Familiar People
Take Pictures of Important People in Your Child’s Life
When you’re ready to begin teaching your child to understand the names of important people in his life, you’ll need to take some pictures of those people. Think about the family members, teachers, and friends your child spends the most time with. Most children begin with the names of parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and close family friends. If the child attends a school or day care program, teachers or child-care workers and two or three other children he sees often might be included as well. You should include pictures of your child too. Even if he has learned to respond to his name when he hears it, it’s still a good idea for him to be able to pick his own picture out.You can begin with only one picture of each person, although eventually you’ll need three to four pictures of each person, preferably wearing different clothing and in different rooms or places.
Be careful to have only one person in each picture. The first set of of pictures you use should be taken from the chest and shoulder area up, focusing primarily on the person’s face.
If a person wears glasses, but not all the time, you could have one picture of that person wearing glasses and another picture without glasses. If a person has long hair, you could have one picture with hair down and another with hair in a ponytail. Be careful to have only one person in each picture. The first set of pictures you use should be taken from the chest and shoulder area up, focusing primarily on the person’s face.
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Test to see if Your Child Already Knows the Names of Some Familiar People
Just as with the other receptive language programs that we’ve discussed so far, you’ll begin with three of your child’s familiar people. As always, it’s a good idea to test and see if your child is able to pick the right picture on the very first try. Just lay out the pictures of three familiar people you have chosen to start with. If you think your child might already recognize a particular person’s name, like “Mommy” or his teacher, “Miss Ann,” start with those names in the mix. Say one of the names, for example “Daddy” or “Mommy,” but don’t prompt him. If he responds correctly 3 times in a row with the pictures in different positions and no help, great. Be sure to include that person as one of the first three you will work on as that may help him to learn the others more quickly.
Here’s another important point. If you test to see if your child is able to pick out a picture of a familiar person, for example “Mommy,” and your child gets it right three times in a row, in different locations, that doesn’t mean that he has this really solidly and needs no more practice. Unless he can do this consistently over several sets of trials, when presented in an unpredictable order along with other pictures, you will still need to work on it. In the following clip, when the teacher begins to test for “Miss Ann” the child points to the picture of Mommy” possibly because this is the most familiar person in the group. Also, he has been reinforced for choosing the picture of Mommy, and he has not yet been reinforced for choosing any of the other pictures. In any case, if he points to a picture of one person, when he hears a different person’s name, he needs to continue to work on learning both of those names.
If your child points to a picture of one person, when he hears a different person’s name, he needs to continue to work on learning both of those names; even if you think he has already learned one of the names.
When you are testing a new name, if he doesn’t respond, or responds incorrectly, just place his hand back in his lap if necessary, pause briefly (for two or three seconds) and then start another trial, but this time, prompt him right away and reward him enthusiastically for following your prompt.
If your child does not yet talk but has siblings who do, use the word or nickname the child’s siblings use for mother and father. If not, use the names you would someday like your child to call you, like “Mommy” or “Mama.” As always, reward your child’s correct responses, whether prompted or independent. When you praise him, it would be a good idea to use the name again. For example, you could say, “You pointed to Daddy,” or “That’s right! That’s Daddy!” If Daddy happens to be in the room, hold the picture up to Daddy and say something like, “Look! It’s Daddy!” and have Daddy give him a big hug or a “high five.” If it’s Daddy that is teaching him during that learning session, Daddy should put a hand on his own chest and say something like, “That’s me! Daddy!”
Teaching Program for Familiar People (Receptive)
Teach your child the first three names, presenting the trials in an unpredictable order and changing the order of the pictures on most trials. Gradually fade your prompts over time until he’s learned the first three names well and is consistently touching or pointing to the picture of whatever person you name.
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Once all three pictures are mastered, meaning that your child is responding correctly in at least 8 out of every 10 trials, then you can add a new picture, and present it in an unpredictable order along with 2 of the mastered pictures at a time. In the following clip, the new picture is a picture of “Grandpa”. Notice how that is the only picture being prompted. The teacher is fading her prompts, first touching the picture, then pointing from a little further away, until she probes to see if he will choose the correct picture without help.
Continue to add new pictures, one at a time, using this same format.
Use Several Different Pictures of Each Person to Work on Generalization
Once your child has learned four or five names using the first set of pictures, it’s a good idea to work on generalizing these familiar people before adding any more people. In other words, you want to be sure that your child can pick out familiar people by name when you use different pictures of that person. To do this, instead of adding pictures of another person, just add different pictures of the same people. As we described before, you‘ll need a set of 3 or 4 pictures of each person, looking a little different in each of the pictures. Introduce new pictures of only one familiar person at a time. For example, if you taught “Daddy” with a picture of Daddy from the shoulders up, your next picture of Daddy may be of his whole upper body and perhaps wearing a different shirt, along with pictures of 2 other people that your child has already learned well. If your child has no difficulty with this, terrific! But don’t be surprised if you need to teach each new picture just like you did the first one, for a while.
You should continue with this same small group of people, not adding new familiar people into the mix, until your child can easily touch or point to any person in the first group of familiar people. This is even when he is looking at new pictures of those people for the very first time. Remember to add the names of any familiar people’s names that your child learns to your list of words he understands.
Trouble Shooting
If your child struggles with learning names or using different pictures of the same person, you can try the Non-Identical People Matching program. It’s similar to the Non-Identical Matching program with objects and animals. Just place three pictures of people on the table. Give your child a different picture of one of the people while saying the person’s name. Your child should place that picture on top of the other picture of the same person. Provide as much help as needed. Gradually reduce your prompts over time.
If your child is having trouble identifying someone who is in the room with you, have that person hold a preferred reward high up. Then ask the child to “find [NAME OF PERSON].” They may need a prompt to start, but as soon as they go to the person with a prompt, that person should give them the reward right away, along with praise or tickles.
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Example:
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If you need a reminder regarding how to do this, simply review the discussion of Non-Identical Matching above. The steps are the same.