Use of Pictures to Encourage Verbal Skills

Happy child girl eats watermelonI have been on vacation this week and I was thinking about our little language learners while walking through the streets of New York! First time visitor and I feel blessed for the opportunity. And, I felt compelled to take a bunch of pictures. Why share this information in a speech blog post?

Between the ages of 2-4 kids begin to verbally relate personal experiences about their day. (Here is a link to the LinguaSystems Communication Milestones on my Pinterest page for one reference).  Sometimes I like to do a simple craft, a coloring activity (A-Z freebies), or a bingo dauber activity (freebies on this website) to leave a footprint of my session with the child. That way, later in the day there is an opportunity to ask the child “What did you do today?” “Who did you see today?” If the child cannot answer, then I tell parents to pair the question with the visual of the art activity.

Think about vacation time for yourselves. With pictures in front of you, you are more apt to share more about your vacation. Why? The pictures trigger information, therefore, you have more to share verbally. Think about our little visual learners who benefit from pictures whether it be picture schedules or PECS or books in general. And eek! One of my pet peeves is the interchange of terms for PECS, visuals, and using pictures to learn. These each involve a different thought process and implementation of the pictures.

Bleeker-Street-PizzaTake pictures of your vacations or even places you frequent often. Car wash. Grocery store. Dunkin Donuts. Scroll through the pictures with your little one later in the day and talk about what happened that day. Use the pictures as a visual strategy to help the child either describe what happened, label the pictures, or at least as a learning opportunity.  Describe the pictures while looking at them with your child.  Use pictures that are meaningful for your child…such as PIZZA!

And, I could not help myself! On my list for this vacation (bucket list vacation) was New York style pizza and Bleeker Street Pizza fit the bill. Three dollars per slice. Thin, crispy and delicious. Yum! And now I have a visual/picture to remember the place.

I am keeping this week’s post short so I can focus on my vacation but I thought I would share links to my own favorite posts thus far on my blogging journey in case you missed them! In future posts we will talk about using photos in other ways such as in visual schedules. But, next week we will continue on with another Toys and Tips post discussing one of my favorites!

  1. Toys and Tips to Encourage Language I
  2. Toys and Tips to Encourage Language II
  3. Low Tone: It Is Not Just a Speech Thing
  4. Kiddos Who “Overstuff” at Mealtimes   

#maxine

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Luxurious drawing tools on a wooden table

  1. njbowen1111

    New York!!!! So much to experience there. Glad you are working on your bucket list????✈️⛴??????

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