PRESCHOOLERS’ DEVELOPING MORPHOSYNTACTIC SKILLS

Power Point Outline**• I. Mastering Grammatical Morphemes

• II. Developing Syntactic Elements

• III. Basic Sentence Structure

I. MASTERING GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES**

• Around 18 mos. of age, when children start putting two words together, we see grammatical morphemes emerge

• For the test, please know Table 9.1 on page 255

• Morpheme Age Mastery**

• -ing 19-28 mos.

• Regular plural –s 27-33 mos.

• Possessive –s 26-40 mos.

• Past tense –ed 26-48 mos.

• Regular 3rd person –s 26-46 mos.

To assess children’s morphosyntactic skills:**

• We calculate MLU, or mean length of utterance

• Instead of counting words, we count actual morphemes

• Remember, we have free and bound morphemes

Words vs. morphemes**• We wanted to eat cookies.

• 5 words

• 7 morphemes

• The PRAXIS always asks you to count the # of morphemes in an utterance

How many morphemes?**• The three boys wanted five candies.

• We played all day with my friend’s toys.

• He’s going to cook eggs and bacon.

Count the morphemes in Mark McKibbin’s utterances:**

• (2.5 yrs old) “I need to get my shoes and socks on because the stones will hurt my feet.”

• (3 yrs old) “I will give my old pillow to the poor children so they can sleep better.”

• (3 yrs. old) “Madame Blueberry was sad because they didn’t have happy hearts at the Stuffmart.”

II. DEVELOPING SYNTACTIC ELEMENTS

• A. Basic Sentence Constituents

2. Clause

3. Sentence

4. Noun phrase**

• Sentence role filled by people and objects

• The boy is blowing out his candles.

5. Verb phrase**

• Actions or relationships that are central to the sentence

• The girl lifts the beach ball.

• **The little red hen was eating corn.• NP VP

• The students are taking notes.– NP VP

The leaves were falling down.NP VP

The baby was laughing at the dog.NP VP

Youtube

• Weird Al Yankovich Word Crimes

B. Noun Phrase Elements

• 2. Pronouns— a group of forms that can replace nouns or entire noun phrases**

• I, he, she, we, you, it, they (and variations of those)

• Common errors: me/I, him/he, her/she, them/they

• 3. Noun suffixes

• comparatives, superlatives, derivationals; preschoolers begin to use these accurately between 3-5 years of age

The derivational noun suffix -er

C. Verb Phrase Elements

Copula verbs– to be verbs that serve syntactically as the main verbs in

sentences

More examples of copula verbs:**

• He is a boy scout.

• They were in their car.

• I am happy.

• **State verbs —express static or unchanging condition. (That tree is old. The building stands next to the tree.)

• Process verbs —internal activity or gradual changes in people or things (thinking, hearing, stressing, growing, digesting, learning)

By 5 years of age…**

• Children have mastered most verb forms

Youtube examples…

III. BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE (review)

• A. Types of Sentences

3. Passive**• Noun in subject phrase is passive

and is acted on by noun in verb phrase

• The toy was played with by the child.

• The boat was painted by the woman.

• The notes were taken by the students.

4. Negative

B. Complex and Compound Sentences**

• Independent or main clause—can stand alone

• Dependent or subordinate clause—cannot stand alone

• 1. Complex sentence: Has indep. clause and dependent clause**

• We will go to the party if it is not raining.• (main/indep. clause) (subordinate/dep. clause)

I talked to the boy who has red hair.(main/indep. clause) (subordinate/dep.

clause)

• 2. **Compound sentence: 2 independent clauses are linked together by a conjunction

• We ate cookies and they were good.– (main/indep. clause) (main/indep. clause)

– John liked her but she didn’t like him.– (main/indep. clause) (main/indep. clause)

Coordinating conjunctions:

Examples of sentences using coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences:**

• I wanted to get an A on the test, so I studied hard.

• We could eat popcorn or we could have Doritos.

• She wanted to go shopping, but she didn’t have any money.

Rescorla, L., & Turner, H.L. (2015, April). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, 434-444.**• This study looked at late talkers (at age

2) in comparison to typically-developing children

• Late talkers usually understand what they hear, but they are late in expressive language

The study found:

Thus…

How can we help parents be motivated to seek early intervention

for their LTs?

Power Point Outline**• I. Mastering Grammatical Morphemes

• II. Developing Syntactic Elements

• III. Basic Sentence Structure