Children’s Language

144 pages • P/B • 180 x 252mm
ISBN 9780807748855

Connecting Reading, Writing, and Talk

The more teachers understand about how children learn to talk, the more they can help children become avid, joyful readers and writers. Drawing on a large body of research and her own volunteer work at a family shelter, Judith Lindfors concisely identifies several important commonalities across oral and written language. Taking the compelling perspective that it’s all language, she traces childrens emergent literacy from infancy through the early school years. The book incorporates abundant examples from a diverse range of children engaged in authentic literacy experiences. Children’s Language describes a set of language principles that teachers can build on as they help young students learn to read and write using the oral language processes they already know. This book features: a new, more positive language acquisition perspective on children’s linguistic and literary capacities; fascinating and insightfully framed quotes, writings, and drawings from children. An Appendix containing an interview with shelter staff from SafePlace and offering basic information on how to identify children who are living in situations of violence and what teachers can do about it.