Language for Thinking

[lougle]

Poltergoose very kindly sent me LfT and I have been reading through it.

I have a question:

The assessment pages have shaded boxes in the different Language levels (ABC) next to various questions.

Are those shaded boxes indicating that the particular question is not scored for that level? Or that it is? Or something completely different?

There is no reference anywhere that I can see, to the significance of the shadings.

LOL Lougle

Loving she hurt me in the bras!

We got a bit further tonight, turns out a cinema is better than a television because you don't have to turn it on! I'm getting a sense of deja vu and wondering if dd's language use / thought patterns are more wonky than i thought......

DD2 said the same, pretty much. Except she wasn't quite as clear. She said 'you don't have to switch any buttons.' But I interpreted that to mean that either you don't have to turn the cinema on, or that you don't have to press the buttons on the controller to choose what you're watching.

I've been watching this thread and am so incredibly close to ordering this. Just wondered if I told you (briefly) about my dd whether you think it'd be useful.

She is 5.11, her vocab seems to be good. She's an above average reader however she lacks the comprehension behind what she's reading. Her social skills and communication are awful. At home with just us and her sister her communication is pretty good but the more distant the person the less they get. She's quite inappropriate with her language eg her teacher is telling her off so she sings gangnam style to her and calls her a sexy lady. Time out, being sent to the head doesn't bother her at all, no idea about hierarchy. She's often resorts to tears if its something she doesn't want to do. If she asks me a why question, if I was to turn it around and say 'why do you think that might be' she can't give me an answer, not even a guess and just gets cross.

Sorry that wasn't as brief as I thought. Tia

I wouldn't hesitate to use it with a child with such a profile.
It should, if used regularly and appropriately, help you unpick and pinpoint a lot of specific areas with which she has problems.

It's ordered! Thankyou moondog.

DD2 is the same at home, mumgoingcrazy - doesn't recognise that she's being rude at all. She's very passive at school, so it doesn't come out there.

Go for it! I'll add you to our list

Using Lft:

Lougle - DD2 (5.9)
Starfish71 - DS
Handywoman - DD
vikinglights - DD2 (5)
DisAstrophe - DS
StarlightMcKenzie -DS
ouryve - DS

Considering Lft:
Someoneoutthere
Ineedmorepatience
Mumgoingcrazy

Supporters:
Poltergoose (thank you, lovely)
EllenJaneismyname

Encouraging and guiding, but absolutely not advising:
Moondog

I use it with dd too btw.

It's interesting to see typical development alongside ds', but also, she appears to benefit just as much. She's 4.

I assessed DD3, Star, also 4 .

Amazing to see how much more conventional her thoughts are.

My dd2 is 8.2 yrs, for your roll call. Dd2 did well tonight, just needs to pull out more fully formed sentences to match her other skills.

Do feel empowered to copy, edit and paste

It's DS1 I'll be using it with - mine arrived today, but I've been taking advantage of DH being off work trying to get his car sorted out (£400 for a new valve - ouch!) and elbow deep in paint and filler in the boys' room. Plus DS1's been off on one, all day. He'd have refused to participate and never wanted to see it again.

My hunch, looking at the descriptors and examples is that he's mostly level B - there's a few things in there that he can't achieve, but there's level C things he definitely does, if he is sufficiently motivated. Broken down cars were on his mind a lot, today and he asked me, out of the blue "what would happen if a car was stuck in reverse?" I went down the what do you think? what would be the consequence of that route with him and he postulated "What if it was on the motorway? It wouldn't be very good because the car would either have to go in the wrong lane or it would crash."

How exciting ouryve Pick your moment wisely.

He's proved himself capable of this sort of abstract thought on a few occasions. It's such a shame that he is unable to put the same sort of thought into real life situations, or a situation that's presented to him, but not of his choosing. Quite often, his own fixed ideas take over. "how do you think DS2 feels when you pull his hair?" is met with "nothing" at best or usually "I don't pull his hair."

It's a different process, I think.

DD1 can speak quite well spontaneously, on a subject of her choosing. Her ability to answer questions is markedly less competent.

Similarly, DD2 can wax lyrical (in her own unique grammar) about something, but finds it very hard to get the point of a scenario put to her.

It's definitely the skill he needs to work on. It should help him socially as well as with school work - his comprehension is holding him back. His technical language is excellent - he's just been very pedantic about the story Ceri just read out on CBeebies. There was a line "Four little field mice, like you and I." and every time she said it, he shouted out "ME!"

I asked both of mine the question, separately.
DS 'It depends on which planet you are on, and if you'd ever seen a dog or an alien before. I mean if I met a Martian and I had a dog with me, we'd both be aliens to the Martian. If I'd never seen an alien or a dog before, they'd both be aliens to me.

DD went into a long monologue on the meaning of the word alien being strange, illegal aliens in the states, aliens depending on your perspective of what was different, Dr Xargle's books and ended up by pointing that Welsh meant strange or foreign originally in the same way as alien...etc etc
and wanted me to clarify exactly what I meant by 'difference' and 'alien' before she committed herself to an answer.
I haven't asked OH, his response would probably be along the same lines as DD.

There are rarely simple questions in this house.

This is all too funny Perhaps I got the good end of the stick when DD2 said 'Aliens have planets and dogs just have houses.'

Polter and Goblin - both brilliant responses :D

Just asked DS2 (13) and he said, 'Is it a joke? Um, dogs walk on four feet and are down to Earth.' Not a brilliant answer and maybe too much time spent teaching him idioms, I think.

I think it sounds a fascinating approach, the book is too expensive for me to buy at the moment, but come end of July I'll be investing. I think detailed unpicking is a very effective approach to aiding communication.
I've got a significant EAL/ESL background, and listening and thinking by the teacher should always be the first step IMO.
This sort of reminds me of that.

I asked my two about aliens and dogs...

DS (age 11): Aliens supposedly live on other planets, and dogs live on earth. [narrows eyes] Why are you asking me? Is it one of those stupid aspergers things?

DD (age 5, not supposed to have any language issues, but starting to doubt myself after asking her this question): Aliens have heads wot go like this (random gesture), and dogs have heads wot go like this (almost identical random gesture).

Doh.