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Speech therapy: object and verb

Speech therapy can improve language development. There are various exercises to prepare for speech therapy, or to practice yourself to stimulate language development. In this article: practicing object + verb.

Object + verb

An object is a thing, something tangible. A verb is something you do, you work. Most sentences contain a combination of these two things. Children who talk in two-word sentences (two-year-old children) often use an object plus verb. For example: driving a car, eating a sandwich.

Getting started with objects and verbs

It is important that the child can name different objects, but also different verbs. If the child is not yet able to do this, then this exercise is too ambitious and the words themselves will have to be worked on first.

Use pictures of something that is familiar: for example, a boy or girl taking a bath, or a mother doing the dishes. Or from someone sitting at the table. Take a clear drawing or picture of this.

Briefly describe what you see: ,look, the bear is going to eat, or, ,daddy is doing the dishes., Then take over the role of the bear, sit at the table and pretend you are eating a sandwich. Say: ,Eat sandwich,. Pretend you’re eating something else and say, for example, ,eating a banana., Also let the child play the role of the bear and help him if he does not understand. The point is that the child names an object followed by a verb. So ,drinking milk, is also good.

Other role-playing games

Other forms of role play can include:

  • Washing dishes: washing plate, washing cup, washing knife, washing fork
  • Ironing: ironing pants, ironing shirt, ironing sweater, ironing handkerchief
  • Getting dressed: put on jacket, put on sweater, put on pants, put on shoes
  • Sawing: sawing wood, sawing tree, sawing chair, sawing table
  • Reading: reading a book, reading a letter, reading a newspaper

And so you can continue endlessly inventing new things, as long as it is an object followed by a verb. Be careful not to make it too difficult: If a child does not know what ironing is, do not first explain what ironing is, but use something that the child does know. Explanations of things will come later, a child does not need to know everything yet.

Do not use personal pronouns such as: ,I’m going to iron the sweater, yet. Or ,I’ll iron the sweater., These things will come later, the child must first be able to say the two most important things in succession. With small children it is often the case that when you ask, ,what are you doing?, that the child then answers: ,ironing,. With this exercise you work towards the child answering: ,ironing a sweater,.

Go to the special ,language development and speech therapy, and follow the entire program step by step.