“Schoolhouse Rock” songs and cartoons try to make learning fun, but (conjunction!) the grammar tunes will be over your four-year-olds’ head, and aren’t exactly what they need to know.
Have you ever thought about the grammar your child is expected to exhibit at a Manhattan private school kindergarten interview?
I find many preschoolers generally lack proper use of these grammatical areas:
- Complete sentences
- Regular plurals
- Irregular plurals
- Regular past tense verbs
- Irregular past tense verbs
- Pronouns
In my Manhattan practice, irregular past tense verbs are most challenging for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Anything familiar sounding below?
“I goed to the zoo today!”
“He eated a hot dog.”
“Mommy buyed me gummy bears.”
“I rided my scooter home from school.”
Looking at the verbs above, (“Schoolhouse Rock” fans will know verbs are “What’s happening” (When I’m feeling really active, I run, I ride, I swim, I fly!) one can see the child is using a regular past tense ending (–ed) on what should be irregular verbs:
goed instead of went
eated instead of ate
buyed instead of bought
rided instead of rode
Kindergartener’s may provide other variations of irregular past tense verbs.
In typically developing children, irregular past tense verbs are generally learned / memorized with relative ease, as long as correct models and carryover at home are consistent.
How can you help your kindergartener?
Kindergarten age children and their parents often enjoy practicing irregular past tense verbs with this deck of cards for homework.
Reinforcing the verbs during everyday activities (as they naturally come up), and during pretend play will help these verbs become part of your pre-kindergartener or kindergartener’s language.
Should you feel your child needs additional grammatical, language, articulation or kindergarten readiness support, and you live on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, please feel free to contact Stephanie Sigal, M.A. CCC-SLP, speech-language therapist. Stephanie looks forward to hearing from you!