Build the Basics

*Let’s talk about basic concepts! Think prepositions (in, out, on, under, through, beneath, up, down, inside, outside etc.), colors, numbers, shapes, emotions, temporal words (first, next, then, last, finally), basic vocabulary, and opposites!

*Why are these so important?? They set the stage for later language complexity. Take the sentence, “The dog went under the huge chair and the little girl was sad because she couldn’t find her brown dog.”

*If our child doesn’t have a solid understanding of basic concepts she may hear this sentence as “The went the and the was because she couldn’t find her” or let’s say she has some basic vocabulary so it sounds like “The dog went the chair and the girl was because she couldn’t find her dog.” Now you can imagine that understanding would be heavily impacted in this instance and she would have a difficult time knowing what is going on without context, such as a picture.

Knowledge, understanding and use of basic concepts makes a HUGE difference in our children’s ability to understand, process and produce language. These are the building blocks to more complex language later on.

If a child is struggling with basic concepts, you can see how reading may be difficult, processing directions is hard, recognizing words on their own is tricky (if you are unaware letters have a bigger meaning (to create words!)), solving mathematical word problems wouldn’t make sense and so on! It is really important to begin modeling these concepts early on and lucky enough, they can be modeled anywhere; through routines, play and BOOKS!

It is not a coincidence that many books for children 5 and under include categorized vocabulary (farm animals, zoo animals, vehicles, fruits, veggies, clothes etc.), colors, shapes, numbers, oppositions and prepositions!

***Below is a collection of my favorite books to model basic concepts! This provides a base knowledge and then I challenge you to pick a concept and spend the day modeling it in different ways to bring the concept to life!

For example, point out all things that are red, all things that are a triangle shape, all the different animals or vehicles you see; the options are ENDLESS! Get creative and most of all HAVE FUN!

(*affiliate links; I will receive a commission HOWEVER we have each of these in my house and my daughter adores them all!)

LINK: Disney Baby: First Colors, Numbers and Shapes

LINK: OPPOSITES

LINK: We’re going on a Bear Hunt

LINK: Doggies

LINK: A to Z

LINK: Blue Hat Green Hat

LINK: Happy Hippo, Angry Duck