Describe ways a practitioner may support childrens communication and language through play?

Question

Describe ways a practitioner may support childrens communication and language through play?

Answer 1

by engaging in any activity in which the child talks back to you.for example in the home bay you may be sat around the table having a pretend meal,the practitioner may ask questions like is your food nice?what are you having? do you want a drink?i wonder what you will be having for tea when you get home? etc.

Answer 2

Again try looking up Mary Sheridan and theres a great book by Penny Tassoni (I think).

Support Communiction:

Through everything!!!

Adults modelling language,

Songs and rhymes

Story books esp rhyming books, or ones with a repeated phrase.

Role Play-small world or dressing up style

Asking the child questions.

Exploring activities such as ice play, nature walks etc

Visual prompts or makaton (signing) for chidlren with difficulties in language.

Lots of praise and encouragement.

The list can go on forever!

Answer 3

When children play together, as they do in a more and more co-operative fashion after the age of three years, they are demonstrating a range of skills.  During play, they are engaging in a highly co-operative way and demonstrating a sophisticated level of intersubjectivity.  One of the most important venues for children to interact in this way is at preschool, which provides excellent opportunities for them to utilise and sharpen these skills by providing the opportunity for them to engage in co-operative and pretend play with their peers.  However, many children who suffer brain-injuries, even if they have by some miracle managed to develop this far in social terms, are not afforded the appropriate opportunity, or due to the severity of their problems are unable to engage in pre-school activity.

One of the features of play in children in their third year is the way in which their pretend play, which until now has been based within a role of compliancy, becomes more social and shared with other children.  There is evidence that the nature of pretence in play is to allow the child to gain an understanding of his own emotional life.  It has been demonstrated that children’s representations during pretend play originate from significant emotional experiences in their lives.

The very act of pretence requires a sophisticated knowledge of both self and other people, because the child must demonstrate the capability of taking on the role of a pretend person who may have emotions and thoughts which may not coincide with his or her own.  This clearly shows the child’s growing ability to understand the mental states of others and is supported by other evidence, such as the fact that during the second half of the third year, children do begin to speak about their own and other people’s mental states.  

In addition, the level of intersubjectivity(shared attention) and metacommunication (the negotiation of the direction of pretend play by two or more play partners.  Also the negotiation concerning symbolic objects and their use, i.e., using a saucepan to represent a helmet.witnessed in pretend play scenarios, requires colossal co-operation between playmates.)

The co-operative play and pretend play fostered by the ‘preschool’ situation is of great benefit to children as they gain the opportunity to sharpen the skills, which will enable them to achieve a better understanding of themselves and others.  To highlight this point it is interesting to consider the fortunes of children who have difficulty with co-operative and pretend play.  

Children have a need to be able to understand the perspective of others in order to accurately predict their responses, in addition to guiding their own actions; - Many researchers call this ability 'theory of mind' ( An understanding of the perspective and intentions of other people, used to predict what another person might do or say next.) and it is an ability, which is notably lacking in many children who suffer brain-injury

There is evidence to support the notion that children who are part of a larger family develop these abilities earlier than children from smaller families.  It seems to be co-operative interactions with siblings, which facilitates the child’s attention being focussed on the state of mind of his / her siblings.  This enables the child to develop insight into their mental state.

  

There is also evidence that the development of ‘theory of mind’ is dependent upon children engaging in pretend play. The question, which needs to be addressed is; - is the fact that so many children who suffer from brain–injuries (such as those displayed in cerebral palsy and autism), do not engage in pretend play, the reason why they show a deficiency in the development of theory of mind?  

Obviously, there will inevitably be a large proportion of children whose severe physical and intellectual limitations automatically exclude them from participation in pretend play and this has a detrimental effect upon their development.  -  It is an interesting subject.

It has been suggested that the ability of children to understand the minds of others is influenced by interaction within the family.  In a study of families in Cambridge, correlations were found between the frequency and extent of family interaction and the later ability of children to understand the minds of others.  As I have already pointed out, children who suffer brain-injuries are often not afforded the opportunity to interact in this way, - or they are prevented from doing so by the severity of their problems. (



Around the third year, further evidence for children’s growing ability to understand the minds of others can be seen within family interactions.  Consider the evidence from one family where a child in her third year had an older, only sister who possessed imaginary friends.  In order to upset her sister, the child would transform her own identity and claim the identity of one of the imaginary friends!  This shows an understanding not only of herself as a separate entity, but also of the attributes of the imaginary friend.  It also demonstrates a great deal of determination and imagination to infuriate her older sister!  



It follows that further co-operative interaction, facilitated by siblings and peers in family and preschool environment, particularly the opportunity afforded for the child to participate in co-operative and pretend play, further augments the child’s growing knowledge of self and other people.  

I hope this has given you some ideas on how you could help to support children's play.

For a more detailed discussion, read the book 'Cerebral palsy: A guide to understanding and helping your child.'  It is available through the following website.

http://www.snowdrop.cc

Answer 4

A practitioner should provide opportunties for communication:

- Socialising with others ‘Do you want to play in the sand with me?’

- Describing events and objects ‘This cornflower is wet and hard and cold’

- Assertiveness ‘It’s my turn on the bike now’

- Giving explanations ‘This is where the people can wait for the bus’

- Recounting events in the past ‘I went to the zoo yesterday’.

Activities to encourage oral skills could include:

  - The core activities such as water, sand and the home corner help develop children’s oral skills

- Feely bags

- Interest tables

- Displays

- Games where one child has to describe a hidden object for others to guess

- Picture description

- Teddy on the telephone (help teddy to talk about his new boots, coat)

- Tasting tables.

The adult's role:

- Ensure children hear language being used around them and encourage them to join in from babyhood onwards.

- Provide opportunities to use language

- Spend time talking and listening to children

- Use questions as a way of extending children’s language and thought processes

- Help children develop their language skills (e.g. get down to a child’s level, make eye contact with child, encourage child’s speech by showing you are listening and that you interested in what he/she is saying).

As child carers it is vital that you encourage a language rich environment by providing opportunities for children to communicate through planned activities in each area of learning.  This will support children in developing to their full potential.

Be aware that some difficulties may be faced by children and parents whose cultural and language background is different from the predominant culture and language of the setting.

There are many ways that children communicate in addition to language:

Pointing

Gestures

Behaviour

Miming

Facial expressions

Crying

Leading an adult to something

Body language.

Answer 5

Hi!

The games are important for the children express what they feel and represent the world which they are inserted!

Suggestions!

- Making dynamic in which children can imitate someone famous or a program chosen by them!

- Free Play-market using empty packages of products such as shampoo promoting interactivity!

- Children can play to create stories!

Bye!

Carmen

Answer 6

The practitioner demonstrates/models grammar and vocabulary appropriate to the developmental stage of the child.

Playing with a doll house and the number of family members in the child's real household is a common way to teach a child language forms appropriate to their level of linguistic development. For example, the child has a brother named "Joey". The male child doll is called "Joey", and the girl doll is the patient's name (say, "Susie"). Of course, there is/are parent doll (s). Events are acted out with the dolls, in and out of the doll house. If the child is at the one-word stage, a one-word response is OK; likewise at the 2-word stage. If necessary, the therapist supplies a complete response, as seen below:

Everyday events are modelled. The therapist models "Joey and Susie are eating breakfast." "What did Susie do?" "Susie ate breakfast".  "What did Susie do?" The child should respond "breakfast", "cereal", "me eat" "Susie eat", etc.

"Joey gets ready for school. Mommy drives Joey to school in the car."  "where did Joey go?" "He went to school". Where is Joey?" "school", says Susie.

I hope this clarifies a bit.