But word problems are much more difficult, and his kids have been doing a stock market project for half the year. During the first stage, called preproduction, children begin to take in the language and understand it, but they're not yet able to verbalize it. This is a time for listening activities, pointing to things, selecting, drawing. We can't expect to engage children in a conversation or ask them to respond to questions because it's too soon for them to deliver the language. The next stage is early production.
Children have limited verbalization and growing comprehension.
Because they understand bits and pieces of what is said, we have to remember that they still don't understand everything. Don't look for, or demand, complete sentences. Next comes speech emergence. You'll notice increased comprehension and simple sentences and, of course, some errors. Encourage students to retell and define, explain, compare, and describe.