Development of Metalinguistic Skills and Awareness
Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Topics: Early Years (Birth-5), Middle Years (5-9), Speech and Language Development, Language (Ages 2-3), Language (Ages 3-5)
Metalinguistic abilities usually emerge after a child has mastered a linguistic form. Therefore, it is possible that a young school-age child becomes aware at a metalinguistic level of language forms and content unconsciously used in the preschool years. Some metalinguistic abilities are an almost unconscious or implicit aspect of feedback, whereas others are extremely explicit and conscious. An order of development based on this continuum is presented in the table.
| Approximate Age | Abilities |
| 1½-2 yrs. |
|
| 3-4 years |
|
|
|
|
|
| School age |
|
|
Excerpted From:
Excerpt from Language Development: An Introduction, by R.E. Owens, Jr., 2008 edition, p. 350.
© 2008, Allyn & Bacon, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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