	There are many different elements that comprise the language arts, some of which are receptive and some of which are expressive. One of the receptive elements is reading. In its later stages, reading involves a child learning how to decode words, sentences and larger blocks of text and connecting what they are decoding to actual meaning. Before they can decode words, their experiences with other symbols form the basis of similar understanding. For example, a very young toddler will learn to recognize visual symbols and learn from experience to associate those symbols with specific meanings. They might recognize the Pepsi logo and associate it with having the drink, or recognize the Nike logo and associate it with their clothing or their parents’ clothing. They are also exposed to print letters and develop an understanding that those letters are also symbols that carry associations and meanings. As they proceed towards literacy, some children have stages where they believe letters are like pictures rather than components that make sounds and form words. However, as they reach school age, many students are able to read in the sense that they can decode words and understand simple texts. They are able to construct meaning from those texts. In the early elementary grades, they may read a lot of books where the text is accompanied by pictures that aid them in their understanding, but they know that it is the words they are reading, not the pictures. As they become more fluent, they rely less on the pictures to aid in their reading, and they are able to understand more complex texts that move beyond plain, literal ideas into texts that have layers of meaning. Their strategies for decoding new words become more complex with experience as well. For example, while very young students may gather meaning by relying heavily on pictures, older students who have developed basic reading skills and a wider vocabulary have the background knowledge to decipher meaning via semantics and knowledge of what word is appropriate there based on context. Students who have the background knowledge in sentence structure can take a beginning step to understand a sentence based on whether or not the word needed is a noun, verb, or adjective. 
	Writing, which is an expressive element of the language arts, is closely related to reading. From a very young age, as children recognize letters are symbols used to communicate something, though some children go through stages where they believe letters are pictures of things, rather than parts of words. What they do know is that they see letters on images, on their TV screens, and they see family members writing. They try to model that writing, forming letter-like shapes or something approximating letters without necessarily knowing what they mean. They begin to learn that the letters and words they are learning can be read, can also be written by themselves to communicate what they want. As children learn how to decode and find meaning in text, the realization that they can be writers too comes along with it. As they reach elementary school age, children have usually learned the purpose of letters and know that they are not pictures, and that they are used to form words, and words are used to form sentences. They know that if they write, people can read it. These children often go through stages as they improve their writing and spelling abilities, however. For example, early students might not write spaces between their words, or they might not understand other foundations of print, including the use of punctuation or ordering letters left to right. They might write as they hear and represent whole words with only the first sound they hear in a word, a skill that will improve as they develop phonemic awareness and become familiar with deciphering all the sounds that make up words. The stage of writing words as they hear them will evolve into writing longer, complete words, but some students will struggle with the irregularities of English, leaving off silent letters, struggling with complex phonemes like “ph” and “f” or the similar sounds that C and S can make, and they will continue to make many errors with punctuation. With more exposure to reading and vocabulary instruction, conventional writing will come to elementary students. They will be able to write longer passages in a variety of formats, from personal journals to research reports to even poems and pieces of drama. 
