• Language


    Language is made up of shared rules that include word meaning (vocabulary) and the ability to put words together (syntax) to comprehend and express messages.


    To Improve Listening Skills


    To be a good listener you need the following; 

    1.  Eyes-Look at the speaker
    2.  Ears-To catch the sound
    3.  Mouth-no talking (can’t listen and talk at same time)
    4.  Hands free
    5.  Body Still
    l
     
     Activities to Enhance Listening and Memory (Remember if you listen you will improve your ability to remember what was said or done)

     1.    Try and identify environment sounds

     hear hear

     2.    Following Directions (Scavenger Hunt or Following recipes)

     3.    Lotto

     4.    Play “Im going on a picnic and I will bring-----“

     5.    Simon Says

     

     To Improve Vocabulary

     1.    Play Category games (words that are similar function,eg., clothing)

     a.    Bingo Games

     b.    Concentration

     c.     I’m going on a picnic…..

     

     
    Examples of Category Groups                                                                                                                           

        Activity Words 

        Location Words

        Food Groups

        Clothing Items

        Holiday Words

          Vacation Words 

     

     
     2.    Use multiple meaning words (antonyms, synonyms and homonyms)

     3.    Make Compound Words

     4.    Make picture or word dictionary when encountering new words.

     5.    Make Journals, scrapbooks, or coloring books for new places or experiences.

     6.    Make scrapbooks of related words and topics.

     

     

     

    Syntax -The ability to combine words into cohesive and structurally correct forms to convey meaning. Below are a list or grammatical forms that develop sentences and convey meaning.  Games have been listed for each in order to develop the use of these forms to create sentences.

     

    Nouns/Pronouns

     1.    Take pictures of objects and people in your environment.  Have child label these objects and pictures, e.g., I am holding a picture of……………

     2.    Play Charades

     3.    Play Head Banz

     

    Prepositions

     1.    Play Hide and Seek – The child must say where he found the object or person hiding, e.g., The book is on the table, under the table, next to the table and so on.

     2.    Build a model and provide directions for putting the model together, e.g., put the wing on the right side of the body of the plane.

     

     Adjectives

     1.    Guess Who- Describe the chosen person remembering to use color, size, shape and texture words.

     2.    Head Banz-Remember to use color, size, shape and texture words to describe the object.

     

     Verbs

     1.    Charades “Guess what I am doing?”

     2.    Make an activity coloring book and cut or draw pictures of people doing different activities.

     3.    Play the Today/Yesterday Game: Today, I am eating and Yesterday, I ate.  Use as many actions words as you can find pictures or act out.

     

    Sentence Formation

     1.    Cut out words or pictures of nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, etc. and have the child unscramble the pictures to form sentences.  Remember a simple sentence is developed by connecting the following;

     

     Subject                                Verb                                Object

     (noun)                               (actions)                    (adjective or Noun)

      John                                is eating                            (candy)

     

     

     Practice with Questions

     1.    Practice questions using the question wheel. Fill in the spaces.

     
                                                                               wheel wheel  

     

     

    Who – Person

    What – Object or thing

    When – Time

    Where – Place

    Why – Reason

    How – The method

    Draw a large wheel and fill each space with one 'wh' question word.  Add a spinner and spin away making up questions or asking questions using the word the spinner lands on. 

     

    2.    Read books together and ask the above questions throughout and at the end of the story.

     

    3.    Play Bingo with the Question Words.

     

    Pragmatics (Social Skills)

     1.    Turn Taking using Board Games

     2.    Use pictures for examining different facial expressions and emotions

     
                                                        pragmatics
     

     

     3.Develop categories and make lists.

     Happy                 Sad                               Nervous                           Angry

     Birthdays            lost a toy                         going to a new                  no one is

                                                                                       place                              listening

     

    4. Initiation and ending conversation-use traffic lights for visual cue.

     

    5. Topic Maintenance – Discuss with your child that speaking is like a train and must stay on the tracks (topic) or the conversation may crash like a train that goes off the track.