Abstract
This paper, which was an address to the NCTE Elementary Language Arts Conference in Boston in 1975, discusses two kinds of linguistic innovation in children. Language acquisition is an innovative process, in which children create their own sentences and their own rules for making sentences. Evidence of the creative nature of language learning is presented for both preschoolers and children of elementary school age. The role of reading (and listening to books read aloud) in language development is cited, and it is suggested that exposure to the relatively complex language of written materials provides an effective stimulus to language learning. Invented spelling systems, created by children who write before they know how to read, are another form of linguistic innovation. Four- and five-year-olds who do not yet read can use letters of the alphabet to write words exactly the way they sound. This interesting ability is discussed, with a consideration of its relation to learning how to read later on.
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