What is a sentence, anyway?

So many children get caught trying to run before they can walk. Or, under pressure to meet increasingly ambitious developmental goals, trying to write in sentences before they can speak in sentences.

What is a sentence anyway?

"Make sure you have a capital letter at the beginning of your sentence, and a full stop at the end".  We've all been there, we've probably all either said it or had it said to us.

I think most people who have ever paid any attention to a child's early composition will have seen a neat row of dots at the end of every line of writing, regardless of it's grammatical position.

Those educated in the dim and distant 1980's, like myself, will remember very little formal grammar. It simply wasn't taught beyond nouns, verbs and adjectives.

It's not that I don't use grammar, it is just very difficult to understand the terminology. I know when it's there and can spot when it isn't, but I couldn't explain a past participle if my life depended upon it.
My understanding of grammar is implicit.  It has never been explicit.

With the new curriculum focus on SPAG, grammar is hot again.  It is even tested in year 6.  Eek!

To clarify: In order to be a sentence, a group of words must have a subject and a predicate (which could be an action).   'The dog is sitting' is a simple sentence.  It can be made more complex with the addition of adjectives or subordinate clauses, but the subject and the predicate must remain.

So, how on Earth can we make grammar accessible to children in the early stages of formal language acquisition or with language impairment, for those children for whom grammar is not being picked up naturally?
In practise, these are the children who find it difficult to answer simple questions with more than a single word, or use basic statements to express wants and needs.
"Miss, need toilet."

I was lucky enough to spend some time with a very talented Speech and Language Therapist who was supporting a child in my class. She introduced me to Shape Coding, designed and introduced by Susan Ebbels, which you can learn about here. 

As a teacher, I need to help children speak in sentences in order for them to write in sentences.

Shape coding makes this possible in a simple, visual format.

What is learned naturally for most people, has to be taught explicitly to children with Language Disorders.
What I have found is that the large majority of children in our current world of moving on very quickly from skill to skill, also benefit from a bit of explicit teaching.  I have seen that taking Shape Coding a little farther and using it to support children's writing, can have dramatic positive effects.  Importantly, children can see their own success and begin to self-assess.
A shape for each part of the sentence means we can help children to see how to improve their sentence composition and consequently, their writing.  I have seen children write a relevant string of sentences with nouns, verbs, adjectives  and conjunctions correctly, wheras they may have previously struggled to write a few words or indeed form a complete sentence verbally.

I love it when something works.

Round Holes and Square Pegs

Hello and welcome to Square Pegs!

The intention of this blog is to offer pragmatic advice to parents, teachers and, frankly, anyone interested in children and their development.
I am a teacher, I am also a Mum.  I help children every day.  This does not make me qualified to advise anyone, I know.  That is not the intention here.  A simple Google search can provide all manner of information about every aspect of education and child development, Special Educational Needs and teaching strategies.
The problem I hope to address is that children cannot be categorised.
The problem is that policy makers and Google do not know THIS child. 
It can be difficult to relate academic papers, helpful information sheets, and the advice of healthcare and education professionals to a person.
That is my job.
I currently teach an intervention group in a mainstream school for children who are, for a very large variety of reasons, not 'getting on' with mainstream teaching.  These are the children who do not 'fit' the mould.  With the polarisation of teaching techniques and prescription of educational method to unprecedented levels, I can see increased panic in educational settings about children who stubbornly hold on to their individuality and refuse to 'fit'. I'm here to celebrate those children, to advocate for them and to help find a way for this success to be celebrated too. 
If we stretch the 'square peg' metaphor a little further, in order to make the square peg fit the round hole, we risk chipping away at the form itself.
I firmly believe that our wonderful, unique and eccentric children should remain just that and that our educational establishments should have the flexibility to fit around and include them, to celebrate these children in all their quirky joy and that in that, we foster happiness.  Essential to success.
I have been teaching for 20 years now and in that time have met thousands of children.  Every single one of those children had a different approach to learning.  Every single one of them is unique.  I would never be so bold as to claim that every single one has made amazing educational leaps under my tutelage, that would be ridiculous, but I have learned something from every child I have met and I am able to draw on that experience to support children every day.  Where I cannot support them myself, I can help parents and teachers to understand and interpret the advice and minefield of recommendations available and tailor support to individuals.
That is my aim.  To share my experience. Simples.