{"id":2476,"date":"2016-08-18T16:59:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T20:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parenttraining.chip.uconn.edu\/?page_id=2476"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:35:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:35:38","slug":"receptive-categories","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parenttraining.chip.uconn.edu\/index.php\/receptive-categories\/","title":{"rendered":"Receptive Categories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things Your Child Should Know Before You Teach Receptive Categories<\/h2>\n

If your child can easily sort items into at least three categories without any help, and he has also mastered at least 6 or 7 receptive labels for objects in each of those three categories, you are ready to begin the Receptive Categories Teaching Program. In other words, before beginning this teaching program, your child should be able to sort pictures of food, animals and clothing into separate bins or onto separate plates, and also point to at least 6 or 7 pictures of different foods, animals or articles of clothing when you name them individually. And he should be able to do these things without prompts, at least 8 times out of every 10 trials. You can use the same pictures you did when you started teaching your child to sort by category. For example, if you used pictures of the following things to teach your child to sort foods, animals and clothing, you would use the same pictures to teach Receptive Categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Food<\/strong><\/td>\nAnimals<\/strong><\/td>\nClothing<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Apple<\/td>\nDog<\/td>\nSock<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cheerios<\/td>\nCat<\/td>\nShirt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cookie<\/td>\nCow<\/td>\nShoe(s)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bread<\/td>\nHorse<\/td>\nPants<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Yogurt<\/td>\nPig<\/td>\nShorts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Banana<\/td>\nElephant<\/td>\nCoat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It\u2019s very important that your child understands the word receptively for any item you use in the Receptive Categories Teaching Program. That way, he won\u2019t get the name of the item confused with the category name. In other words, before you teach the word “animal” your child should be able to pick out each of the animals you are asking him to sort, when you label it by name. For example, when you say, \u201cDog,\u201d or, \u201cTouch dog,\u201d and there is a picture of a dog, a pig and a horse on the table, he should be able to pick out the picture of the dog at least 8 times out of every 10 trials, no matter which position it is in. In fact, he should be able to pick out any of the animal pictures you are using when you ask him to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cTouch dog.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"146\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"147\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n\"148\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Flickr, flickr, weebly.com<\/p>\n

\u201cTouch dog.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"148\"<\/strong><\/td>\n\"146\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n\"147\"<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTouch dog.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"147\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n\"148\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n\"146\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Receptive Categories Teaching Program<\/h2>\n

To begin, place three pictures on the table in front of your child, one from each of three categories that he has already learned to sort. Ask him to touch or point to one of the pictures, identifying it by the name of the category to which it belongs. For example, if the field of three pictures contains a shoe, a cookie and a dog,\u00a0and you say, \u201cTouch animal,\u201d the child should touch or point to the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"child<\/td>\n\"oreo\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"146\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n

Whereas if you say, \u201cTouch food,\u201d the child should touch or point to the cookie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"146\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"child<\/a><\/td>\n\"oreo\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It\u2019s important to note here that you will rotate through all of the pictures from each of the categories as you go along, changing the location of the various pictures and presenting the trials in an unpredictable order. Here\u2019s an example of what we mean by that.<\/p>\n

Trial 1: \u201cTouch food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"child<\/a><\/td>\n\"146\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"oreo\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Trial 2: \u201cTouch animal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"148\"<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n\"picture72\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"picture14\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Trial 3:\u00a0 \u201cTouch animal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"pexels-photo\"<\/a><\/td>\nflick<\/span>r\"149\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"shirt\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Trial 4:\u00a0 \u201cTouch food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
flickr<\/span>\"coat\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"147\"<\/td>\n\"pexels-photo\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Trial 5:\u00a0 \u201cTouch clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"oreo\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"Lynn<\/a><\/td>\n\"149\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Prompt as needed to make sure that your child points to the correct picture. When you praise him, be sure to use both the item label and the category name. For example, you might say, \u201cGreat job! A dog<\/strong><\/em> is an animal<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d Or \u201cRight! A cookie<\/strong><\/em> is food<\/strong><\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n