Naming Things

Words are the basis for our written and spoken language.  So we need to find ways to teach our kids the words they need, to broaden their vocabulary (which will broaden their life experiences as well). For this goal, you will get help from your child’s school or therapy programs, but you’ll need to work on vocabulary at home too.

Focused Talking

You’ll want to teach your child the names of household things they need.  The first step is to show them the actual object (let’s say a spoon).  Ideally, you could find three or four different examples of spoons so your child starts to generalize the concept of what a spoon is.  Your child can ‘name’ the spoon by signing, saying or using AAC. Keep expanding the way your child can identify spoons by using picture representations (more on that below). Once they know this word, you can give them their cereal and wait a minute to see if they ask for a spoon. If not, ask, “What do you need?” and prompt ‘spoon’ on their AAC. Once they press the button and the iPad speaks, ‘spoon’ you get them a spoon right away or you show them the spoons right away so they can get one for themselves.

Picture Representations

Once your child can reliably name a spoon, you can make some flashcards.  Pairing the actual object with the photo will help your child understand the concept of photographic representations. Our printer can take blank index cards, and we can print any image off of the internet.  We made our own index cards for years.

If you can manage it financially, a good color printer will come in handy over the years. It will allow you to print new cards any time your child is ready and also, you can make flashcards for each family member with actual photos of your family. 

A Hint

Keep the photos very simple.  If you take your own photos, don’t have anything confusing in the background.  If you’re teaching the word spoon, three or four different photos that only have a spoon in them with a relatively clear background.  

Or

They do sell sets of ready-made flashcards. Search vocabulary flashcards on amazon.com and you will get some good examples. Of course, they also sell boxes with verbs and adjectives…as your child’s vocabulary builds over time. 

By the time we stopped using this method with Mikey, he had a shoebox full of notecards and he could verbally name them all.  He loved practicing and felt proud to be learning so many words.

For a post on how journaling can facilitate vocabulary development, click the link below.