Who? What? When? Where? WHY?

 Kids are usually full of questions. Typically, my kids will ask "why...?" so many times a day that I sometimes just say "BECAUSE!" and pray that it satisfies their curiosity. In many cases, I feel like kids are better at asking questions than answering them. But why is that and how can we help kids focus on key words in questions that will increase their accuracy in responding? 

Asking and answering questions is the perfect conversational turn-taking activity. There is a pattern of a sentence produced with a rise in intonation at the end and then the anticipation of a response, followed ideally with a response that addresses the first production. Then, hopefully expansion on that topic with other details or follow-up questions. But today, we are going to talk about those first two exchanges and how to support children in answering questions that you ask with answers that make sense and are on topic.

Answering wh-questions (who, what, when, where, why) seems like a basic skill in our adult language repertoire but it is another receptive language skill that can require specific focus and activities to master as a child. As a child's vocabulary grows, they begin to make associations with various objects, which helps them understand new concepts and objects. For example, if you introduce the word "glue" to a child and they start producing that word for the first time they begin understanding what "glue" is and how and why they use glue. They may initially associate glue with the vocabulary words paper, scissors, crafts, sticky, etc. I like to think of language acquisition as a web with various connections of words and associations. Anyway, maybe this is a topic for another post. Back to answering questions...

When we ask a question to a child, we are usually expecting them to pick up on a key word: who, what, when, where, or why. Then they have to mentally link associations to the target topic of the question to the appropriate wh-question word used to answer with a semantically appropriate response. See why this takes practice? Errors with this could look something like this: 

    Adult: Where are your shoes?

    Child: Socks!

 In that example, the child is hearing the topic "shoes" and linking their first association to that word which is "SOCKS!" and they are completely missing the cue of "where" to indicate they need to answer with a location.

I recently worked on this on my own children while we were fishing off the dock one evening. This was during an activity that they all love, that is hands-on and physically engaging, and gets them outside! Win-win-win!

I kept questions on the topic of fishing: fish, water, sea animals, fishing tools, boats.... you get the idea. I did this to build more connections in that specific area of vocabulary but also to expand on concepts that they already understand. Here are some examples of questions I asked:

• What animals live in the water?
• What do sharks eat?
• Who drives a boat?
• Where do we find seashells?
• When do fish eat? 
• Why do we wear life jackets?

I did not sit and just drill my kids with questions while they tried to enjoy fishing - that is no fun for anyone. I did slide questions in as we had quiet breaks in conversation or when a topic came up naturally.  An extra challenge you can add for older kids is asking the same question but changing one word to really focus their receptive language on one concepts. For example:

• What do fish eat?
• When do fish eat?
• Why do fish eat?
• Where do fish eat? 

OR

• What animals live in the water?
• What animals live in the jungle?
• What animals live in the forest? 
• What animals live on a farm?

Emphasizing the key words you want them to focus on is a simple way to bring attention to the right area of the question. Read this question in your mind (or out loud) and stress the word that I have bolded to see how it changes the meaning and focus of the question: 

• What do fish eat?
• What do fish eat?
• What do fish eat? 

 You can adjust the stress of the question based on your child's missed attempt at answering as needed to adjust their focus on the target of the question.

Give this a shot with your little ones and leave a comment with good activities for wh-question practice! Again, you are always going to have the most success and carryover when you follow a child's lead and interests and when you make learning fun.  🐟

Safety Awareness

Safety: it's such a broad topic when it comes to children. Kids seem to have varying degrees of an innate safety awareness built in to their psychological make-up. Even my 3 kids have very different ways of monitoring their own safety; with my middle child being the "accident-prone" of the 3, my oldest is generally pretty cautious, and the youngest is wild and crazy but overall pretty accurate with his maneuvers and activities. All of this to say, no kid is alike in anyway but we can definitely see BIG differences in how each kid self-monitors. 

Self-monitoring is a meta-cognitive (and meta-physical) task. In other words, it is dependent on a person self-analyzing and adjusting actions based on previous performance and experience. How do we teach or encourage kids to self-analyze and be more aware of their own safety? The answer is rooted in receptive language. We, as adults, have more experience and therefore can more easily predict what will happen if we carelessly jump on the bed (using this example because it is a common activity for my kids... 😬). Maybe this much seems obvious, but in taking this a step further, how can we encourage kids to predict what COULD happen from their activities so that we aren't just waiting for them to get hurt to "learn their lesson?"

Predicting is a combination of two skills: understanding sequences and understanding cause and effect. In my opinion targeting sequencing is somewhat easier than teaching cause and effect. Kids are introduced to sequences constantly throughout the day: getting ready for the day, washing hands, conversations, bed-time routines, and any other daily patterns. Expand on their receptive language during these tasks by giving them temporal vocabulary (first, then, next, last) during tasks to help them notice the patterns. This may look something like this: 

"Okay, it's time to brush out teeth. First we put toothpaste on our toothbrush. Then, brush all of our teeth. Next, we are going to spit into the sink. Last, we rinse our brush and turn the water off."

You can also introduce more complex and novel sequences through books and stories. This also could be a good way to introduce safety concerns (through character experiences) without having them experience them for themselves. As you introduce more stories to your children, they will start to recognize the pattern of beginning-middle-end or maybe even problem-solution-resolution. I know this is an over-preached idea, but almost nothing can top sitting down with your kid(s) and reading a book to them.

Now, back to the problem-solution-resolution thing... let's talk about cause and effect! This is a receptive language task that seems to be more complex and harder for young ones to grasp. It is complex in multiple ways: not every cause is going to have the same effect and it takes time for kids to reach a level of awareness to realize that what they do impacts their environment. We can encourage this development though, so it is not a total waiting game. Activities involving cause and effect for toddlers would be things that have 2 or more steps/elements with the motivating step being the final step or reward. For example, blowing bubbles: you blow into a wand (but that isn't the motivating part) and then a you get these super fun floating bubbles that you can pop! Another good one is a slide at a playground: you climb up the steps and sit down and then you get to take a ride down the slide.

Talking through cause/effect and sequencing early is helpful because now I can ask my 4 year old, "what do you think could happen if you jump on the bed?" or even "why do you think I asked you to not jump on the bed?" She has the foundation or cause and effect and sequencing to problem solve and typically respond with "I might fall off and get hurt." 

I am not saying we need to raise a generation of paranoid and overly-cautious kids; I actually want to encourage the opposite. I let my kids take risks and yes, I even let them jump on the bed in a controlled way. But during those activities, I make sure they are checking in with how they feel physically. If a rock shifts under their feet at the beach, I try to respond with a specific cue, "did you feel that rock move and make you wobble? Maybe we need to walk more slowly" to encourage them create those thoughts spontaneously in the future. It's not a perfect system. My kids regularly get bumps and bruises and scrapes and have to learn safety lessons the hard way sometimes, but I am trying to minimize their pain and I feel like any parent would agree that they do the same. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Let's ask questions, give ideas, and suggestions! 

Thanks for reading and sharing!

Beach Play!

Last week, I shared the thought on my Facebook page about finding tasks and activities that are engaging to kids to maximize their learning. The idea is basically that a child will not learn new information as easily when YOU lead the play as they will when THEY lead the play. So the big question is - what activity or setting engages your child(ren) the most? For mine, it is playing on the beach or really any type of water play. This post is going to "dive-in" (pun intended) to early language concepts that can be targeted through simple play on the beach with your little ones. 

 

 

When I target early concepts, I like including two opposing ideas to really give kids a semantic (language meaning/definition) view of vocabulary. For example, it is hard to talk about being cold without contrasting it with being hot. It is always best to introduce two opposing concepts together. Let's think about concepts that kids can experience on the beach (if you can think of more, add them to the comments): 

Hot (sun)/ Cold (water)

Wet/Dry

Smooth/Rough (rocks or shells)

Big/Small (rocks, shells, sticks, splashes)

In/Out (if you have buckets or other toys)

Once you have items on the beach that you identify as primarily interesting to your child, and otherwise appropriate to target whatever concept you choose to work on, be as silly and ridiculous as you can to make learning fun. I would hate to see videos of myself acting like a total clown with my kids or other kids in a therapy session, but when it comes to early intervention - the crazier and messier, the better.  

That brings me to my next thought - let your kids get messy! Added sensory play! Some kids love being messy (my 18 month old) and some avoid it at all costs (my 3 year old), but giving them opportunity to experience different textures is very important. You can always direct the mess to another language concept: dirty (muddy)/clean. This may help them understand or cope with their internal freak-out dialogue of "okay, I my feet are sandy and messy right now and I do not like it but soon mom is going to wash my feet and they will be clean!" They can learn to anticipate a solution to their messiness while physically understanding and experiencing the concepts in the process. What a learning opportunity!

 

 

My final point I want to make on beach play is less language based, and more motor based. Especially here in the Pacific Northwest, the beaches can be challenging to walk across. You have to navigate on rocks, sand, moss, slippery seaweed, shells, logs... you name it. What an excellent way to incorporate gross motor development! I notice that my kids are regularly challenged by walking across the beaches and are always improving and becoming more confident with each beach outing. 

The BIG TAKE-AWAYS to a successful and language-rich beach play experience:

1. Follow the child's lead and play off their interests.

2. Be silly.

3. Use opposing concepts.

4. Get messy and have fun!

Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing this post! I hope you have lots of beach time with your littles this SUMMER!

New Beginning!

 The past few years have stirred big changes in our lives. Where do I even begin!?

Last I wrote, we were expecting our first little one, who is now a beautiful, sassy, brave girl who is starting kindergarten this fall! She loves and cares for her two (almost 3) little brothers fiercely. We have a 3 year old boy, 18 month old boy, and we are expecting our third boy in September. Needless to say, our days are busy but full of love and laughs (and screams and cries and boo-boos and temper-tantrums). 

Another big change that has happened recently, and the reason I finally have time to get back into blogging, is that I resigned from my job as a Speech-Language Pathologist to be a stay-at-home mom. It is a dream come true. Childcare in our little town is hard to find and expensive. Pairing that with my strong desire to be with my kids and the fact that we are expecting our 4th baby made the choice to resign and stay home pretty simple. I have been home with the kids about 6 weeks now and I am working about 100 times more than I ever did at my 8-5 job. Shout-out to stay at home parents! You work harder than most and are rock stars!

A few other smaller things have happened in the past few years. We bought a remote property last year and are enjoying many of our weekends there. It is a small off-grid cabin on the ocean. My husband and dad spent a large part of last summer fixing up the cabin to make it more comfortable (wiring the cabin with electricity from our generator, plumbing the water catchment system to the kitchen and bathroom, fixing up the front porch, and giving it a new paint job inside and out). It continues to have ongoing projects, but it is turning into a great place to escape the hustle and bustle of Wrangell. 😆

So, for now, I am taking a new direction with this blog. I want this page to be a resource for parents to use to enhance speech and language development. I plan to give ideas for easy home "therapy" activities, tips for using daily activities to encourage communication, and answer questions that you have. 

This past week I asked my Facebook friends what burning questions they have about speech and language development and one question that stood out to me was on speech sound development: "How much should strangers be able to understand my 3 year old?"

Let me introduce you to the concept of familiar and unfamiliar listeners. Familiar listeners are people who hear a child talking regularly; they are familiar with their speech patterns and the general context of their communication which makes it easier for them to understand the child's speech. Unfamiliar listeners are strangers or people who are not consistently around your child to hear them talk (i.e., maybe you see a co-worker at the grocery store and they know you and your child but are not around them enough to be familiar with how they communicate). As a parent, you are a familiar listener for your child. You likely can understand WAY MORE than anyone else and, I am willing to bet, you end up "translating"  your child's speech for unfamiliar listeners. 

As a general rule, to an unfamiliar listener, I say a child's speech is 50% intelligible as a 2 year old, 75% intelligible as a 3 year old, and 90-100% intelligible as a 4 year old. If you are introducing a 3 year old to an unfamiliar listener, that person should be able to understand about 75% of their speech. This sounds like a high number, but in reality you will likely need to translate their speech on 3 out of 4 communications which can feel like a lot and really interrupt the flow of communication. As children age, typically they spontaneously grow out of speech patterns that make their speech difficult to understand but if you feel that strangers are struggling to understand your child more than the percentages I gave, it might be a good idea to talk to your child's provider at their next appointment about your concerns. 

Thanks for reading, commenting, asking and contributing to this blog! Let me know what we should discuss next!