Using See and Learn Vocabulary 3

See and Learn Vocabulary 3 is designed to teach children 62 early words. See and Learn Vocabulary 3 also teaches simple activities - matching, selecting and naming.

When to start

See and Learn Vocabulary 3 is designed for children who understand 80 to 120 words and say or sign 20 or more words.

Children who have completed See and Learn Vocabulary steps 1 and 2 will be ready to start See and Learn Vocabulary 3.

Many children with Down syndrome will reach this stage by about 30 months, but rates of progress vary widely - some children will reach this stage earlier, some later.

See and Learn Vocabulary 3 can also be used with older children who are not yet saying all of these words even if they understand them.

Activities

See and Learn Vocabulary 3 includes 3 activities using 2 sets of 54 picture cards (Box 1).

1 - Matching Pictures

The first activity begins to teach the meaning of new words. It encourages your child to look carefully at pictures, and to learn to distinguish between them. We reinforce each spoken word by repeating it throughout the activity.

2 - Selecting Pictures

The second activity allows your child to show that they are learning to link the spoken words with the correct pictures. Children can show they understand the words before they can say or sign them.

3 - Naming Pictures

The third activity encourages your child to practise saying the correct words for pictures that they have previously demonstrated they understand.

Selecting vocabulary

The words taught in See and Learn Vocabulary 3 are chosen from among the earliest words that most children learn to understand and say.

We recommend that you teach the words in the order that is best for your child. Children will learn words in a different order, depending on their experiences and interests. For example, if their family lives in a rural area, they may learn [tractor] earlier than a child in a family that lives in a city.

Review the list of words shown in Box 1. Choose 4 words that you think will interest your child.

As you work through the words, choose some adjectives, verbs and prepositions to teach alongside nouns. Children need to understand some verbs, adjectives and prepositions as well as nouns to progress to putting two key words together in simple phrases.

If your child already understands, signs or says some of the words, we suggest you start with these. This will help them to become familiar with the matching, selecting and naming activities more quickly than starting with new words.

At first do not choose words that begin with the same sound or words that rhyme. It be easier for your child to associate the words with the correct picture if the first words they learn sound different - for example, [cake], [tiger], [sand], [plate].

We recommend that when teaching the prepositions ( [in]/ [on]) that you teach these together to help your child to understand contrasting the meanings of these words.

When you start Matching Pictures, we suggest that you start with 2 pictures. Young children may not yet have the attention and visual discrimination abilities to scan and compare more than 2 pictures. When they can match the words in sets of 2, you can start to match sets of 3 and then 4 pictures.

As you move on, you may be able to introduce new sets in 4 pictures for matching and selecting from the start - or even 5 or 6 pictures. Learning to scan and discriminate larger sets of pictures may help your child to develop their attention.

Personalising pictures

We recommend that you personalise the pictures for grandma, grandpa, brother and sister (as appropriate) by using your own pictures. With the kits, you can fix your own pictures to the cards provided. With the apps, you can select a photograph you have stored on your device. (Please refer to the web site for additional instructions.)\

Following your child's lead

We encourage you to be flexible and follow your child's lead. Individual children will make different rates of progress through the activities.

While we recommend that you work through each activity as we describe them, some children do not enjoy matching and will prefer to start with Selecting Pictures - they will be able to learn the words by practising selecting the correct pictures.

Some children may have good understanding but cannot yet say or sign the word. While continuing to practice naming words your child understands, you should also continue to introduce, match and select new words. We do not want to let their speech production difficulties hold back their progress in learning more vocabulary.

Promoting success

During each session it is important that your child experiences success at every stage. The activity instructions often ask you to prompt your child. This means you should give your child time to try the activity but then assist or guide them as much as necessary to ensure they complete it successfully. Offer less help as your child becomes more able to complete the activities independently.

Where possible, take turns with your child to provide a model of how to do the activity. For example, you could match one picture then ask your child to match the next picture. Taking turns can also take some of the pressure of your child and help make the activity more enjoyable.

Language

We recommend using simple language throughout the teaching activities. This will make it easier for the children to learn the target words and to understand what they are being shown.

We provide recommended spoken prompts, instructions and questions in the guidance for each activity, which we encourage you to use.

These are designed to reduce working memory and language demands. Where appropriate, we recommend that the words your are teaching are spoken at the end of sentences as research suggests this can help children learn them more easily.

Signing

Studies show that many children with Down syndrome can sign the words they understand before they can say them and so their signs can increase their ability to communicate as they learn their first vocabulary. When parents say and sign words, the signs may help to hold children's attention and some signs may give a clue to the meaning of the words so help children to understand early words. However, we recommend that you remember that signs are a bridge to talking and will be dropped as your child is able to say the word. Always praise your child for using their voice and making an attempt to say words.

Keeping records

We recommend that you keep records of your child's progress using the record forms provided.

The record sheets enable you to record your child's progress in understanding vocabulary and in saying new words and phrases. These records will help you to decide when to move on and introduce new vocabulary.

Studies show that children with Down syndrome vary widely in their rates of progress and many will have large vocabularies of words they understand but cannot yet say or even sign. Keeping a record of what your child knows means that their understanding will not be underestimated and it should also encourage everyone around them to keep communicating and encouraging them.

Organising sessions

Location

Find a place to carry out the activities that is comfortable, quiet, well-lit and free from distractions. Ensure that there are not lots of things in easy reach or on view that your child would rather do.

Timing

Choose whatever time that you feel is best for both you and your child, for example, when your child is not too tired, and when you are not likely to be interrupted.

Developing your child's ability to sit still, concentrate and engage effectively in learning activities is an important goal to prepare them for learning in preschool and at school. Be confident and positive, but set the expectation that when you ask them to achieve a task they will complete it successfully - even if you do it together with plenty of prompts at first.

Duration

Keep the sessions short so that you can keep your child's interest. You may start with sessions lasting just a few minutes if your child is new to this type of activity.

Gradually increase the length of each session, up to 5-10 minutes. Try to always end on a positive note. Avoid carrying on for too long and losing your child's interest.

Frequency

'Little and often' is the best principle to encourage progress. Repetition is essential for your child to make progress. Complete a short activity session as often as you can. Ideally, this will be daily.

Developing speech skills, together with spoken language skills

See and Learn Language and Reading teaches children to understand words and sentences and to use them to communicate. As children start to talk, their first attempts are usually only very approximate (for example, saying "k" for cake, "do" for door) but they use these 'part words' consistently to convey the same meaning.

When your child begins to use words or 'part words' to communicate, we recommend that you do not attempt to correct their production while they are talking to you. You should listen carefully for these word attempts and respond to them by repeating the word and confirming that you have understood your child. We want to encourage children to use words to communicate.

Similarly, we suggest that you do not correct your child's production when engaged in language teaching activities. Focus on teaching the meaning of words and encouraging your child to attempt to say the words.

However, we do recommend that you give your child opportunities to improve their ability to hear and produce speech sounds and clear words at other times.

Using with See and Learn Speech

See and Learn Speech complements See and Learn Language and Reading by focusing on activities to develop clearer spoken words over time. It is important that you keep the different goals in mind when using both programmes together.

We have designed See and Learn Speech to avoid using pictures to prompt single sounds that could be confused with pictures for whole words in early vocabulary.

See and Learn Vocabulary 3 can be used alongside early steps in the See and Learn Speech programme. See and Learn Speech Sounds supports activities that encourage attention, listening, discrimination and production of the sounds that make up speech.

See and Learn Combining Sounds supports activities that encourage attention, listening, and production of early vowel-consonant combinations and simple symbolic sounds. These activities can help your child develop listening and speech skills while also learning vocabulary.

We recommend that you work on speech activities separately from language activities to help your child distinguish between what they are being asked to do.