What you need
- A few familiar objects. For example: a dustpan and brush, hairbrush, toothbrush, flannel and a cup.
The steps
- Put a few items on the floor.
- Talk about each item as you put it down and let your child play with them if they want to.
- Explain that you’re going to play a game. In the game, when you tell them what you want to do, they need to get you a useful object.
- Ask for something by explaining what you want to achieve: “I need to brush my teeth, what should I use?”
- Give your child time to think and get the object.
- When they hand it to you, you can ask why they chose this one – this is especially useful if they hand you something surprising. It might not be obvious at first, but they will probably have a reason behind their choice.
- If your child is reluctant to choose, you can pick an item yourself and explain why you picked that one.
- Play for as long as your child is interested and engaged. You can take turns letting them request an item for you to fetch, as well.
Benefits for your child
- This helps your child to make connections between the language used to describe items and what that item does.
- By asking questions about the objects, your child is thinking about the way questions and answers are worded, and how these can help them understand the world.
Building on
- Add more challenge by collecting a few items which do similar jobs, and talking about which one is right for a specific example. This could be having a dustpan and brush along with a large broom and hairbrush, then talking about the times you would use each.