Once your child can imitate sounds and words and has learned to understand a few words in three or four categories (such as foods, articles of clothing, animals, and vehicles), you are ready to start teaching her to say the words you taught her to understand. When you began teaching your child to understand words, we suggested that you choose words that were useful for your child. We suggested that you include things from common categories and also common household objects, such as spoon, fork, plate, cup and bowl. Here is the sample list of words to teach that we showed you in the section on teaching Receptive Language.<\/p>\n
Food\/Drink<\/strong><\/td>\n| Animals<\/strong><\/td>\n | Clothing<\/strong><\/td>\n | Vehicles<\/strong><\/td>\n | Furniture<\/strong><\/td>\n | Miscellaneous<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Apple<\/td>\n | Dog<\/td>\n | Sock<\/td>\n | Car<\/td>\n | Table<\/td>\n | Cup<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Cheerios<\/td>\n | Cat<\/td>\n | Shirt<\/td>\n | Truck<\/td>\n | Chair<\/td>\n | Spoon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Cookie<\/td>\n | Cow<\/td>\n | Shoe(s)<\/td>\n | Airplane<\/td>\n | Couch<\/td>\n | Puzzle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Bread<\/td>\n | Horse<\/td>\n | Pants<\/td>\n | Train<\/td>\n | Bed<\/td>\n | Scissors<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Yogurt<\/td>\n | Bird<\/td>\n | Shorts<\/td>\n | Boat<\/td>\n | Dresser<\/td>\n | Toothbrush<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Hamburger<\/td>\n | Elephant<\/td>\n | Dress<\/td>\n | Bus<\/td>\n | Desk<\/td>\n | Pencil<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Banana<\/td>\n | Giraffe<\/td>\n | Coat<\/td>\n | Helicopter<\/td>\n | Stool<\/td>\n | Crayon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Cheese<\/td>\n | Pig<\/td>\n | Boots<\/td>\n | Van<\/td>\n | Bench<\/td>\n | Paper<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Milk<\/td>\n | Sheep<\/td>\n | Gloves<\/td>\n | Motorcycle<\/td>\n | Bookshelf<\/td>\n | Hairbrush<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Juice<\/td>\n | Rabbit<\/td>\n | Hat<\/td>\n | Tractor<\/td>\n | Cabinet<\/td>\n | Comb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | Begin With Words That Will Be Meaningful for Your Child<\/h2>\nWith the Receptive Labels teaching program, we suggested that you begin with words for things your child is likely to use or see on a daily basis. That\u2019s a good idea for teaching your child to say words too.\u00a0We suggest that you choose words from a few categories, starting with words that are \u00a0most familiar for your child. \u00a0For example, if your child likes apples and has a pet cat and spends time riding in a car on most days, then \u201capple,\u201d \u201ccat,\u201d and \u201ccar\u201d would be a good set of words to start with. If you kept a list of the words your child has learned to understand, you should choose the most important words from that list. Start with three of these words. If you have not already made a list of the words your child has learned to understand, you can do that now. Then you can choose words from that list as your first words to teach in the Expressive Labels teaching program.\u00a0Be sure to leave out the words for colors, shapes, people\u2019s names, and action words, because we will show you how to teach those words separately, just like we did when we talked about teaching receptive language.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n You can use the same pictures that you used to teach your child receptive language skills. Select three pictures to start with and hold one of them up in front of your child. You can ask, \u201cWhat is it?\u201d or you can just hold up the picture and wait for your child to label it. Either way, use verbal imitation to prompt your child to label the picture. \u00a0You can demonstrate (model) the whole word or start with just the first sound. \u00a0In the next video clip, the teacher starts off by saying (modeling) the whole word and then says less and less until she is using only the first sound of the word.<\/p>\n |