Body Parts
Now we are going to talk about teaching your child to understand the words for body parts. We teach this a little differently than we teach the other receptive language skills we have talked about so far in this section. When we teach body parts, instead of pointing to pictures, we teach children to point to the various parts of their own bodies.
Here is a list of body parts your 3 year old child should know:
| Eyes | Nose | Mouth | Ears | Arm |
| Leg | Hand | Foot | Fingers | Toes |
| Thumb | Neck | Tummy | Back | Hair |
| Head | Shoulders | Knee | Teeth | Tongue |
You can choose any three of these words you prefer to begin with. Just be careful to choose body parts that are not particularly close together on the body. For example, head, tummy, and foot might be good to begin with. They all look very different from one another, the words sound different, and they are located in different areas of the body. Use whatever word your child is likely to hear from others to refer to body parts. For example, you could use “stomach” or “tummy” or “belly” depending on the word your family uses.
Body Parts Teaching Program
Begin with any of the body part words you think your child might already know. The method for teaching body parts is almost exactly the same as the one for teaching one-step instructions without objects, like arms up, clap hands, stand up, and sit down, except that you will teach the words for body parts all together in a separate teaching program. We recommend this so that your child comes to understand that those words are part of a category; the category of body parts. It will also be important when you begin to teach the Categories Teaching Program which we will talk about next.
Here’s what to do. Say that you have decided to begin with head, belly and foot. Sit directly in front of your child, knee-to-knee; close enough for you to provide physical prompting if need be. Instruct your child to touch one of the three body parts, for example, “touch belly.”
If your child understands very few words, and you don’t think he understands the word “touch” yet, you can use a one-word instruction, like, “belly,” or “head,” and then prompt your child to touch his own belly or head, and reinforce him immediately after he does so. But if you haven’t already started using the word “touch,” now might be a good time to give it a try. It might help your child if you say the word “touch” very softly and put the emphasis on the body-part word. For example, say “touch nose,” and then prompt him to touch his own nose, and reinforce him immediately after he does so. Here are two different ways to prompt this; one using physical guidance and the other using imitation.
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Adding a Fourth Body Part
Present the three body parts in random order, prompting and reinforcing, prompting and reinforcing, prompting and reinforcing, as always. Fade your prompts gradually over time, until your child can independently touch any of the three body parts you name, without any help. At that time, add the body parts your child has learned to the list of words he understands and introduce a fourth body part. When you add the fourth body part, simply say it, along with the other three mastered body parts, in an order that’s not predictable or regular. And remember, you’ll need to prompt the new body part, but your child should be able to respond to the instructions to touch the body parts he has already learned, without prompts most of the time.
And, if you see that he’s beginning to make errors on a body part that you thought he had learned well, simply treat it as you would a new body part, presenting it at least 4 times out of every 10, prompting as needed and fading your prompts as you go along. Eventually, he’ll learn it again.
If you want more details about adding more body parts to a receptive identification program, click here!
Trouble Shooting
If you find that your child has difficulty with this teaching program, you could try teaching this program in front of a mirror. Another idea is to have your child touch the body parts of a doll as you name them. This is instead of touching his own body parts. If you do these things, and your child continues to have difficulty, you can practice body parts as an imitation program. To do that, you would use the names of the body parts for every trial. For example, say “head” or “touch head,” as you touch your own head, then prompt your child to touch his own head, and then reinforce him just as you would if he had not needed any help.