The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people.
Maria Montessori
In the last few weeks, I noticed huge progress in L’s language development. He is 18 months old and he started actively repeat our words back to us. I know he understood many of those words before, but he didn’t have courage to try and pronounce them.
For a while now, he knows how to say mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, doggy, and bye-bye. But now he also tries to repeat more complex words and phrases. Like “sit down”, “diaper”, “octopus”, “chicken” and so on. Btw, his new favorite word is “octopus”.
He also constantly points to objects and asks us to name them for him. If we don’t name the object immediately, he has a tendency to get frustrated. That is how important new words are to him right now.
A sensitive period for language
Maria Montessori defined a sensitive period for language as a time that begins with a birth and ends when the child is 6 years old. Through his environment, a child is constantly exposed to the sounds and words around him. This is why the environment into which a child is born determines his mother tongue.
During this sensitive period, it doesn’t take great effort for a child to learn a language. It comes naturally to him to absorb the words. Then with the observation of a body language and tone of the voice, it comes naturally to him to comprehend that those words have a purpose. This usually happens when a child is between 10 and 12 months old. By the end of his first year, he is aware that language has a purpose and he is slowly going from the unconscious learning of language to conscious learning.
Since my little human is soaking new words like never before I don’t want to miss his ultra-sensitive period for language development. Right now, I am trying to think of as many different language activities as I can. Activities also need to be engaging enough for him, because I feel that this language explosion is accompanied by some kind of growth spurt. Yes, that means he can’t sit still for more than 10 seconds. Yes, he is way fussier throughout the day. And yes, we have at least 2-3 meltdowns during the day. So how will we do that?
Montessori approach to new words
Montessori approach to introducing new words is called a three-period lesson:
- First, you introduce a new word to a child by presenting the object and naming it.
- Second, you ask a child to recognize that object among others.
- Third, when a child is verbal and already knows each word, you ask a child to name an object while you are pointing to it.
You are probably already using this Montessori technique at home, without even noticing it: “Look, a cat!” “That’s a car.” “Where is a duck?” It comes so naturally to parents to name things to their child, in a simple and clear way, by isolating a word they are showing. Exactly this is the basis of the Montessori approach for learning new words.
Montessori inspired language activities
It is necessary that every activity is adjusted to a child’s age. That means if the child is not verbal yet or you are not sure he will be able to pronounce a word you are asking, it is better to omit that part. For now, we are using only the first and the second step of a three-period lesson. I use the third step only if I am absolutely positive L will know to answer my question. For example, I can point to a car or to his dad or me, and I can be certain he will pronounce those words. Here are few Montessori inspired ideas we currently use to expand L’s vocabulary:
Discovery / language baskets
Some people call them discovery baskets, others call them treasure baskets, and when you use them for language learning you can call them language baskets. Basically, this is just a basket or a box filled with items you present to your child to explore. If you are doing a discovery basket activity, you will probably let your child explore independently. You will also try to avoid interfering until he asks you to.
When you are doing a language basket activity you will name items while you are introducing an item. You can hold an item while introducing it or a child can hold it in his hand. I noticed that my little human often doesn’t have enough patience to sit still and read a book, but he always likes to hold real objects in his hand and ask what they are. Then ask again. And again. And again 🙂
How to make a discovery basket
I decided to do more discovery/language basket explorations with L during this sensitive period. He really likes to touch different textures. He is also always calmer and more focused on the activity when he has an opportunity to use his hands. Currently, our favorite discovery baskets are those with different vegetables or fruits. The great thing with discovery baskets is – you can make them almost out of anything. You can use different colors, kitchen utensils, animals, instruments, you name it.
I would personally recommend that items in a basket are always from the same category. For example, all are animals or all are green. This way child is subconsciously categorizing items he is exposed to. Also, when starting with this activity, with very young children, it would be advisable to use real objects like fruits or vegetables, so they can feel them as we name them. After real objects, the next step is replica objects, like animal figurines for example.
How to use a discovery basket
We usually have at least one basket of some kind of items on L’s shelf. Last week it was vegetables and this week those are animals. To introduce this activity, I start by taking one item out at a time and naming it, for example, “onion”. I will then hand the item to him so he can hold it in his hand and feel it. I repeat this with all the items. After that, I will just let him explore the items on his own, and provide names when he asks. When I get a feeling that I will not interrupt his play, I will invite him to find each object in the basket.
Books
Probably the best and most simple way to expand toddlers’ vocabulary are books. Sometimes L will pick up a book and go through it on his own, but most of the time he will bring a book to me and ask to go through it together. He will point to pictures and ask what they are, or he will simply try to pronounce the things he recognizes and then ask for confirmation. For example, if he points to a dog and says “woof-woof”, I will say something like “Yes, that is a dog.” Replying with the proper pronunciation will help a child hear what he should be pronouncing.
Using books with highly energetic toddler
On a good day, L will enjoy this kind of calm activity, but on a fussy day, he will be too restless to read a book and to sit still. And let’s be honest, those days are not rare with toddlers. On those days, we will try to use books in all ways possible. For example, we would go through the book and try to find items from the book in our home. Then we would put these items in a basket and name them while he holds them in his hand. This is also an opportunity to talk about how are items in the book different or similar to those items we just found in our home.
Just keep in mind to use simple and clear sentences when introducing a new word, and always isolate the word you are trying to accentuate. For example, I would say something like: “This car is red.” “Our car is green.”
Another idea is to grab a related book during a play and talk about what do items in a book have in common with the items he is playing with. You just need to be cautious not to interrupt his play and to introduce this idea after he is finished playing. For example, L was playing with his cars yesterday and he was pointing to their wheels because he recently learned what the wheel is. When he included me in his play by asking for confirmation that really all his cars have wheels, I took a book with different vehicle pictures and we started to look at all the vehicles that have wheels.
Nature walks
During our regular walk, now we try to pay more attention to the details around us. The tree in the garden is not just a tree anymore. We talk about how it has branches, leaves, and, in our case, cherries (yummy!). The flower has petals and those petals are white and smooth. The snail in front of our door is slimy. Some sticks we pick up from the ground are lumpy and some are smooth. Some surfaces are pokey to sit on and some are slippery. And so on.
The possibilities are endless and they all include multiple senses so a simple walk in nature can become a sensory play and an opportunity to learn. During sensory play, a child can describe what they smell, feel, hear, or see and this is a great opportunity to expand a child’s vocabulary. How else would you know what “smooth”, “soft” or “cold” means if you never felt it before?
Matching cards activity
After a child was already exposed to real or replica objects you can introduce matching cards activity with those objects.
Matching identical cards
We can start by making a matching identical cards with a photo of an object. Since my little human is into farm animals lately and mimics cow and pig sounds, I decided to also work on the names of those animals. To learn that cow is not just a “moo”, I took photos of our toy animals and printed them out so he can match those identical photos with his toys.
I presented this activity to him just recently but, to be honest, he wasn’t interested to do a matching. He just wanted to hold figurines and mimic animal sounds. I left this activity on a shelf for a few days and tried again later but he still wasn’t interested so I removed the cards and left just the figurines for now. I will try again in a week or two.
Matching similar cards
When a child has mastered identical matching cards, the next step is matching similar cards. For example, we can match a real apple with an illustration of an apple printed on a card or in a book. Or we can make our sets of cards for matching similar objects. For example, you can print out a card with a green apple and card with a red apple so the child can match them together.
Funny thing is, my toddler hasn’t mastered matching identical cards yet, but he constantly matches objects in our house with illustrations in a book. He is fascinated with lamps and lights and that was the first thing he figured out. When he pointed to a picture and I said: “That is a lamp.”, he immediately pointed to our lamp. I sad: “Yes, that is also a lamp.” Then he pointed to another lamp. So he really understands this concept when he needs to match an illustration to a real object. But, when he needs to do vice versa, that doesn’t come so naturally to him.
I believe, the most important thing is to just follow your child and you can never go wrong with it. L now matches half of our furniture with illustrations in his books but is not interested in matching animal figurines with corresponding cards yet. And that is ok. When he feels ready, he will show his interest in matching cards.