Grammar Rules 2: Verb Markers

Continuing our grammar series with part two!

A quick recap from the previous post: a child's grammar, especially starting from first grade, is a great indicator of language development. Of course, it is completely normal for kids to make grammar errors once in a while. However,several grammar errors - especially if there are patterns in the errors, which do not seem to improve over time, are worth looking into.

Grammar can tell us the following information : is your child keying into details in others' speech? (receptive language). Can your child then reproduce what they know, keeping that attention to detail when using sentences? (expressive language). And finally, is your child able to say particular sounds (especially the /s/ sound) effectively? (articulation).

Therefore, correcting grammar can actually boost language and articulation as a whole - which is probably why it is often a part of so many speech and language goals.

So, in part two of the grammar rules series, we are going to be looking at grammar markers that indicate a child's language level, and how to boost it.

The second markers, for part 2, are verb markers to indicate tenses

When your child is talking about what somebody else DOES, in present tense, does he say "he walk" or "he walks?" "He talk" or "he talks"?

And when your child is using past tense verbs, does he include the "ed" at the end? For example, does he say "he walked" or "he walk?"; "I talked" or "I talk?"

These verb endings come in typically any time from age 3 - age 5.

The easiest way to work on verb endings is to emphasize them - just in daily language.

For present tense /s/ (he walks), you can just discuss the jobs of people you know. "Oh, Aunt Lillian is a teacher. She teachESSSS." or "He's a construction worker. He buildSSS." The capital letters here are intentional. You can emphasize the letters, by holding them out, and stressing them, so your child notices the verb marker.

For past tense /ed/ (we walked), you can just start to recap what happened during the day, and again hold out and emphasize the end marker. "We walkED and then we cookED and last we brushED our teeth."

You do not need to explicitly teach these "rules." Your child instinctively catches onto those, the more they hear the endings, over and over again.

However, there is the option of just finding some find worksheets that target verb endings- especially if your child is older (1st - 2nd grade). Check our Smarter Speech's TPT worksheets on occupations (where you can talk about what each person does) and on verb tenses, if this seems like the route for you.

Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.