How do you teach grammar to a young child?

[StarkAndWitchesWillFindYou]

And any book recommendations for me to learn about basic grammar?

Many tia.

How old is the child?
Do you mean grammar in speech or grammar in writing?

Ah, well I suppose I mean in speech, but in writing too (although he can't write yet, but will probably be able to read fairly soon).

And for me, obviously at a higher level.

By example IMO - they will use grammar in the same way you do, within reason for their age. How young are you talking about?

Re books, I remember a book called First Aid in English which dealt with grammar, I have no idea if it is still in print and it wouldn't be suitable for a young child but it would for you if you were unsure yourself of correct grammar.

I suppose I am looking for a book that will explain the basics. Kind of at the level of language a 4yr old would use.

My ds has a speech disorder. Speech therapist rubbish.

You speak properly.

Here you go, a new edition!

First Aid in English

Not sure it will help with basic basic stuff but it will definitely be what you want for you.

It's very difficult to explain grammar to a young child through a book.
They learn in the same way they learn pronunciation and vocabulary, by repetition and copying.
The best thing you can do is to correct and repeat back sentences that he says. Play games with him using sentences, words and structures that you notice him making mistakes in.
Read lots of books with him and try to maximise his time in active two-way conversations.

Hi, the book is for me. My written English (not my MNing English I have to add) is excellent as is my spoken.

But, I have no idea how to break a sentence down and teach the componenet parts. I don't even know what the component parts are called.

I don't know typically, what 'kind' of word goes where.

I need this information at a basic level to be able to teach ds how to build up a sentence.

Modelling doesn't work.

Thanks sleep. I think that might be too high a level for what I need perhaps.

ds: 'why do you can I have the mummy go into the kitchen please?'

me: 'I don't know ds, why?'

ds: 'because the do you want to have the dinner'

Long winded way of saying 'I'm hungry, can I have something to eat soon'.

Not sure how young your child is, but I have Silly Sentences from DK Games.

It teaches parts of speech (ie, nouns, verbs, adjectives) and is aimed at children in their first three years at school.

NB: I actually looked out for a grammar for myself recently.. there wasn't much in British English but lots of well-produced American books.

Definitely get the first aid book - I think it is used a lot for teaching English as a foreign language so it breaks language down into parts as you say you want.

he is 4

I second RuthChan. The way children learn grammar is to hear language spoken correctly again and again. Reading to children also reinforces grammar. It is not a good idea to correct children but better to model what they are saying in the correct grammar. If your child has a language disorder of course this would be more difficult. I'm sorry to hear that you are not receiving good speecha and language therapy. Unfortunately only a few areas have enough speech therapy provision and if you can trying to find a private speech therapist is money well spent especially at such a young and critical age to learn language.

sorry - x post!

Letscape I've been modelling and making him repeat and practise more times than I have taken breaths. I am sick of the sound of my own voice. My DH is sick of me as 'modelling' has taken over our lives. It is NOT working sadly and I want to find something that does.

Thaks Toad I'll look into that.

zzz Not helpful. His frustration at not being understood is making him aggressive and miserable.

someone asked how old your ds is and I said he is 4, why is that not helpful?

Thought you were implying it was too young to be working on this. Sorry, I misunderstood.

ah I see

op he has a processing and ordering issue, and it will take time to get the ordering in place. Modelling will work, but it will take a long time.

Basically your DS needs to understand that in English we have a very basic simple sentence structure. It is called SVO- *subject (person,place,thing-usually a noun) verb (a doing word) and then object- (person, place,thing, feeling-usually a noun)

I think if you want to start with working on his word order you need to begin with Simple Questions that prompt simple 3/4 word SVO answers-

For Example
(you say)What do you want lunch for lunch?
(you model)I want a ham sandwich
you prompt DS, (DS says) I want a ham snadwich

You could make up some nice picture cards that make silly sentences and then good sentences.

4 is very young. What was his diagnosis?

Totally agree with RuthChan. Children acquire their first language, they do not learn it. The language acquisition part of their brains soaks up new words and grammatical structures like a sponge. That is why most native speakers cannot parse a sentence, i.e. break it down into its consituent parts of nouns and adverbs and conjunctions and verbs etc. - they just know what goes where.
Your child will acquire the grammar he is exposed to on a daily basis. Even if you try and teach your DS grammar with a book, he will most likely speak and write according to the rules of the normal, day-to-day language to which he is exposed.
When someone is learning a second language and is not immersed in it by living amongst native speakers, then they will need to "learn" how it works, through books and instruction.
I hope that helps!

Thank you thatsnotmy That is a really helpful post.

He has ASD, but he doesn't 'do' visual supports although he may well do words. This is why I haven't mentioned it until now. I don't want visual strategies.

I suppose I am looking for more understanding myself of the general concepts and then I will trouble shoot and use his learning style to teach him.

takingchances Honestly, ds won't and doesn't move on. He doesn't understand things like you and I. He doesn't learn from his environment.

Nearly everything he learns has to be explicitly taught if he has any chance of getting it correctly.

I'm not certain I agree with you about the aquiring. Probably all children will 'aquire' time-telling abilities, but it is much better and faster if they are taught them.

You might want to try First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. It's an American book but the grammar is spot on and is designed for teaching young children.

sslrelay.com/catalogue.ichthusresources.co.uk/

You can look inside this book on amazon but the cost is far higher on there. She is releasing the book as 2 separate ones soon but they aren't available yet.

Stark I cross-posted with your last post about ASD. My SIL's LO also has ASD... I'll see if she has any helpful tips specifically about language ok?