Teaching categories to children is an important exercise in helping them to organize information in their brain. Categories can begin to be taught as early as 2.5-3 years of age beginning with simple items such as food, animals, and clothing. Children around the age of three also begin learning more complex or specific categories such as vehicles (e.g., truck, car, bus). They also begin to differentiate between fruits and vegetables instead of calling them all ‘food’ and they learn more specific clothing items such as tie and sandals. Children begin learning different types of animals such as farm animals, sea animals, zoo animals, and jungle animals.
In my work with preschoolers who have language learning disabilities or impairments in processing information, I place great emphasis on helping them sort information through visual means. In the activity ‘Bugs that fly’ I decided to sort the insects according to their attributes—the insects that fly—to bring further awareness to items and what they have in common with each other in an organized way. We worked off flashcards that contained photos of the insect. My students require maximal visual support and repetition to recall names for items that they see especially on flashcards. Therefore, in addition to engaging in a drill like activity by having them memorize the names off the cards, we practiced drawing the insect off the card. Using visual and motoric stimulation enhanced their learning not only the names of the items but also general information related to the object such as that they have wings or that ladybugs have black spots.
Drawing the bugs:
I gave the child and myself a sheet of paper with either crayons or markers. It is important to allow the child to create his/her own representation of what she/he sees. I allowed opportunity for the child to comment on what he/she is drawing. Also, I asked them some questions about their activity such as “What are you going to draw next?” If they have a difficult time answering the question, I gave him/her two options such as “Are you going to draw wings or legs?” Labeling and commenting on the activity as it unfolds facilitates vocabulary growth and strengthens sentence production.