I know you all are very interested in prepositions, like in, out, around, and under, and I don’t want to do a bait and switch, but in explaining how to teach those tricky prepositions, it’s best to start with basics of good teaching. There are really only four steps to teach your young child any language concept, and many other concepts and skills for that matter. So let’s begin with the good teaching basics…
1. Tell.
When you want to teach your child something new, it’s best to consider if it’s something he’s ready to learn and then keep down the chatter, focusing primarily on what you really want him to learn. You do all this by staying in your child’s Zone of Proximal Development and then talking less, and saying more.
2. Show.
Most of us are visual learners or benefit from the addition of visual information to support learning a new concept. That’s why adults use handouts or Powerpoint for presentations. Children require different levels of visual supports depending on their level of abstract representation. If you were trying to represent the idea of being in bed, the continuum works kind of like this – a real bed, a blanket on the floor, a dollhouse sized bed, a color photograph, a color drawing, a black and white drawing, and finally, a symbol or the written word.
To keep it fun and interesting, I like to mix these different types of visual supports. For example, I may use a book that includes the written word and drawing of a bed, a miniature bed with blankets, and a separate, more symbolic image of a bed. When you offer up all of these different types of visual supports, you are putting all different types of marks on the same page, and filling that page more quickly.
3. Involve.
So, this is the really fun part. This is the play, the movement, the do. This is where you set up the environment full of all of those awesome visual supports (the book, the bed, the blankets, the picture of a bed, and toss in some teddy bears to represent the bears in the book). You add in a child already primed for learning because he’s experienced the steps of Show and Tell. Then, you turn him loose!
But, hold up. WAIT. There are a few quick things related to involving your child in learning that I’d like to point out…
- This smartly set up environment and free play time is integral to children really learning new concepts. If you skip this step and only do the Show and Tell, they don’t have a chance to generalize what they’ve learned to real play. Generalization of skills is king, because it’s how children are able to really use knowledge functionally each day. Giving time immediately, when the concepts are fresh in their mind, allows children to practice and kinesthetically act out what they’ve learned, and encourages them to internalize the concepts and integrate them into their knowledge base.
- This Involve step, including movement and real play, is even MORE important for teaching prepositions. Prepositions can be abstract and confusing, and your child is going to learn much more at first from physically being in a bed or under a “bridge”, than from just looking at a picture of those ideas.
- I know what you’re thinking. Well then, can’t I just skip the first two steps and get to the involve part? Some kids don’t need all of the prep work of telling and showing for them to be ready to explore and learn in a well set-up free play environment, BUT… some do. If you give some kids a teddy bear, a blanket, and a bed, they will engage in endless sequences of fun pretend play. Other children aren’t sure where to begin, and instead they may just ignore the materials all together because they don’t have a context that makes those things meaningful. The fact is, ALL children make more connections and benefit from integrated activities and repetition of concepts. So, it’s never a bad idea to tell and show first, maybe by reading a book or presenting exciting materials about a concept, before moving to the step of involving a child in the play. Children that already know and understand a lot about those concepts will have an even deeper experience and will easily take those ideas and expand on them during their free play.
One note about Tell, Show, and Involve is that they are not necessarily done exclusively in that order. For example, I tend to do all of my showing and telling together, mixed in with a little involving. Then, do a lot of involving at the end, mixed in with a little showing and telling. Make sense?
4. Repeat.
This is where a lot people drop the ball. Don’t just read that book today or set up the play scene once. Do it several times. Read two books on the same topic. Read both books for the entire week. Repetition is what fills pages, so keep the fun going to see how you can deepen or expand your child’s experience.
And now that I’ve told you the steps of good teaching, I’d like to show you. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, Prepositions: Two Ways, where you can see that bed and those bears in action.
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Kim, as always fantastic! You have such a wonderful knowledge of play, early childhood learning, and of course speech development! You got me thinking… again!
Alisha-
I’d love to know how this applies, or doesn’t, to teaching new motor skills and patterns. Obviously the tell part may not be as important, but your thoughts would be invaluable.
Kim, that is exactly what got me thinking! Of course, this is how most of us already teach our children motor skills, except the showing part is by actual demonstration. “Look at Mommy stack the blocks.” Then, we give kids the opportunity to try. I like the idea of finding books where some of the motor skills are demonstrated, although this could be tricky. For kids that are having a particularly difficult time with a certain skill, like cutting, maybe home made visual directions/actual pictures in a book style would help. I know that isn’t a totally novel idea, but your post highlights its importance!
Good thoughts. I also know that verbal routines help kids with motor skills. When I would do craft projects where we were glueing, I always said, “OH-ver. Spread the glue, spread the glue, SPREAD the glue! Over. Press down, press down, press DOWN!” I heard kids doing that themselves the rest of the year to talk themselves through that activity.
LOVE THIS!!!! Absolutely fantastic. You know what I have found interesting? My son’s vocabulary is developing vastly different from my daughters. Though his is developing slower and later, his has significantly more concepts (vs. nouns) than my daughter had. He is all about in/out on/off up/down etc. Very functional words. No fluff…just to the point. Very man-like
Anyway, great post!!
Katie-
That is so interesting. I wonder if there really is a built in reason for it. Maybe men’s brains developed to really focus on movement and action for hunting and women used language much more socially as their work involved one another more intimately each day. It probably also impacts (to some degree) how much some girls vs some boys need each step (Tell, Show, Involve). This is a PhD we could do together some day! You have my wheels a turnin’.
Right???? It has been fascinating watching Everett’s language develop. His first word was EARLY at 9.5 months (bye bye) but had no new words for MONTHS. Then they started slowly coming in. Off, on (both definitions of both, as in a light in/off and location on/off) were pretty early ones. He will be two next month, still speaks in one word utterances most of the time, yet has so many FUNCTIONAL concepts that he has little problems communicating. He fit’s “late talker” well despite the fact he has an SLP mom and an older sibling. Anyway…would be an EXCELLENT Ph.D plan! love your thoughts on the hunter vs. social.
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This was another fabulous post! My 3yo daughter is big into processing and repetition – she often asks me to tell her stories of events that happened to us – anything from going to the post office to how she navigated a social situation at the playground.
With the second child phenomenon, I wonder if it is not necessarily the fact the second child is boy (my second born is a boy too! He’s 13 months and only has a very few words), but rather that he is a second born? With my first I had time to do lots and lots (and lots) of noun naming. With my second, I still do a bit of noun naming (naming things he points out or looks at, “light” “book” “bed” etc.) but a lot of my time is also spent engaging with a 3yo on her level, so he is hearing more complex speech than she was at the same age. I wonder if that would impact the types of words and concepts he picks up first?
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This is awesome!! I found you via Playing With Words 365. I love how you point out the repetition and different styles of teaching. When I taught teenagers, I tried to expose them to a new concept seven times–usually through notes, class discussion, a warm up activity, a lab, a demo or physical activity, a written review, and an oral review–before a test. It makes so much sense to see young children learning in a similar way!!
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Carla-
Thanks for stopping by! You are so right and it’s interesting to hear it from a perspective of more advanced learners. I guess, no matter the age, multi-modal teaching and repetition work for all of us. In a classroom setting where you have many different styles and needs for number of repetition, it’s crucial and hopefully something all teachers do. If you do it all, you know you’ve reached each child along the way.
At home, with younger children, parents can tailor it a bit more, but I caution parents from tailoring it too much and skipping over certain methods too frequently. Using your child’s strongest method (listening, watching, doing) and combining it with the others, strengthens the weaker methods and creates a more well-rounded learner.
Thanks for your insight and thoughtful comment! Look forward to chatting with you more!
~Kim
Great post about how children learn. It’s so true that they need to do all of these things to generalise skills. Great blog!
Thanks, Helen!
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