Competency, Focus of Development, and Key Features QPCP p.16
Description of the area of development
“Language development covers two focuses of development: oral language and written language. It refers to the children’s ability to make themselves understood, express their ideas, understand the ideas of others and gradually develop reading and writing skills and knowledge. Oral language develops from birth onward and is used mainly, but not exclusively, to support social interactions and to share social conventions and codes specific to the children’s culture; gradually the children will also become familiar with the social codes and conventions specific to school. Oral language is useful for everyday classroom activities and is essential for cognitive development. As children explore written language, they discover a form of communication through which they can keep a record, reflect, anticipate and address someone. Oral language therefore serves as the foundation for written language, and it is important for children to understand the relationship between the two. Gaining phonological awareness and understanding the alphabetic principle are part of language development and, as such, they allow children to acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes, even before they formally start to learn to read and write in the first grade.” QPCP p.40
Connections to Executive Functions
Inhibition: language helps express thoughts; understand and comply with increasingly complex rules governing their behaviour and play
Flexible thinking: consider more than one potential solution to a problem
Working Memory: remember what has already happened and make connections with what happens next
Planning: using soliloquy (talking to themselves) to plan and regulate actions in order to attain a goal; remember plans
Characteristics and Needs of Children QPCP p.41
End-of-preschool outcomes
“The children show an interest in oral communication, reading and writing in a variety of contexts. They can express themselves to retell, explain, question and state their needs. They demonstrate their understanding in a variety of situations. They show an interest in books and make attempts to read and write. They demonstrate phonological awareness by discerning syllables, rhymes and phonemes. They know the names and sounds of most of the letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case).” QPCP p. 40