Understanding Language Quiz

1. Before you start to work on teaching your child to match non-identical objects, you should: Know how to teach categories Know when your child needs prompting Know how to teach your child to speak Know how to teach your child to have a conversation

The correct answer is B: know when your child needs prompting. This is a general skill that will be important for any teaching sessions you have with your child. When your child doesn’t know how to do something, you still want him to experience success and you want an opportunity to reinforce the skill, so you should gently prompt him by pointing to the correct object or picture, or with gentle physical guidance. That way, he makes the match correctly and you can then reinforce him for having made the correct response. The other skills mentioned here are not necessary to get started on non-identical matching.

2. Before you start to work on teaching your child to match non-identical objects, your child should be able to: match identical objects follow when you point cooperate with you during learning sessions for at least 10 learning trials in a row all of the above

The correct answer is D: all of the above. It is important that your child understand the basic concept of matching identical objects before you try to teach him to do non-identical matching. Also, once your child can follow a point, you can easily use the pointing gesture to prompt your child to put the object in his hand with the matching item on the table. Also, teaching thinking and reasoning skills like non-identical matching works best if your child has plenty of opportunities to practice this skill, using different examples, 5 to 10 times in a row. If your child does not yet have these foundation skills, it is best to keep working on these before you try to teach the skills covered in these sections.

3. Which is a good example of non-identical matching? A sock to a shoe A red sock to a white sock A fork to a spoon A cat to a dog

The correct answer is B: A red sock to a white sock. The other examples are members of the same category; for example, a sock and shoe are both types of clothing, a cat and a dog are both animals, and so on, and you might use these pairs in teaching categories. But non-identical matching would be the two different socks. It is important that the child learn that these are both socks and have the same name.

4. Once your child has learned a non-identical match, for example, matching non-identical socks to each other, You should concentrate on new objects and not go back to the socks for at least a month since it might confuse him. You should continue to practice matching socks very frequently, making it more than half of his trials for the next few weeks. You should assume he now knows the socks and don’t have to check his knowledge of them again. You should continue to practice this mastered item each day or every other day to keep it maintained, but you should spend more of your child’s learning session time working on new items

The correct answer is D: You should continue to practice mastered items enough to keep them well-maintained, but not as much as new items. This way, you will keep all of his skills fresh but not make the child bored and not waste time that you could spend on new learning. If you did not go back to socks for a month, it might be forgotten. If you continue to quiz him on socks very often, he might get bored and you’d also be wasting time. If you never practice mastered skills, your child will probably lose those skills. By practicing mastered items, mixed in with the new ones, you keep the knowledge fresh and help him to better understand the concept.

5. You’re teaching non-identical matching for the very first time. You put three objects on the table and hand the child a silver spoon to match. Which would be good objects to put on the table? A fork, a wooden spoon, and a cup Another of the same silver spoons, a fork and a cup A wooden spoon, a sock, and a ball Another of the same silver spoons, a sock, and a ball

The correct answer is C: a wooden spoon, a sock, and a ball. If you are teaching your child to match identical objects, then another of the same silver spoons is fine, but if you’re teaching your child non-identical matching, that is, matching objects that are called by the same name, look similar, or serve the same purpose, but are not identical, then you want a different spoon. A sock and a ball would make good choices because they are very different from a spoon, both in how they look and how they are used, so they’re easy to tell apart from a spoon. A fork is pretty close to a spoon, both in appearance and in function, so that might be confusing. Later, once he has learned to match two different spoons, testing with a fork would be a good idea, to make sure he really understands what a spoon is.

6. When you’re doing the non-identical teaching task we just described in the previous question, which would be the two best instructions for a young child with limited language? “Take this spoon and put it with a similar one” “Where does this belong?” “Spoon” “Match spoons”

The correct answers are C and D. If your child understands very little language, simply saying ‘spoon’ and helping him do the match correctly may be best. If he understands a little more, you can instruct him to ‘match spoons’ or “match the spoons” and, as always, be prepared to help him with a gentle prompt. A has pretty complicated language and would be too hard for a very young child or one just learning to understand simple instructions. B  ‘Where does this belong?” might be a good choice when you are working on generalization of the skill; that is after your child has learned the skill using a very clear, simple instruction.

True or False: If you’re teaching receptive labels for colors, you should keep the colors in the same place, for example, yellow on the left, red in the middle, and blue on the right, so the child won’t get confused.

The correct answer is FALSE. When teaching anything, whether it’s receptive colors, labels, matching, or anything else, you want to avoid setting up the objects or pictures in the same place or in a predictable order. For example, if the yellow square is always on the left, the child might learn that if you ask for the yellow one, he just has to give you the one on the left. If so, he really won’t have learned this color at all. When he can reliably give you the yellow one when you ask for it, no matter where it is, then he really knows it.

8. Your child is learning receptive labels for objects. How will he show you that he knows a label? Pick the two best answers. Hand you the object when you name it Point to the object when you name it Repeat the word Use the word in a sentence

The correct answers are A and B. When teaching receptive labels, you’re teaching the child to understand words, but not to say the words. If he does say the words, that’s great! But when teaching receptive labels, the goal is for him to show you that he understands the word when he hears it. He can demonstrate this by handing you an object, pointing to it, or touching it when you say the word for that object. He may or may not be able to say the word, even when imitating you, and you would not necessarily expect him to be able to use it in a sentence – that’s a much more advanced skill.

9. Which would be the best choice of three objects to lay out when first working on receptive labels? Fork, spoon, cup Ball, sock, cup Tomato, apple, cup Wristwatch, apple, bowl

The correct answer is B. Ball, sock and cup are all quite different from each other in appearance and in function. Fork and spoon are alike both in appearance and in function so that might be hard for the child; the same goes for tomato and apple. An adult’s watch might not be the best choice because the child doesn’t use it and probably doesn’t know what it’s for.  And because the child probably has little use for a wristwatch, it’s not a very important word for him to understand; better to spend your learning sessions on more useful skills.

10. A good rule of thumb for deciding that your child has learned something is if He gets it correct every single time he sees it You try it 10 times and he gets it correct 6 times You try it twice and he gets it correct both times You try it 10 times and he gets it correct 8 times or more

The correct answer is D: 8 out of 10 times. No child is going to do something correctly every single time. If you have three choices on the table and the child gets it correct 6 out of every 10 times that could just be getting it right by chance. And if you only try it twice, that’s not enough to be sure either way.

11. Your child has learned to understand the word ‘cup’ and gives it to you or points to it at least 8 out of every 10 times you try it. Now you should: (Choose the two correct answers.) Give him lots of chances to practice understanding ‘cup’ in different situations, like at the dinner table. Practice it but only during special learning sessions and for at least an hour a day. There’s no need to practice it any more; this would waste time. Do the same teaching program using different cups

The correct answers are A and D. Give him lots of chances to practice understanding ‘cup’ in different situations. When your child understands a concept in different situations and places and with different people, this is called ‘generalization’ and is extremely important. Take lots of opportunities to ask the child to get the cup, hand you the cup or drink from the cup in real-life situations. This will give him practice but also make sure he understands ‘cup’ throughout his day. If you chose B, practice but only during learning sessions, he may not have a generalized concept of ‘cup’ – he may only understand ‘cup’ with one particular cup or during his learning sessions. And if you try to review something he’s already learned for a lot of time, like an hour a day, he will probably get bored and frustrated. But if you don’t practice cup at all, it might be lost. It would be a very good idea to teach the word cup during your learning sessions using a variety of different cups.  You could begin to vary the instruction too.  For example, you could say, “Show me the cup,” or, “Which one is the cup?” These things would help with generalization.

12. Receptive labels for which of the following categories are first taught with three members of that category? Pick all that are correct Colors – for example, red, yellow, blue Utensils – for example, fork, spoon, knife Shapes – -for example, circle, square, rectangle Vehicles – for example, car, truck, fire truck

The correct answers are A and C, colors and shapes. If you lay out a fork, spoon and knife and try to teach ‘spoon’ the choices might be too similar and too confusing, and the same is true of car, truck, and fire-truck. However, when you teach colors and shapes, it’s usually best to use three colors or three shapes; otherwise, the child might not pay attention to the thing you are really trying to teach. Laying out three squares of different colors focuses the child’s attention on the color, because that’s the only thing that’s different about them. And laying out shapes of the same color, like black construction paper cut into different shapes, focuses the child’s attention on the shape.

13. You want to teach your child to understand the word ‘eating’. In each trial, your child will have a choice of three pictures. Which three pictures would make a good set of three for a child just learning his first action words? Eating, Typing and Walking Eating, Reading and Sleeping Eating, Drinking and Clapping Eating, Coloring and Painting

The correct answer is B. eating, reading and sleeping. When teaching action words, like ‘cooking’, ‘walking’, ‘sitting’, ‘eating’, ‘drinking’, ‘reading’ and ‘sleeping’, it is easier to use action words that refer to simple, common actions that your child sees every day. Choice A, includes the word “typing” which will probably not be as familiar to your child as most of the other words. It is also important to begin with actions that look very different from one another. Choice C, includes the words eating and drinking; these can be very difficult to tell apart. The same is true for coloring and painting. However, the action words in Choice B, eating, reading and sleeping are all likely to be familiar to your child and those actions also look different from one another. In addition, it helps that each are associated with different objects, for example, food for eating, a book for reading, and a bed and pillow for sleeping.

14. If your child is having difficulty learning to understand names of body parts, which might be a good thing to try? Three of these four choices are good answers. Try teaching the body parts in front of a mirror Try teaching the body parts on a doll Try teaching him to touch the body part you name while you are touching the body part on yourself Try teaching the body parts on a picture of an animal

The correct answers are A, B, and C. All of these are good methods to try if your child seems to be having difficulty understanding words for body parts. Teaching the body parts on an animal would be a good thing to try later, after the human body parts are mastered, but they might be pretty confusing if you teach them at the same time.

True or False: When you are ready to teach your child to understand category names (like ‘food’, ‘animals’, or ‘clothing’), it’s a good idea to first teach your child to sort pictures of objects into these categories.

The correct answer is TRUE. First you want the child to get the idea that foods, like an apple, a cookie and a cereal, go together, and that articles of clothing, like socks, pants, and a shirt, go together, and so on. When he has learned which things go together in categories, and also understands the names for the specific items like ‘apple’ and ‘cookie’ or ‘pants’ and ‘shirt’, then you are ready to work on the names of categories.

Next: Module 12: Let’s Talk!