During some of our Smart Talker pre-school groups we like to
include a snack time. During which, children are encouraged to sit around a
table together to enjoy a drink and healthy snack. This isn’t just so we can
have a rest and parents can have a good chat with their friends. It is actually
a fantastic and powerful opportunity to encourage communication.
This situation provides children with the following
opportunities:
·
having a good reason to communicate i.e. the motivation of food or drink
·
making a choice of snack and drink which is really important
·
Increasing their confidence
So what
should we be doing?
·
Working on language and communication
skills is most effective when done in real, everyday situations. We need to
make sure we are giving a child a reason
to communicate, an opportunity and a
means. (The means can be pointing
first, then answering a forced alternative e.g.
‘do you want water or juice?’, ‘... banana or raisins’ etc. Put the one you
think he/she wants last to begin with so he can copy easily at first.
·
When you are offering them a choice
of snack or drink, get down on their level; make sure you have their attention
by saying their name first, or tapping them on the arm.
·
Try and only give them a little bit at
a time so they have to ask for more. The word ‘more’ is a good word to build from 1 to 2 words; e.g. ‘more
juice’, ‘more banana’ etc. Be
careful to look out for non-verbal cues as some children may not feel confident
to ask for more, or have the language skills or vocabulary to do it. For
example, a child may look in your direction holding out their cup, I would
respond positively to this communicative attempt and model the language to the
child i.e. ‘ you would like more juice, X would
like more juice’; repeating key words i.e. juice will really help your
child learn new vocabulary.
·
A further point, although it is
lovely for us to hear children expressing their P’s and Q’s, this can be very
confusing and hard for some children. If
a child is saying single words it means that they are at an early stage of
language acquisition. If, therefore, you ask them to say 'Please' or 'Ta' before
you hand over the required toy, piece of food, drink or whatever, they will be
very confused. If you want to encourage a child to put 2 words together, ‘more + biscuit' is more functional,
they won't be able to say 'more+biscuit+please'
until much later because this is actually 3 words together. (please read Libby
Hill’s blog for more information on please and thank you,
http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/2011/12/please-dont-teach-your-child-to-say.html)
·
Snack time provides an opportunity
for children to request something in the best way they
can, and push them to do a little more in a safe and motivating way. Therefore,
working on their expressive language skills.
·
Children will also benefit from the
social aspects of eating together, such as turn taking. If you take time to
watch and listen, you will often see children sharing their snacks, or talking
together.
One of the biggest causes of language
delay today is that we don't expect enough of our children and we give them
what they want without making them work for it. We take away the opportunities and reasons to communicate so their means of communicating doesn't need to progress.
Take a step back and see every
day activities as opportunities for
communication...
So don't
just provide food and drink, use snack or mealtime to help your child's
language skills!
Georgina White
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