With everything going on, we’re all largely at home, but we get to spend more time with our little ones! Though schools are either out or going to distance learning, educational activities don’t have to stop! At Greater Learning LP, we know that education, learning and self-improvement are continuous and don’t stop for any reason!

Acknowledging this, our skilled speech-language pathologists have set out to develop and share educational activities that you and your child can enjoy while also furthering their education! Try out The Sorting Game with your young one and watch their understanding flourish while also having fun and sharing quality time.

How Does The Sorting Game Help?

Children with speech-language difficulties often have trouble understanding the skill of categorization. While it may not seem imperative, categorization is actually a critical speech-language processing skill. Vocabulary development is an integral part of how children comprehend language and effectively retrieve the proper words for everyday use.

Typically, after children learn to label nouns and verbs they progress to understanding word association and categorization. The reason categorization is critical to children’s success is because this skill furthers their ability to store and retrieve new information. An everyday example of this is the concept of “dessert.” When a child understands desserts as a category of food, they can later make an association of it with specific types of food, like ice cream or brownies.

So How Does The Sorting Game Work?

The beauty of The Sorting Game is that you can incorporate it into almost every activity. Take cleaning your child’s room as an example. Rather than just telling your child to pick up their toys or clean up their area, you can use a variety of plastic boxes, crates or containers of any sort.

After you’ve selected the containers for your child’s toys, make suggestions such as, “Let’s put all of the Legos in the blue box, all of the cars in the red box and all of the figurines in the clear box.”

With just that little bit of direction, you’ve set the stage for the game! Encourage your child’s progress with categorization and the thrill of the game by making minor changes, like suggesting they group toys by size, color or shape. When you start playing The Sorting Game, start with one attribute and graduate the difficulty by adding in other factors. You could suggest:

• Finding all the red Legos
• Finding all the cars with blue
• Finding all the red buttons
• Finding all the round red buttons
• Finding all the round red buttons with two holes

The game doesn’t have to just be limited to their toys though! Any household or everyday item likes rocks, cards, coins or pictures cut from magazines can be used. For an added treat, have your child categorize cookies or candy and reward their success with the sweets they just sorted!

With most of us all at home for coronavirus precautions, we do get to enjoy the best part of the day that we often miss—spending time with our children, helping them progress and watching their success as they learn new skills and feel more confident about themselves.

At Greater Learning LP, we know that education and improvement is a lifelong process, and we know that learning can be just as fun as it is important! Check out our educational games, start playing and enjoy being a critical part of your child’s success.

Visit www.greaterlearninglp.com or call 210.349.1415 to meet with a speech-language pathologist and start investing in the future today.