Overextension

Happy Tuesday :). I wanted to share a few of the strategies that have been successful for some of my families. Overextension (using a word broadly; every man is "daddy", every animal is a "dog"), is a typical apart of language acquisition and development, and I have observed that this often happens when my kiddos have not acquired a sufficient vocabulary to be able to use a variety of words or are having difficulty identifying familiar people or objects. I have suggested and modeled  the following strategies listed below and received positive results and feedback when they have tried my recommended techniques. Hopefully some of you all are able to try these with your children. Please remember not every technique works for every child, so trial and error a variety of techniques to see which one works best for your child and their families. Enjoy :)

1. Corrective feedback: Each time they say "mama" for a woman or girl, immediately label "girl, lady, woman"

2. Visual cues: when the child sees a man in a book and says "dada or daddy", show them a picture of daddy, place the picture next to the picture in the book and say "man" and point to the picture of their father and say "daddy". Review photo albums often, making sure to label and distinguish "uncle, man, grandaddy/grandpa, etc." 

3. Modeling: Each time you visit or family members or friends visit, greet them by name/title (uncle, cousin, grandma), so that your child is learning names/titles and vocabulary and identification skills begin to grow.