Author Archives: lauramacgrath

This is the last of a three-part series on the use of articulatory gestures in literacy instruction. If you missed the first two, see: Articulatory gestures in literacy instruction: Part 1- the theoretical rationale and Part 2- the research evidence. These days, articulatory gestures and sound walls with mouth pictures are the subject of muchContinue reading “Articulatory gestures in literacy instruction: Part 3- what now?”

This is the second in a three-part series on the use of articulatory gestures in literacy instruction. If you missed the first, see Articulatory gestures in literacy instruction: Part 1- the theoretical rationale. And up next: Part 3- what now? First, we will look at studies of this approach as incorporated into interventions for studentsContinue reading “Articulatory gestures in literacy instruction: Part 2- the research evidence”

If you’re someone who’s interested in early literacy instruction, there is an excellent chance that you’ve heard of sound walls with articulatory gestures, a current hot topic in literacy.  On this type of sound wall, speech sounds are laid out according to how they are produced.  Consonants are arranged according to their place and mannerContinue reading “Articulatory gestures in literacy instruction: Part 1- the theoretical rationale”

Confession: when I was a kid in rural Nova Scotia, I wasn’t a fan of learning French.  In fact, I hated it and dropped French class as soon as I had completed the minimum requirements.  I have come to regret this choice, and I don’t fully understand why I made it, though likely there wereContinue reading “Crosslinguistic Pedagogy and the Confessions of a Late-blooming Francophile”

Language is always evolving, with new words (bingeable, superspreader), new expressions (I can’t even), and even shifting syntax (Have you any? vs Do you have any?) and grammar (the fading subjunctive: If I were…).  But the main topic of interest today is shifts in pronunciation.  The way we pronounce words changes slowly over time, oftenContinue reading “The cot-caught merger: a dialectal difference and early literacy instruction”

With the exception of sound effect words (called onomatopoeia like sizzle, beep), speech sounds are arbitrarily attached to the meanings of words.  There’s not really a reason why a dog is called dog and not some other string of sounds like bop.  And as Juliet famously said, a rose by any other name would smellContinue reading “A boat by any other name”

When kids first begin talking, typically at around 12 months of age, they of course stick to the basics— very short phrases that convey basic wants, needs, and social routines.  Mama.  More.  Up.  Hi!  All-done.  Milk.  Doggy.  Bye-bye.  Oops!  These are mostly one-word phrases and are not pronounced perfectly.  Then, typically when children are betweenContinue reading “So many muches! Grammar errors and what they tell us about language development”

Updated November 26, 2022 Once we know how to read, we read fast, recognizing a word in a fraction of a second. In fact, for most people, reading is not just easy, it’s automatic. You can’t stop yourself from reading words that you see; they just jump off of the page and into your brainContinue reading “Orthographic Mapping: how we learn to read so fast!”

Are you feeling pretty overwhelmed these days?  Me too.  Amidst all the confusion and grief of the past several weeks, many people have quoted the late, great Mr. Rogers, who once shared his mother’s wise words: Besides the unwavering energy of my own two little kids, another thing that keeps me going these days isContinue reading “Looking for the Helpers”

These are rough times.  If you’re like me, you’re spending too much time reading the news and fretting about the uncertainty of the months ahead.  That, and trying to keep the kids from seriously wounding each other.  Kind of like our collective reaction to the coronavirus, my kids’ disputes tend to escalate rather quickly. So,Continue reading “How Babies Learn Words”