Who decided up was up and down was down? Moreover, how do you teach those, with words, when words (spoken and received) are your challenge? It’s all in the pictures.
She was learning about inside and outside. Now that I think about it, what makes inside inside? Who decided that outside was outside? And if you’re three years old and new to the planet with a speech challenge then none of it makes any sense. When asked what you see outside, she gave me something that in her mind was an answer but wasn’t the answer.
How did we deal with that? Get moving….go outside and talk about outside; point to things; name things. Then, go inside and talk about inside; point to things; name things. I know, these are things you should be doing anyway. But, if the language and the concepts don’t make sense in general, what makes you think that talking about them with no real purpose is going to be any more successful.
Discovery - seize the moment. I learned to quickly think about the best visual to support the early childhood concepts.
Up – down; in- out; before – after…all of these a fundamentals to pre-reading and pre-math. If she doesn’t get them now, knowing what comes after 5 will be a struggle.
Discovery - there’s lots of information about early childhood concepts; you have to figure out which comes first the chicken or the egg.
Discovery - multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner). An excellent resource on how to tap and strengthen your child’s other intelligences. For us, experiencing the concept made the words meaningful. See, feel do…that helped the words develop greater meaning. Music and rhythm were the glue and the channel that we function on. Anything can be turned into a song…music appeals to her and she has grasped the concepts through movement and music…so, sing, sing, sing!
Find the message media that works for you – sing, dance, draw, act. Your child has gifts – find them and use them as you work your way through the early childhood concepts – inside, outside, upside down and all of the other pre-school concepts that pave the way for the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment