)/painter (noun); teach (verb)/teacher (noun); good (adjective)/goodness (noun). According to Owens (2020), by age 5, many children can understand and use the noun sudix -er. When children begin learning that adding -er to verb can make the name of the person who does the verb action, they may invent their own words. For example, when a kindergartner noticed an object in the learning centre was broken, the boy said “This needs to go to the fixer upper” (Otto, 2018). Other sudixes that begin to emerge in the school years include: “-ful,” “-less,” “-ness,” “-al,” “ist” and “-ance.” According to Pence Turnbull and Justice (2017), some of the more didicult derivational sudixes include adding –y to nouns to form adjectives (such as fishy), which children acquire at around age 11 years. Adding -ly to adjectives to form adverbs (e.g., slow/slowly) continues to develop into adolescence (Owens, 2020). According to Reed (2018), adding prefixes is also a didicult skill to acquire because it requires knowledge of the meanings for both the prefix form and the root word. As such, refinement of morphological rules continues well into the school years. In adolescence, it is an important mechanism by which students advance their vocabulary as they learn what are known as morphologically complex words (i.e., words with multiple bound morphemes such as triangularity). We’ll close our section regarding school-age morphological development with a sentence provided by Otto (2018). The utterance (said by an elementary-age child) demonstrates both inflectional and derivational morphemes. For example, “I was riding my bike with the kids, and then suddenly a car came, and I stopped as quickly as I can (p. 308). The child above is demonstrating some grammatical morphemes (e.g., uncontractible auxiliary, regular plural, irregular past, regular past) as well as the -ly derivational morpheme. They are also demonstrating growth in sentence structure skills (e.g,, use of “then,” a later developing conjunction) which we will be discussing next. 3.2. Sentence Structure Development In the early school years, children continue to refine their syntax skills. In kindergarten, they increasingly use adverbs to expand their verb phrases, and their use of auxiliary and copula verbs broadens with sentences that now include: have, do, will and could (Otto, 2018). At this stage, children also expand their noun phrases (including more adjectives), but they are typically limited to three items (e.g., “Some big dogs…”). (For examples of typical noun phrases, see Box 10.2: Examples of Most Common Noun Phrases in your Owens (2020) reading, p. 348.) Children in the early school years also use more varied questions, such as when, where, why, could, should, would, can and how questions (Shipley & McAfee, 2021). Pronouns that are more advanced (such as reflexive pronouns (e.g., himself, herself) continue to also continue to develop. Compound and Complex Sentences In the early primary years, children’s sentence structures become more elaborate and complex in both their oral and written language (Otto, 2018; Pence Turnbull & Justice, 2017). According to Weismer and Brown (2021), when children begin school, their utterances may be relatively short and simple in grammatical form. From around age 5, children begin to use more compound and complex sentences. Here is a quick review of the two types of sentences: A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a conjunction (e.g., “I stayed home yesterday because I had a stomach ache”). (A clause, in contrast to a phrase, contains a subject and verb.) A complex sentence contains at least one independent and one dependent clause (also known as a subordinate clause) (e.g., “The boy, who is wearing a red hat, is on the corner is eating an ice-cream cone). (Reed, 2018) In the early elementary grades, children continue to use the conjunctions “and” and “because,” expand their use of “if” and “so,” and begin using more advanced conjunctions, such as “then, therefore, although, and unless” to join clauses in their compound and complex sentences (e.g., “I went to the store, although my brother was supposed to go” (Reed, 2018). Relative clauses (which are clauses that serve as modifiers for nouns) also develop somewhat later. A relative clause is often introduced by a relative pronoun, such as “what, who, which, whose, or that” such as “I see the girls who are running” (Reed, 2018). According to Weisman and Brown (2021), the understanding and use of increasingly syntactically complex sentences continues to develop throughout the school years and beyond. Not surprisingly, the greater the syntactic complexity of an utterance, the later the age it will be understood and used in oral and written language. Passive Sentences Passive sentences prove a challenge for children to understand and use as they vary from the more commonly used active voice structure that follows an agent–action–object order (e.g., “The boy hit the ball.” “The dog chased the cat”). Passive voice requires that children change the way they process a sentence as they are arranged in object–action–agent order (e.g., “The ball was hit by the boy.“ “The cat was chased by the boy.”) According to Otto (2018), while children in their kindergarten year commonly begin to comprehend passive sentences, using passive sentences remain troublesome throughout most of the child’s elementary school years. Whie Shipley & McAfee (2021) state that children begin to use basic passive sentences between age 6–7, Fahey et al. (2019) state that it is not until 8 years or even as late as 11 years of age that children produce full passive sentences. 3.3. Video Let’s finish our school-age morphology and syntax module by watching a video of 7-year- old Belle. What school-age syntax growth do you notice? https://www.youtube.com/embed/EM3yy9Aw_Uw Make sure you review your various readings for this module as they provide grammatical and syntactical development in more detail than what is outlined above. Introduction As we know, pragmatics may be defined as “the study of language production in social contexts.” How we use language is dependent on a number of factors including: § Where we are § Who we’re talking to § Mode of communication (telephone, in person, writing) § What we are trying to say § Why we are trying to say it According to Fahey et al (2019), the most dramatic changes in language development during the school years are in pragmatics. In the early school aged years, children demonstrate growth in several key areas.  They continue to develop conversation skills and take their listener into consideration more demonstrated through their presupposition and conversational repair skills. They also use more complex language functions/intentions. They learn to identify and follow classroom pragmatic rules/scripts which are also known as the “classroom hidden curriculum.” Finally, they develop narrative skills that feature story grammar. We will explore all these areas in the content following. 4.1. Conversation Skills Conversation Skills In the early school years, children’s conversation skills continue to develop. Children learn how to introduce, establish, maintain and end topics in conversation and make relevant additions. They also change topics less abruptly and now shift smoothly from one topic to another (Owens, 2020; Pence Turnbull & Justice, L. (2017). Up to about 8-years of age, topics tend to be concrete; abstract topics are not sustained until 11 years of age. School age children also learn how to end conversations. According to Owens (2020), children in early elementary take more turns per topic; they also learn more refined turn-taking skills such as knowing when to “stop speaking (if they have the floor), how to anticipate that their turn to speak is near, and when to begin speaking as the current speaker finishes.” (Weismer & Brown, 2021 p.78). School aged children begin take the listener more into consideration and also detect and repair more conversational breakdowns (Owens, 2020). They also produce more indirect requests and continue to develop more language functions. We will further explore these pragmatic advances below. 4.2. Taking the Listener into Consideration. Presuppositions According to Reed (2018), “speakers make presuppositions about what knowledge is shared between speakers and listeners and about information listeners need to understand messages.” (p.55) School aged children begin to make suppositions and take "the listener" into consideration more consistently. They more skillfully use nonverbal communication by gaining and holding the listener’s attention in a socially acceptable manner, using appropriate personal space and interpreting and using visual cues sent by listener (that may indicate listener’s interest level or ability follow the discussion). They also are more aware of listener needs and perspectives. A growing appreciation for the perspective of others is evident by at least 8 years of age. They adapt conversation content and style to match the audience even more (ie “code switching”). For example, they simplify their language for younger children and use demonstrate politeness markers with strangers. School age children not only consider the listener but also the speaking context. They speak diderently to peers than to adults or infants (e.g., speaking to the teacher in a classroom vs. talking with a friend on the playground). When speaking at home or with classmates, their language is more informal while their verbal participation in classroom educational activities is more formal and decontextualized. 4.3. Conversational Repair Conversational Repair Children at this age also detect and repair more communicative breakdowns (Owens, 2020; Pence Turnbull & Justice). In conversations with others, early school aged children are more cognizant of the success of their message delivery and when the listener has not understood. They are also more aware of their own comprehension in conversations. As we know, in conversations between a child and an adult, or two children, there are instances of uncertain meanings, unintelligible words, and ambiguous referents (e.g., when a speaker says “he,” but does not previously identify the referent) and the message has not been successfully delivered or understood. Conversational repair is when speakers or listeners identify a miscommunication and takes steps to remedy it. Weismer & Brown 2021, p.79 provide the following 2 examples of comprehension repair. In the first example, Milhouse misinterprets Bart’s use of the word “huge” to mean “good.” He was confused as Bart had previously expressed frustration with the Packers’ poor performance. In this dialogue, the speaker (Bart) takes responsibly for conversational repair. Example 1: Bart: The Packers are huge! Milhouse: But I thought you said they’re no good... Bart: No, they’re big guys, look at those linemen! In the second example, comprehension repair is demonstrated by the listener. (Note – when comprehension repair is completed by the listener, it known as comprehension monitoring - as the listener is monitoring their own understanding). Example 2 Bart: What is up with those CB’s? Milhouse: Huh, CB’s? Bart: You know, cornerbacks, the guys who can intercept passes. In order to repair a conversation, a 6 year old may elaborate and provide more information while a 9 year old will begin to use more sophisticated strategies like providing more background information and defining terms to repair breakdowns when they occur (Owens, 2020; Pence Turnbull & and Justice, 2017). Conversational repair skills continue to develop throughout the school-age years and into adolescence. 4.4. Indirect Requests Indirect Requests Understanding and responding to indirect requests continue to develop in the early elementary years (Pence Turnbull & Justice, 2017). Indirect requests are considered a more polite way of requesting a particular action of another person (Owens, 2020). According to Otto (2018), competency with indirect requests adects both overall communication and social relationships with both classmates as well as teachers. For example, if a teacher comments “It’s getting too loud in here,” or “I can hear too many people speaking,” what she really means is “It is time to stop talking and get to work.” This teacher would not be impressed with students who did not comply with her indirect instructions. Another skill school-age children learn is how to make indirect requests. At five years of age, children will still ask "directly" for what they want; at age 6, they are learning to make indirect requests. For example, 6-year-old Frank might comment to someone sitting near an open door that "it sure is loud in the hallway." According to Fahey et al (2019), by seven years of age, children are fairly proficient in producing indirect requests and by 8 years, children know which indirect request to use with which listener. After the age of 8, children especially recognize the need to be polite in making requests when they are interrupting the listener or asking them to do something that is didicult or not convenient. 4.5. Pragmatic Functions Children in early elementary grades also expand their communicative functions learned as preschoolers such as how to comment, inquire, protest, greet people and take turns in addition to learning to use language to achieve more specific and complex intentions. According to Otto (2018) and Owens (2020), some language functions required at school include: explaining, reporting, disagreeing, arguing, persuading, refining peer interactions to include teasing, directing, following and competing (eg in storytelling) receiving and giving compliments and criticisms and odering apologies expressing pride in themselves and their accomplishments and expressing adection, hostility, and anger when appropriate. 4.6. Classroom Pragmatic Rules/ Scripts Classroom Pragmatic Rules/ Scripts Many of us are unaware of the classroom pragmatic rules/scripts known also as classroom “hidden curriculum” that children in early elementary are required to learn and follow. Paul et al (2018) provide the following common classroom oral language and event scripts. Oral language scripts (discourse rules) of the classroom involve some code-switching as they vary from teacher to teacher. These include: listening in a group (more than talking) raising your hand to speak and staying on the teacher’s topic being prepared to answer teacher directed questions with brief responses answering on topic and participating in class discussions asking a limited number of questions which are expected to be short appropriately seeking help from the teacher talking with peers - only when appropriate  sharing during show and tell reading aloud and giving oral reports Students must also being aware of and follow classroom event scripts such as: coming to class following directions completing worksheets taking notes taking tests taking home and turning in homework recess, lunch and dismissal routines 4.7. Narratives Introductory Activity To begin this section, we will do a short activity. Take out a piece of paper and a pen or access Word on your computer. Your task is to “write a story.” Begin your story with “once upon a time…” It doesn’t need to be long – half a page to maximum a page. Once you are done, put your story aside. We will refer to it later in the section. (Make sure you complete your story before you continue reading). School Age Narratives Narrative (story-telling) skills, which as you know are categorized under pragmatic skills, also improve in the early school years. Children are required to use narratives as early as Grade 1 (through "show and tell" and descriptions of "my holidays," for example). We defined narratives in the preschool narrative development section as an "uninterrupted stream of language modified by the speaker to capture and hold the listener's interest and attention" (Owens, 2020, p. 242). As we also learned previously, narratives dider from conversations in that the speaker produces a monologue throughout must presuppose the information needed by the listener must present all the information in an organized way by presenting an introduction, an organized sequence of events, and a conclusion It is important to reinforce here that narratives are thought to function as an important transition between oral language and written language styles (Westby 1991 cited in Spivey, n.d.) due in part to the fact that both narratives and written text require the use of decontextualized language. As we discussed previously, most learning in school is based on decontextualized language. Narratives also require the use of rich vocabulary and concise and complex syntax in addition to the ability to sequence events and present a story in a logical and cohesive fashion (Owens, 2020). A key feature of narrative skills development in the early elementary years is “story grammar” development. As discussed in our preschool narrative development section, by 6-7 years of age, students should be able to tell true narrativeswith a central theme, character, and well-developed plot. Stories at this age should include motivations behind the characters’ actions and logical and/or temporally ordered sequences of events. Finally, stories of 6 and 7 year old children should include five story grammar elements such as: an initiating event, a plan or character motivation, an attempt or action, a consequence, and a resolution to the problem. A sample story for this age is as follows: “One day Dorothy, Chrissy and me were sitting on the rocks at the ocean. The waves were splashing and making us wet. This big wave came and splashed us o> the flat rock. And Chrissy didn’t know what to do so she just grabbed on. She was holding our hands so we wouldn’t float away. She said, “I got ‘em. I got ‘em. The wave went back in the ocean. We were very scared and soaking wet. Chrissy was happy she saved us. We were all happy. “ (Adapted from: Applebee (1978) as cited in Justice & Redle, 2014; Spivey, n.d.; Justice & Redle, 2014; Gotzke & Sample Gosse, 2007; Reed, 2018) ·Setting: Time and place of the story, including characters. ·Initiating Event: The problem or situation that sets the story in motion. ·Internal Response: How characters feel or react to the initiating event. ·(Internal) Plan: The method devised to address the problem. ·Attempt(s): Actions taken to solve the problem. ·Direct Consequence(s): The outcomes of those actions. · Resolution Character’s emotional response, thought or actions to outcome or preceding chain of events and to the consequences of attaining or not attaining the goal. ·Ending Statement announcing the conclusion of the story, summarizing the story or stating a moral or general principle. Brings closure to the episodes. Refer to your Elements of Story Grammar reading by J Marshall (based on Owens, 2020) for a more detailed description. Summary Activity: Take a minute now to review the story you created. Compare the story to the elements of story grammar. It is very likely that you included most (if not all) of the story grammar elements. You may be aware of “executive functions” or it might be a new term for you. It is a theory that has developed over the past 20 years and thus is “relatively new” within education and other related fields; a definitive definition is still evolving (Stanberry, 2023). According to the Center on the Developing Child. (n.d.), executive functions are a set of cognitive abilities/mental processes that coordinate and integrate the broaderfunctions of thought, memory, emotions and behavior. They enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Just as an air tradic control system at a busy airport safely manages the arrivals and departures of many aircraft on multiple runways, the brain needs this skill set to filter distractions, prioritize tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses. (Harvard Center on the Developing Child. n.d.) While the theory of executive function is not an exact science, nor a standard diagnostic category, it provides a framework through which parents and professionals can understand a child’s level of cognitive ability. According to Stanberry (2023), “when a child struggles with learning, attention, or behavior problems, the concept of executive function can help us sort through and pinpoint where the breakdowns occur in the context of her overall functioning. It may also help highlight a child’s areas of strength and talent.” Executive functions begin to develop in the early years and continue to develop through school age into later adolescence and even adulthood. The key brain areas involved in executive function are the frontal lobes (in particular – the prefrontal cortex) 5.1. Video: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning Let’s continue our discussion about Executive Functions by watching the video developed by the Harvard Centre on the Developing Child titled: InBrief: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning (5:36) Play Video Note: If you would like to learn more about developing executive function skills, please view an additional video developed by the Harvard Center for the Developing Child titled How Children and Adults Can Build Core Capabilities for Life which is listed in the optional online resources for this module. 5.2. Core Elements of Executive Functions According to the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child (n.d.), executive function (and self-regulation skills) depend on three types of brain function: 1. Working memory 2. Mental flexibility 3. Self-control (aka self-regulation) These functions are highly interrelated, and the successful application of executive function skills requires them to operate in coordination with each other. Each type of executive function skill draws on elements of the others. 1. Working memory governs our ability to retain and manipulate distinct pieces of information over short periods of time. It involves holding and manipulation information in your mind. For eg. If I ask you (in your head) to add 2 + 9, then multiply the sum by 3, and then multiply again by 3 and then add 1, you are using your working memory to get the answer (100). 2. Mental flexibility (cognitive flexibility) helps us to focus, sustain and shift attention in response to diderent demands or to apply diderent rules in diderent settings. Flexible thinking allows us shift from one situation to another, analyze situations, anticipate outcomes, and adjust our behavior in response to unexpected changes. We learn to adapt diderent strategies to accomplish diderent tasks. Focusing attention (which is part of mental flexibility) also involves inhibiting competing stimuli. (Stanberry, 2023; Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, n.d.). 3. Self-control enables us to set priorities and resist impulsive actions or responses (ie think before acting). It involves self-monitoring (self awareness of how one is doing in the moment and self-regulating one’s actions (ie ability to stop one’s behavior at appropriate time). It also involves self-regulatingone’s emotions (ie keeping one’s feelings in check) which requires managing frustration and the ability to bring rational thought to bear on feelings. The above Executive function (and brain function skills) allow us to complete the following higher-order thinking and goal-directed behaviors which are commonly also classed as executive function skills including: Planning and prioritizing to set and meet goals and initiating tasks Sequencing Organizing - keeping track of things physically and mentally Predicting and inferencing Problem solving and making decisions. According to Neal (2024), executive functions such as cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, working memory planning, and attentional control also play a direct role in reading. Reading demands children to concentrate on specific elements of the text (attentional control), build and maintain a situational model of the text while decoding (working memory), ignore distractions (inhibitory control), shift between reading and decoding or between figurative and literal language (cognitive flexibility), and plan and manage our reading progress edectively towards finishing the book. This module explored school aged language development in the areas of semantics, syntax and pragrmatics. We also explored executive functions which are key to school success. In Module 10, our final module, we will explore emergent literacy and school aged literacy skills. We'll also review ways to facilitate literacy skills.