Children's Language

The more teachers understand about how children learn to talk, the more they can help children become avid, joyful readers and writers. Drawing on a large body of research and her own volunteer work at a family shelter, Lindfors concisely identifies several important commonalities across oral and written language. Taking the compelling perspective that it’s all language, she traces children’s emergent literacy from infancy through the early school years. The book incorporates abundant examples from a diverse range of children engaged in authentic literacy experiences. Lindfors describes a set of principles that teachers can build on as they help young students learn to read and write using the oral language processes they already know.

Book Features:

• A new, more positive “language acquisition perspective” on children’s literacy.
• Fascinating and insightfully framed quotes, writings, and drawings from children.
• A 24-page Guide for Instructors and Teacher Study Groups, available for download at www.teacherscollegepress.com.
• An Appendix containing an interview with shelter staff from SafePlace, a domestic violence shelter, offering basic information on how to identify children who are living in situations of violence and how teachers can respond.

Judith Wells Lindfors is Professor Emerita at The University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Children’s Inquiry: Using Language to Make Sense of the World.

“Judith Lindfors’s newest book informs and educates us, but, above all, it inspires us to become better teachers.”
—From the Foreword by Vivian Gussin Paley

“A valuable resource for teacher educators.”
—Gail Perry, New Books Editor, Young Children

“Children's Language offers a return to sanity in children’s early literacy development —an appeal for ‘joy in a literate community’ with logic and evidence to support it.”
—Peter Johnston, the University at Albany-SUNY

“Once again, with her unique insights, Judith Lindfors describes and updates children's oral and written language development to inform those of us who work with young children.”
—Yetta M. Goodman, Regents Professor Emerita, University of Arizona, College of Education

“Children’s Language gives us a front row seat at a spectacular show. This book should appeal to anyone who has ever been intrigued by young children’s language learning.”
—Carole Edelsky, Arizona State University

Guide for Instructors and Teacher Study Groups