Descriptive language is an important contributor to language development and expression. 






Vocabulary in Avaz: 

Basic  > big,small

clean, dirty, big, small, hot, cold etc. 



Advanced > describe

> appearance: good, bad, clean, dirty, new, old, dark, bright, wet, dry, soft, hard, rough, smooth 

> size: big, small, tall, short, fat, thin, loose, tight

> quantity: few, less, more, some, many, lots, empty, full, cheap, expensive

> speed: slow, fast, soon

> numbers: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

> colors: blue, yellow, red, green, orange, pink, purple, brown, black, white, maroon, gold, silver

> shapes: line, circle, rectangle, square, triangle, diamond, cone, star, oval, cylinder, cube etc. 



How to teach : clean, dirty

  1. Start teaching descriptive concepts using live objects.  

  2. Show a dirty napkin and say "this is a dirty napkin", while tapping dirty on Avaz. Stress on the word dirty while speaking the sentence. This is modelling the word on Avaz. If you need more assistance to know how to do it, click here to see How to model a word on Avaz?

  3. Model the word several times during the day showing the same napkin. 

  4. Find more opportunities to use the same word through the day in different contexts to help generalize the concept and with different people in the house.

  • At mealtime, show the used plate and say "This is a dirty plate"

  • After food, show your hands and say "See, my hands are dirty. I will wash them now."

  • Point to the clothes for laundry and say "These are dirty clothes. They need a wash". 

  • After outdoor play, point to the socks an say "These are dirty socks. Put them in the bucket."

  • At bath time, say "Your feet are dirty. Let's wash them with soap."

  1. If the child doesn’t start using the word after repeated modelling, use prompting strategies to get the child to use the word appropriately. 

  2. It's important to note that even if the child doesn't respond after prompting, it's perfectly ok to continue to model as much as possible and move on. It can take many sessions of modelling before the learner will use a modelled word or utterance.

  3. Create more opportunities to use the word across different contexts to help generalize the concept - e.g. clean and dirty socks, shoes, clothes of different people in the house.

  4. Once the child learns the concept (to point appropriately in Avaz) with real objects, they will be able to use the concept with Avaz icons in real world situations. 


Important: 

  • The best results happen when the learner is having fun! So try your best to use activities, or topics that are fun for the learner. Make the experience silly or fun by tying in the experience with the learner’s interests. 
  • It is really important to NOT FORCE a response from the user. Forcing communication can lead to reluctance or refusal later, because communication becomes a demand or a "test".
  • Don’t introduce all the descriptive words at one go. 
  • Teach one concept at a time repetitively, until the child learns to use it in the correct context. 
  • Retain only one word (or max two words) on the screen and hide the other words. 
  • See the video below to know  how to hide icons from the child's view. 



        For more details, tap here to read How to hide and show icons ?


More descriptive words to teach


Words to teach
Different contexts to use these adjectives with
Examples
clean, dirty
objects at home - clothes, room, sink, hands, legs, face
These socks are dirty. They need a wash. After a wash, now the socks are clean
small, big
objects of different sizes - e.g. balls, bottles, boxes, fruits, plates, spoons etc.
This is a big ball. This is a small ball.
I have a big plate. You have a small plate. 
tall, short
people around, people in photo albums, images of man (tall) and boy(short), animals (e.g. giraffe, elephant) etc.
See the tall man.  Look at the short man.
See the tall giraffe. It is eating leaves from the tree. See the short lion. It cannot reach the leaves.
new, old
new and old clothes, footwear, books, phones, etc.
You are wearing an old shirt. We bought it last year.
This is a new shirt. We bought it today. 
fat, thin
books(fat and thin books), characters in story books, characters in TV shows, etc. 
This story book is fat. That book is thin.
Laurel is thin. Hardy is fat
high, low
shelves, beds, chairs, roof, ground, etc.
That shelf is high. I cannot reach it.. 
This shelf is low. You can reach it. 
The roof is high. The ground is low
hot, cold
milk, water, juice, tea, coffee, ice-cream, weather,
The milk is hot. The juice is cold.
The coffee is hot. The ice-cream is cold



Building descriptive language during daily activities




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