Let’s talk about building a vocabulary for your toddler. I’ll use one my little friends as an example because in addition to pretty significant intelligibility issues, he’s also having a hard time with vocabulary.
One of my favorite things to use to increase vocabulary? Farm sets!
Here’s a quick vocabulary building tip:
If your little friend has some problems with vocabulary along with his phonological errors, be sure to pay extra attention to those language skills and simply repeat the correct production of words for the phonological errors. Toddlers have to be able to understand how to answer questions and identify items correctly before they can say words correctly. This is so important to remember when working with toddlers and is often a reason for lack of progress in sessions!
Building a vocabulary using a farm theme provides opportunities for generalization!
Building a Vocabulary that Expands
Here’s how we incorporated generalization into our session. Each of the animals are the same, however they look different; because of this, my little friend had to be able to identify and essentially categorize each animal. Being able to do this is called generalization. Generalization is always the ultimate goal because it verifies understanding of basic terminology and can also find that same item in different contexts!
Generalizing included:
- Match the plastic farm animals to the same animal on the puzzle.
- Match the plastic farm animal and/or puzzle piece to the pictures in the poke-a-dot book.
- Match the plastic farm animal to the peek-a-boo app on the ipad (which btw i LOVE using these apps- they are amazing!!)
Wait, that’s it?
Pretty simple, right? I don’t know about you, but when it comes to simplicity and toddlers…. I’m in!
Take this activity up a notch and google search farm animal pictures or farm animal songs & videos. Then use the puzzle pieces or plastic farm animals and compare them to the real life animal!
You can also do this whole idea with multiple vocabulary categories and many items throughout your home. This might include: matching similar kitchen items, laundry, toys, blocks, colors, or even matching shapes! I’ve also had parents use first word vocabulary flash cards to create scavenger hunts and matching games throughout home. This is a great way to put those flash cards to use and get your littles up and moving around. The possibilities are endless. Additionally, these activities provide opportunities for phonemic awareness.
Speaking of, if you’re looking for more ways to add phonemic awareness to your daily routine, check out this blog post!
Looking for more ways to improve toddler intelligibility? Don’t miss out! Sign up to receive emails & get your FREE Toddler Toolbox!
One Response