Is Are and Am : Three very important words

One of the telling signs of how a child's language is developing, in preschool and elementary, is the accuracy of their most simple sentences.

A child whose language seems to be developing typically will have relatively grammatical simple sentences. He is walking, She is happy, I am tired, etc.

However, one sign that a child may not be picking up on intricacies in grammar markers, especially as they get older, is eliminating parts of these sentences.

And one elimination that is seen which is often corrected, because it teaches a child to pay attention to little details in sentences, is the elimination of auxiliary verbs "is", "are", and "am."

So, if a child is saying, "I hungry" - then they would need to say "I am hungry" or "I'm hungry."

This is quite a simple one to correct in daily routines. If a child is eliminating the auxiliary verb (basically the helping verb is, are, or am), then you can simple repeat the sentence back, making sure to stress the word that is missed.

For example - if your child says "she happy", you could say, "you are right. She issss happy. She'sss happy."

Just this simple repetition - 1-2 times, with different forms, is enough. Notice that you do not need to have the child repeat, or explain why the previous sentence is incorrect. Just praise "You are right!" and shape "she is happy"

Simple! You can do this any time you are pointing out what other people, characters, or animals are doing.

And, if you are a worksheet sort of person - here is a story / game based worksheet by Smarter Speech on TPT which works on really emphasizing the difference between "that cool" and "that's cool" - while correcting not your child, but a parrot :)

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.