Page 124 - Routines-Based Early Intervention Guidebook

Routines-Based Early Intervention Guidebook

Teaching Labeling Skills 9.4

the words needed for burying treasure and living on a ship.

2. Interact with Older Children – Older children have more developed vocabularies.

Younger children naturally want to fit in and love spending me with older children.
By crea ng events that cross‐pollinate age groups we have organic exposure to a

larger use of vocabulary. Some school models such as Montessori are designed to

mix ages. Elementary schools o en have reading‐buddy programs where older
classes pair up with younger classrooms. Addi onally, some schools offer

mentoring from the older students. If a child or student has limited vocabulary,

these are great opportuni es to naturally have their labeling skills expand.

3. Increase Exposure to New Toys and Objects– This is easier at school than at home

as new toys, objects, and books are swapped out with the weekly change of
themes. Teachers should know that children with low vocabulary skills might

require longer exposure to an object to be able to name it. Parents should know

that frequent trips to the library or crea ng a toy exchange with friends can
greatly enhance their child’s naming abili es. A great way to merge the home

and school environment is to have the teacher send some objects home the week

a er she is finished using them for teaching. This gives the child the opportunity to

prac ce his new words with his parents. The parents can exchange the objects

each Monday for the next set of words.
4. Use Many Descrip ve Words – When an object is named alongside a descrip ve

word (brown cat), the object label is reinforced because it stays the same while the

descrip ve word changes and enhances the child’s understanding of the word.
Brown cat becomes, big cat, mean cat, one cat, old cat, or walking cat which

creates further understanding of the word cat.

5. Emphasize New Words – When a child uses a new word or correctly labels an

object for the first me, make a big deal of it. This lets her know that naming

objects is important and she will be on the lookout for opportuni es to label
objects and receive praise again.

Copyright © 2014 Bilinguis cs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
116