Ech 425 - Language and Literacy Development

Language and Literacy Development

Paulette Smithmeyer

Grand Canyon University: ECH-425

September 27, 2015

        What do we know about the relationship between language and literacy in learning? Or even what these two area? One might ask them self when they are contemplating the effect that language and literacy may have on learning. Styles of language and literacy flourish supportively and interpedently. Children build upon vocal language awareness and routines as they learn to read and write. Children establish essential perceptions about reading through writing, broaden writing skills through reading. This exhibits at the basic level, language and literacy from the beginning are interconnected. Therefore, one needs an understanding of how children learn both language and literacy separately before understanding how language and literacy work together. (SAHSC, 2015)

Relationship between Language and Literacy

There is a strong relationship between language and literacy.  Literacy is defined as having the ability for viewing, reading and writing.  Having an awareness of how certain letters make exact sounds manipulating them to make various sounds and meanings.  Having the capability to communicate allows for a connection with literacy and literacy supporting the need to correspond.  Children having weak skills in communication or language tend to have a hard time with reading and writing. (Roskos, 2003)

How language abilities and deficiencies affect literacy development

Language abilities and deficiencies in sync have a primary effect on literacy expansion. This is particularly noticed in young children birth to third grade as they are developing the necessary vocal skills. With language abilities and deficiencies young children birth to third grade need to be surveyed. (Purvis, 1997) Children with weak auditory and vocal skills are referred as having a language impairment. Language impairment children having a disarray in reading, are commonly characterized as having weak success in reading. Children who display problems in phonetic awareness and reading deficiencies are likely to have literacy setback and growth in overall development of learning.  English language deficiency or skills can cause problems among educators and others whom children come in contact with throughout their school years and later in life. The central nervous system labels such as Dyslexia, loss of hearing, L.D. (learning disabilities), Autism or Brain Injuries can be caused by obstacles from the deficiencies. Other issues could occur within language deficiencies like: Expressive and receptive language disorder. Receptive language issues are likely to occur before the age of 4. (Wodka, 2013) Children with language irregularity have the ability to produce sounds, and their speech is understandable. Speech disorders in children constrain them from preforming on grade level, struggling in reading, difficulty comprehending and expressing and poor judgment. Struggling with the ability to read, write, listening, speaking, thinking and learning can result from the complications in language development. Complications may transpire in comprehension, and awareness of dialect sounds, syllables, words, sentences, and conversation. Often skills in language play a crucial part of the child’s academic progress. Young children should be able to rhyme, recognize letters and understand specific letters make sounds, detect phonemic words, and recognize and manipulate letter sounds. This foundation skill of learning to read, is characterized as phonological awareness or phonological decoding. Language acquisition is beginning to develop in children age 0-3. (Purvis, 1997) Newborns to 3 months of age, communicate by crying, cooing and babbling and toddlers age 1 to 2 years old seem to comprehend what is being expressed with a vocabulary of approximately 50 words.  Toddlers in their late 2’s will begin using two word sentences and by preschool age of 3 to 4, should be speaking in simple sentences. The child may tend to stutter and stumble with words. Also, the child’s vocabulary is at 1200 words. Four to five year olds are starting to understand and use language at higher level. They are able to communicate with others outside the home. They are learning colors and household items. As the child turns 5, he or she develops a large vocabulary consisting of about 2000 to 5000 words. Sentence building is more involved in 5 year olds than a 4 year old with expanded sentences and less dialectal errors.  This is a crucial element of school readiness, being able to comprehend and converse with others.