August Parent Newsletter

Topic: Language and Communication

Hello Everyone its Ms. Michele again here with our monthly newsletter. This month our
topic is Language and Communication. Communication is a wonder tool that every living
thing can use. Language and communication is one of our most important aspects in our
classrooms. We feel that children learn language as they go about their daily routines, so
everything that we do we encourage communication skills with our children.
Language is so much a part of the human experience that Steven Pinker calls it an
instinct.(Piper) So together lets build on our instincts, lets communicate with our
children and encourage them to ask more questions and explore new ways to
communicate. We will be using the four attributes of language that set it apart from other
systems of communication: arbitrariness, semanticity, productivity and displacement in
our classrooms.
Arbitrariness-One of the four attributes of human language, referring to the fact that
words are not predictable from their meanings. The animal known in English as pig is
represented by other words in other languages.
Semanticity-One of the four attributes of human language, referring to the capacity of
language to represent ideas, objects, or events with symbols.
Productivity-An attribute of human language, referring to the capacity of language to
create an infinite number of new and unique utterances
Displacement-An attribute of human language, referring to the fact that language is
capable of generating meaningful utterances not tied to the immediate environment.
Language and Communication is important to our cultures as well. We will have a parent
night with guest speakers from different parts of the world that will demonstrate the way
they communicate with others. Our monthly workshop Communicating inside our
families will be held on the 15
th
of August. Family communication is the key to building
strong families(Segrin)
Also on Wednesday we will have a guest that will be teaching sign language to our
Preschool classes.
We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!! If you would like more
information on Language and Communication please feel free to contact us!!
Sincerely,
Michele Stamper
Segrin, C., & Flora, J. (2005). Family Communication. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates
Piper, T. (2012). Making meaning, making sense: Childrens early language learning. San
Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.