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Nicole Page

Professor Knedeisen

Language Development

2 May 2018

School Age Language Development

The observation was done in Mrs. Leechalk’s room at the Child Development Center.

The room was fully carpeted with windows on one side and a line of student lockers on the other

side. Near the window was a small shelf with different manipulatives for the children to play

with after they completed their morning work. There were two rectangular tables with small

chairs and one u-shaped table for art activities. Above each table was a colored lantern so that the

children knew which table to go to. One corner had a dramatic play center and the diagonal

corner had a cave with puppets and magnets. Near the dramatic play center was a small table

with a train set and village pieces. Next to the trains was the bathroom door, and a small

whiteboard that the children would write the letter of the week on before washing their hands.

The front of the room displayed the calendar, schedule, weather wheel, and helpers. To the right

of these was a large TV mounted on the wall what would display movement videos and other

images that were needed during the lesson. During the observation it was circle time, so all of the

students were sitting on a piece of tape on the floor. The music therapy majors were there to lead

music time. Also present during the observations was Mrs. Leechalk, work-study students, other

students observing, an aid for one student, and a student teacher. I observed Brooksie who is a 5-

year-old that will be moving on to kindergarten next year. Her birthday is September 4th, 2012.
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Brooksie’s main source of communication was her language or hand gestures. Her

language was very easy to understand and the hand gestures helped to further her communication

skills. Brooksie’s pragmatics proved to be very simple and direct. She always wanted to talk and

share things with the other children, music teachers, and work studies. She was intrigued by

everything and was always the first to ask a question to increase her knowledge or understanding

of a subject. She was also very welcoming and would great every person that came into the

room. When an adult asked a question, Brooksie was one of the first to answer. Though

sometimes, she would forget to raise her hand and would just shout out at them. She would also

engage in conversation with other children or teachers and it would develop into a several

responses conversation. Her syntax was rather advanced and well-developed. She asked

questions and explained things in the same sentence. For example, Brooksie questioned, “Did

Vance get one of these, I’ll put it in his locker.” She got straight to the point and did not stretch

her responses unless she had to explain something. She simply stated, “We are cats Miss Nicole”

and “I would be a doctor”. Brooksie’s phonological development was exactly where it should be

for her age. Her speech was 100% intelligible to her classmates and teachers. During my

observation, the class was going over their letters. Each child had to name their letter, its sound

and say the word that was pictured with the letter. Almost immediately, Brooksie answered with

the letter D, its sound, and happily called out doughnuuuuttttttt.

Brooksie was very social, always playing with a small group of friends. They were

rolling balls around the floor chasing after them declaring that they were kittens. During circle

time, she did not talk much unless she was asked a question directly. When the teachers asked a

question to the group, she did not respond. Although she did not answer in the group, Brooksie

always turned and made eye contact with the person who was speaking to them. She also
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followed the directions very well. A boy next to her started talking to her even though they were

not supposed to be talking. Brooksie did not turn to him but quickly answered him before turning

her attention back to circle time.

The activity for the day was conducted by the music therapy students who come down

every Friday for music time. The teachers used repetition as they sang the good morning song

and the children responded. They placed a letter in front of each child to have them return back

to after each activity. Brooksie immediately recognized that her letter was H, and could easily

find it among the other children’s letters. She would even help the other children with their

letters. If no one responded when the teacher called the letter, Brooksie would look around the

room and call out the person who had the letter.

After this observation of Brooksie, I believe that she is right where she needs to be

developmentally. She is able to express herself to her peers and teachers with 100%

understanding. She is understanding different aspects of figurative language and can even be

found using them. Brooksie can always work on using different types of sentences. Though she

does ask questions, I believe she is able to change the format around and use different voices.

Brooksie can also work more on her decoding and fluency when reading. There is not much

exposure to reading at the CDC except for the review of their sight words which she knows very

well. Brooksie is able to write her name with one capital letter and the rest lowercase and going

from left to right. Since she knows her letters and the proper orientation for writing, Brooksie

could begin writing small sentences. Just a few words to continue to build on what she has

learned and improve her language skills. Brooksie can also work on her metalinguistic

competence or how she thinks and analyzes language. She may not know but will need to begin

to think about the language that she uses and how to manipulate it. Finally, Brooksie is at a stage
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where she should be able to decipher new words by herself but she does not yet. If Brooksie did

not know a word she would wait for it to be explained. She should begin using context clues and

prefixes or suffixes to create a loose meaning of the word. Overall, Brooksie is doing very well

for her age but can push herself to learn more.