Child Language Development
Paper 1, Section B
CLD Reading and Writing
Learning to write
Early exposure to printed language
- enables children to see phoneme (sound of a letter or blend of letters within a word) and grapheme
(the letter or blend of letters that represent a sound) correspondence
- ^ the connection between sounds and written symbols
- Eg. The grapheme ‘G’ makes a ‘gu’ phoneme
- Evidence suggests children who are exposed to a rich reading environment in early years are more
successful in their writing and schooling generally.
Peepo (Janet and Allan Ahlberg) - page 119
Phonological:
- rhyming the last words in every other sentence makes it engaging for the child as they can try to
predict what the next word would be, increasing their cognitive thinking as well as making it fun
Grammatical:
- short simple noun and verb declarative phrases to give a short explanation of what is happening in a
way the child is able to comprehend
- Ends the first section with an interrogative question, gets the child to think about the question before
reading on
- Anaphora - repetition of ‘he sees’
- ‘Peepo’ - exclamative of proto word (typography, in capitals and larger text size)
Graphological:
- the images represent what the text is describing, the child can put the image and texts together to
get a visual perspective (of the baby's point of view)
Jeanne Chall (1983) - American psycholinguist
- Came up with stages of reading progression
- As the child gets older, their motivation to read increases
- Schools explicitly teach children methods which help them make sense of written texts, during the
initial reading and decoding stage
Look and say approach
Encourages children to identify familiar words as a whole to then read them accurately
Phonic approach
- Often the starting point for children learning to blend sounds and decode words
- Helps them to write words for themselves
stages of Typical age Features that characterise age
reading (in years)
progression
Pre-reading or Up to 6 Children will still be read to by caregivers but might imitate the reading
pseudo reading process by turning pages and pretending to read, or creating stories
based on the images in the books. They may identify some letters of the
alphabet.
, Initial reading 6-7 Children will begin to decode words in order to read and understand
and decoding basic texts. They may identify familiar whole words or recognise letters
and blend sounds together to sound out the words. This can make the
reading process slower and can hamper an understanding of the text as
a whole.
Confirmation 7-8 years Reading will have become a faster process. Children will be able to
and fluency decode words more readily and read with some fluency. There will be a
greater sense of the text as a whole emerging by now.
Reading for 9-13 Rather than learning to read, students now read in order to learn. They
learning might be accessing a wider range of texts by this point and reading to
obtain facts and scanning for the most relevant details.
Multiple 14-18 Students will begin to recognise how meaning can be conveyed in
viewpoints different ways, or with a different focus. As a result, they will become
more critical readers, recognising bias and inference.
Construction 18+ By this point, individuals can read a range of sources and synthesise
and these in order to develop their own interpretations. They can skim and
reconstruction scan efficiently and recognise what is and is not important to read.
Synthetic phonics
Teaches children individual phonemes which are later blended and synthesised to pronounce words
- For example, if a child has learnt the sounds ‘k’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ they can sound out the whole word
through identifying each of the familiar phonemes
Analytic phonics
Doesn’t teach individual phonemes before they begin reading but breaks down words into key sections -
these are known as the onset and the rime
- Onset: the beginning of the word which is likely to be one or two letters long e.g ‘th’ for
thorn/thief/third.
- Rime: the section of the word that follows the onset. This system encourages children to recognise
the patterns between individual words.
Phonic schemes
There is a range of reading schemes used within schools.
They all use graduated reading books, whereby children progress through levels or colours as their reading
becomes more confident.
As a child becomes more confident, they will find more variety in the texts they encounter and begin to
explore conventions of nonfiction.
Although these books still contain repeated constructions and images to link to the text, there will be more
challenging features too
e.g. smaller font, longer sentences, a mixture of mono and polysyllabic words and a wider range of
syntactic constructions.
Process of writing
General cognitive awareness of how language works needs to be in place before writing can develop
A child needs a wide lexical range and an understanding of how these words work together grammatically
and syntactically:
- fine motor skills
- Tripod grip: the way in which a pen or pencil is held, using the thumb, forefinger and middle
finger to facilitate controlled movement. The top end of the pen or pencil should be pointing
towards the shoulder.
Paper 1, Section B
CLD Reading and Writing
Learning to write
Early exposure to printed language
- enables children to see phoneme (sound of a letter or blend of letters within a word) and grapheme
(the letter or blend of letters that represent a sound) correspondence
- ^ the connection between sounds and written symbols
- Eg. The grapheme ‘G’ makes a ‘gu’ phoneme
- Evidence suggests children who are exposed to a rich reading environment in early years are more
successful in their writing and schooling generally.
Peepo (Janet and Allan Ahlberg) - page 119
Phonological:
- rhyming the last words in every other sentence makes it engaging for the child as they can try to
predict what the next word would be, increasing their cognitive thinking as well as making it fun
Grammatical:
- short simple noun and verb declarative phrases to give a short explanation of what is happening in a
way the child is able to comprehend
- Ends the first section with an interrogative question, gets the child to think about the question before
reading on
- Anaphora - repetition of ‘he sees’
- ‘Peepo’ - exclamative of proto word (typography, in capitals and larger text size)
Graphological:
- the images represent what the text is describing, the child can put the image and texts together to
get a visual perspective (of the baby's point of view)
Jeanne Chall (1983) - American psycholinguist
- Came up with stages of reading progression
- As the child gets older, their motivation to read increases
- Schools explicitly teach children methods which help them make sense of written texts, during the
initial reading and decoding stage
Look and say approach
Encourages children to identify familiar words as a whole to then read them accurately
Phonic approach
- Often the starting point for children learning to blend sounds and decode words
- Helps them to write words for themselves
stages of Typical age Features that characterise age
reading (in years)
progression
Pre-reading or Up to 6 Children will still be read to by caregivers but might imitate the reading
pseudo reading process by turning pages and pretending to read, or creating stories
based on the images in the books. They may identify some letters of the
alphabet.
, Initial reading 6-7 Children will begin to decode words in order to read and understand
and decoding basic texts. They may identify familiar whole words or recognise letters
and blend sounds together to sound out the words. This can make the
reading process slower and can hamper an understanding of the text as
a whole.
Confirmation 7-8 years Reading will have become a faster process. Children will be able to
and fluency decode words more readily and read with some fluency. There will be a
greater sense of the text as a whole emerging by now.
Reading for 9-13 Rather than learning to read, students now read in order to learn. They
learning might be accessing a wider range of texts by this point and reading to
obtain facts and scanning for the most relevant details.
Multiple 14-18 Students will begin to recognise how meaning can be conveyed in
viewpoints different ways, or with a different focus. As a result, they will become
more critical readers, recognising bias and inference.
Construction 18+ By this point, individuals can read a range of sources and synthesise
and these in order to develop their own interpretations. They can skim and
reconstruction scan efficiently and recognise what is and is not important to read.
Synthetic phonics
Teaches children individual phonemes which are later blended and synthesised to pronounce words
- For example, if a child has learnt the sounds ‘k’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ they can sound out the whole word
through identifying each of the familiar phonemes
Analytic phonics
Doesn’t teach individual phonemes before they begin reading but breaks down words into key sections -
these are known as the onset and the rime
- Onset: the beginning of the word which is likely to be one or two letters long e.g ‘th’ for
thorn/thief/third.
- Rime: the section of the word that follows the onset. This system encourages children to recognise
the patterns between individual words.
Phonic schemes
There is a range of reading schemes used within schools.
They all use graduated reading books, whereby children progress through levels or colours as their reading
becomes more confident.
As a child becomes more confident, they will find more variety in the texts they encounter and begin to
explore conventions of nonfiction.
Although these books still contain repeated constructions and images to link to the text, there will be more
challenging features too
e.g. smaller font, longer sentences, a mixture of mono and polysyllabic words and a wider range of
syntactic constructions.
Process of writing
General cognitive awareness of how language works needs to be in place before writing can develop
A child needs a wide lexical range and an understanding of how these words work together grammatically
and syntactically:
- fine motor skills
- Tripod grip: the way in which a pen or pencil is held, using the thumb, forefinger and middle
finger to facilitate controlled movement. The top end of the pen or pencil should be pointing
towards the shoulder.
