Mrs Gramatis's blog

The term language, refers to receptive and expressive language.  Receptive language skills are said to be an individual's ability to understand spoken communication.  Expressive language skills refer to the individual's ability to verbally make his/her wants, thoughts, and needs known to others.  Most children develop language naturally through listening and interacting with adults and their peers.  Language (receptive and expressive) also includes vocabulary usage, concepts, and grammatical structures.

As we all know, vocabulary development is an essential part of our curriculum and daily lives.  Word knowledge enhances (or retricts) our ability to acquire new knowledge and skills.  Whle in the setting of the speech classroom, students are provided with a variety of strategies to match each individual need and learning style.  We are constantly working on developing basic vocabulary, defining words, identifying multiple meaning words, applying vacabulary, and curriculum vocabulary.  Vocabulary skills are essential in both oral and written communication.

Many times parents will, "why are language experience stories  important?"  They are important because they help the students who need further practice listening to the question asked, relating it to the story, responding appropriately, following pronoun referents, making inferences, increasing their short term memory for sequences, and following the meaning of complex sentences when conjunctions are used.

Language experience stories are wonderful for students who show a delay in their ability to process language, often when they have normal intelligence.  The cause for this delay may be general lack of language experiences due to developmental or environmental factors, or it may be due to a central processing disorder, which is reflected in academic performance. 

Welcome back!  It's hard to believe we are back and beginning our speech and language services at Rutledge Hall.  I look forward to another successful and fun year for all of our students.

It's hard to believe we have completed the year.  Where did the time go?  A special farewell to my fifth grade students going on to Lincoln Hall.  It was a pleasure working with you these past years.  Remember what you have accomplished in the speech program, and continue to meet your goals.  For my third and fourth grade articulation students, remember to use your speech sounds correctly.  For my language students, continue to use the strategies learned this year, so you may continue to see success.

Have a wonderful summer, enjoy your time with your families.  Before you know it, August will be here.

Language is the comprehension and use of a spoken symbol system.  Language can be divided into several categories.

1.  Language form- the portion of language that refers  to utterance (a) phonology, the sound system of language, (b) morphology, word formation including use of prefixes and suffixes (c) syntax, the use of word order and grammar in an utterance.

2.  Content - the portion of language that refers to meanings of words, often referred to as semantics.  Includes different types of vocabulary, including synonyms, antonyms, multiple meaning words, and word retrieval.

3.  Use - the portion of language used for communication (pragmatics). Social greetings, topic maintenance, getting someone's attention

Hope you are all feeling better now that the days are longer, and warmer.

Just a reminder, conference/portfolio nights are next Monday, March 17 and Wednesday, March 19.  I will be in my room (room 37), if you'd like to stop and see me.  If not, have a woderful holiday and spring break with your families.

Just a reminder.......ISAT Testing will begin next week.  Please make sure your children go to bed early each evening, and have breakfast every morning.  As we know, breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day.

Develop critical thinking skills through predicting outcomes.  (What will happen next?), discussing cause and effect relationships (If he fights with his brother, what will happen?) and problem solving (What could he have done instead?).

Report cards will be coming home on Wednesday, January 30.  If your child is enrolled in the speech/language program at Rutledge Hall, please look for his/hers updated speech goals.