Week 3 Words and Building on Language

I hope that everyone enjoyed last week's adventure of trying to utilize the comparison words of "He" and "She".  If your child is still having difficulty with this concept continue to work on this skill over the next week while introducing the new words.  Don't try to push your child's language faster than he or she is ready to learn.  This will make the language learning process both frustrating for you and your child.  Be consistent in your approach.  Be positive in any attempts made by your child to use these new concepts.  Be rewarding when the concepts are utilized correctly.  Make sure to reinforce to your child that you are proud of their attempt to master new language skills.  We all like to have a reward of some type when we accomplish something that was challenging, your child is no different!

If you are finding that 6 words a week is too limiting, and want to add some words that are personally relevant to your family then add no more than 4 additional words per week and make sure to utilize the same Fitzgerald color coding system.

Here are the Wright's Word Wall words for Week 3:

People/Pronoun:   It
Action:                  Like
Noun:                    Day
Describing Word: Happy
Place:                    Store
Social Vocabulary: What's up?

The addition of the word "it" to your child's vocabulary should allow him or her to be able to talk about anything within the room with an associated gesture or eye gaze.  Teaching a child the word "it" will help reduce his or her frustration in not knowing the names, or having names available if using an AAC system, of items or objects.  The action word "like" can be a challenging word to teach because it is not an outward action, it is an internal action.  However, most parents do an outstanding job of utilizing the word like in a variety of daily of activities "I like how you cleaned your room", " I like how you are walking quietly", etc.  Teaching a word that is an internal feeling or emotion is the first step in teaching your child a couple of key social skills 1) that he or she can feel differently on the inside about different things, 2) that he or she may feel differently about things than someone else and that it is okay (perspective), and 3) that he or she can self-regulate his or her emotions through understanding the way he or she feels about situations or emotions.  In order to help you teach the positive attribute typically associated with the word like, the describing word for this week is "happy".  When we are around something we "like", "it" typically makes us feel "happy".  Knowing that many children enjoy new toys or food, the general word "store" was selected.  You can add a specific type in front of the word Grocery "store" or Toy "store" to help teach that a general word can be attached to a specific word in word combinations.

Language Strategy for the Week: Expansion
For this week, specifically in regard to the 18 word wall words that have been provided you should attempt to have your child combine them in any which way.  If your child is still using only single words. EXPAND for them.  If your child says "like" while eating a ice cream...you say back "You like cold ice cream".  This simple strategy will provide an example for your child.  Don't push your child to say what you say, just continue to give that example for any single word used by your child.  It is best to provide and expansion that contains 2-3 more words than your child used if trying to get him or her to use more words per utterance.

Continue to practice all 18 word wall words. Try to incorporate them into daily activities. They are frequently occurring words in print.  If your child is grasping them quickly then please start adding "short words" (a, an, the) by writing them on plain white cards.