Young readers should be corrected whenever they make a mistake

Reading is essential for a child's success as it helps them to acquire early language skills. It is recognised as important to language development. Not only does it give basic speech skills but it helps children to communicate more effectively. The term 'corrected' in the question means to tell children the standard use of the lexis they are using and a 'mistake' is an example of a non-standard miscue. 

Ways of correcting children's miscues can be through positive or negative reinforcement. This is from Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory which says that positive reinforcement is when a certain behaviour, in this case language, is praised or rewarded so the child will want to repeat it. In the text, George struggles with the word "sandbags" and his mother takes a phonic approach by telling him to, "sound it out". When he pronounces it right, she gives him positive reinforcement by saying, "well done". George later struggles with this word again and says, "sanbags". This is likely because it is not a local topic and so is an example of low frequency lexis. It is also a compound word with a consonant cluster meaning the 'd' is unstressed. This may be the reason why George struggles enunciating the word. George's mother models breaking down the compound word in to "sand" and "bag". This is an example of scaffolding which relates to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) meaning that George can say the compound word with support and strategy from the caregiver. After his struggle with the word "sandbags", George is praised by his mother with a "well done". 

Skinner's theory states that negative reinforcement is performing a behaviour to avoid a negative response. An example of negative reinforcement in the transcript is when George says, "we never" and his mother replies, "nooo". This highlights the virtuous error and his mother elongates the word 'no' to mitigate it as it can sound quite harsh. This may be because too many corrections, particularly if they are similar to punishment (another feature of Skinner's theory), may discourage them from reading and reading is a vital element in order for children to learn. George continues to self correct himself when he says, "no we need". This is an example of the 'top-down' cognitive approach as George guesses the word "never" instead of "need" because they have visual similarity. They have the same initial grapheme and are similar word lengths which is why the error is virtuous.

According to Piaget's theory, children develop language abilities in different stages. These are the sensori-motor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational stages. George is 7 years old so according to Piaget's theory is between the pre-operational and concrete operational stages. The pre-operational stage looks at children not knowing the difference between the child interacting with others and thinking out loud. In the concrete operational stage, the child is capable of using logic and of solving problems in the form of stories. In the text, George uses several strategies to work out what words are. He uses the phonic approach and the breaking down of compound words. When George says "to their house", his mother replies "watch the endings". This gives a sense that George often miscues on this which means that he has not quite reached the concrete operational stage as he is not solving problems without assistance yet. Later on in the text he makes the same mistake by saying "made" instead of "may". This time, his mother immediately corrects him. This may be to preserve the flow of him reading as he continues to read the rest of the extract without help.

The context may have an effect on the language used by children. For example, George says "upstairs" instead of "upset" because the image in the book shows Mum on the stairs. This is a word guessing error and his mother prompts him to try again by saying "look at the word". George then use the phonic approach to sound out the word "upset" and he gets it right. He is then praised through positive reinforcement by his mother saying "that's right". This can relate to Bruner's interactionist theory in the children learn language best through interaction with others. George miscuing the "upstairs" with "upset" can relate to the iconic stage of Bruner's theory where information is stored through images. Without George's mother giving him strategies to correct himself, he may miscue far more frequently. These strategies will help with George's cognitive growth as Bruner's theory states that the outcome of cognitive development is thinking.

It is important to correct children when they make a mistake whilst reading as this helps them to learn. However, this can become an issue if children are being corrected too frequently or corrected through punishment. This is because it may discourage them from reading which may affect them later in life. George's mother does not always necessarily correct him but helps him to work out the word through different strategies. Skinner's positive and negative reinforcement helps with child language acquisition as it teaches them if they are miscuing. This will help them to self-correct in the future and become independent readers.