Today is DAY 3 of our embedding communication in daily routine series. We’ve already talked about targeting skills while getting dressed and bath time... and today is all about meals! Embedding communication support within the context of mealtime is such a good “bang for your buck” activity because most households have 3 meals + 2-3 snacks a day. So that’s at least 5 daily communication building opportunities for your child! That’s 35 a week!
SIDE NOTE: when I say “target” I mean teach not just test. How do our kids learn? By listening, watching, and observing skills in a meaningful way that’s relevant to them. Testing is only a small percentage of education.. so keep that in mind when you work on these skills. Here are some quick tips to teach/target skills
*Replace questions with comments
*Emphasize key words/concepts with your voice and intonation
*Repeat the target throughout the activity, across other activities, and over multiple days
Okay thanks for sticking with me! Now on to meal time skills!
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE: Talk about adjectives describing your child’s favorite and unfamiliar food. What color is it? Is it sweet, sour, savory, spicy, and/or salty? Does it feel cold, warm, or hot? What happens when your molars bite down.. do you hear a squish or a crunch? Does the way it looks remind you of anything?
COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS: this is a fancy way of talking about the reasons why we talk. You can model requests (More water), comments (I hear a crunchy food), directives (You pour milk), and rejections (no more meat). The great thing about mealtime is you can eat WITH your child, modeling both language and appropriate feeding skills.
BASIC CONCEPTS: You can easily target quantity concepts like more/less than, some, a few, most, and all. You can use small pieces of food or something like Cheerios to compare how much your child has to what you have.
PRO TIP! Did you know that your child can begin to learn how to use an open cup as early as 6 months? Using an open cup instead of a sippy cup can help strengthen the muscles used for speech! For feeding support,
SIDE NOTE: when I say “target” I mean teach not just test. How do our kids learn? By listening, watching, and observing skills in a meaningful way that’s relevant to them. Testing is only a small percentage of education.. so keep that in mind when you work on these skills. Here are some quick tips to teach/target skills
*Replace questions with comments
*Emphasize key words/concepts with your voice and intonation
*Repeat the target throughout the activity, across other activities, and over multiple days
Okay thanks for sticking with me! Now on to meal time skills!
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE: Talk about adjectives describing your child’s favorite and unfamiliar food. What color is it? Is it sweet, sour, savory, spicy, and/or salty? Does it feel cold, warm, or hot? What happens when your molars bite down.. do you hear a squish or a crunch? Does the way it looks remind you of anything?
COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS: this is a fancy way of talking about the reasons why we talk. You can model requests (More water), comments (I hear a crunchy food), directives (You pour milk), and rejections (no more meat). The great thing about mealtime is you can eat WITH your child, modeling both language and appropriate feeding skills.
BASIC CONCEPTS: You can easily target quantity concepts like more/less than, some, a few, most, and all. You can use small pieces of food or something like Cheerios to compare how much your child has to what you have.
PRO TIP! Did you know that your child can begin to learn how to use an open cup as early as 6 months? Using an open cup instead of a sippy cup can help strengthen the muscles used for speech! For feeding support,
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