Be a Rainbow and Share About Your Day!
We are starting the year off great in speech/language therapy! Certainly counting our rainbows. J I have visited with several kids and families about their summers and upcoming year. So many fun activities to hear about!
Recalling information about an event or an activity is a great way to grow your child’s language. One of the first skills to develop is “salience”. Salience is the quality of being particularly noticeable or important (prominence). When young children tell you about their day (or older children too), they may say the same thing repeatedly, or they may randomly tell you insignificant details. A child is developing the crucial skill of salience when they begin telling you about significant happenings in sequences.
Early in language development, a child’s brain is beginning to prioritize language, organize language, and attend to sequences. It is subconsciously saying “remember this, this is important”. In preschool, it is also when your little ones throw in words such as “yesterday”, “tomorrow”, and “last week”. It is loads of fun when a little one becomes the authority on happenings of the day. J They may not always be correct about the time, but their brain is saying, “time is important” because an awareness of time is how we begin to sequence, prioritize, and organize.
A great salience activity for the entire family is the “What’s Important” Game. Pick an everyday item and ask describing questions. Think of an apple. “What does it look like?” “What do we do with it?” “How does it sound?” “Why do we have apples?” “What are the parts of an apple?” “Do you like apples? Why?” After actively describing a few objects, give each family member an object and ask them what is important about their object. This activity is similar to the “What’s Important” Book. Someone could scribe the details too. Kids love to see their parents write down what they say. Enjoy!
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