Language and Literacy Development
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Module Purpose and Description

Language and Literacy Development for Infants through Kindergarteners

In this module, you will learn the fundamentals of language acquisition and
language development. 

We will examine how to foster the learning of language from birth to kindergarten.  We will discuss how infants begin to learn their home language.  Between the ages of 2 and 5, children go through extensive language development.  Emergent learners of language go from saying two-word sentences to full, long phrases.  They learn singulars and plurals, they ask questions, and most can use proper verb tense by age 6. 

Developmentally, children learn language at different rates.  For example, a four year old may have a vocabulary of five thousand words, but another four year old may use a vocabulary of two thousand words.  Research indicates that the more words children know, the more likely children are to succeed in kindergarten. 

This module is two-fold.  We will discuss the path that an infant takes to acquire language through kindergarten.  Then, we will also address how to optimize language skills in your classroom so that your future kindergartens will have an extensive vocabulary and be successful readers and writers.