How to teach Core words during daily activities? : Support

Every day presents itself multiple opportunities to model words for the child and to help them develop language. Use Avaz consistently through the day to develop the child's receptive language. Start using Avaz during mealtimes and with the child's favourite activities.

It is important to start with teaching Core words, which enhance the child's language by introducing them to a variety of forms of expressions, whereas Fringe words do not. Our typical spoken language consists of 80% core words and 20% fringe words.

Hence, for the different activities of the child's interest, add a few fringe words as per the child's preferences and environment, so that you can have more meaningful conversations. Click here to read more - What words do I add to personalize the app for my child?

Remember that for typically developing children, it takes 500 repetitions of a word before the word is learnt to be spoken by the child. For an AAC user, it takes 50-150 repetitions of the word in the AAC system, before the child learns to use it on their own. It requires patience and faith in AAC and your child, to persist with modelling with core words every single day the day, through the various communication activities. Read more about Language development facts for AAC users, as compared to typically developing users.

Here are the initial core words to introduce to the child. You will find these words in BASIC folder.

Model, model, model throughout the day

Use your daily interactions with your child through the various activities of the day (like brushing teeth, taking bath, eating food, playtime, watching TV, bedtime etc.) as communication opportunities. While speaking to your child about the activity at hand, also model the relevant core words in Avaz, while stressing on the word as you speak it out aloud. Ensure that you speak the full grammatically correct sentence as given in the first column below, while modelling only the Core words in Avaz.

Given below is the initial set of core word to be introduced:

Initial set of core words to be introduced

WANT	MORE	STOP	NOT	FINISHED	GOOD

How to use these core words (across different activities through the day)

			WORDS TO MODEL ON AVAZ
ACTIVITY	WHAT TO SPEAK TO THE CHILD	TYPE OF COMM FUNCTION THIS TEACHES	1-WORD LEVEL	2-WORD LEVEL
MEALTIME	What do you WANT to eat?	Question	WANT	YOU WANT
	I WANT dosas.	Request	WANT	I WANT
	The dosa is good	Comment	GOOD
	You FINISHED your dosa!	Disappearance	FINISHED	FINISHED
	Do you want some MORE?	Question	MORE	WANT MORE
	You do NOT WANT to eat dosa	Protest	NOT	NOT WANT
	I will STOP making dosa	cessation	STOP	I STOP
		COMM FUNCTION	1-WORD LEVEL	2-WORD LEVEL
PLAYTIME	What game do you WANT to play?	Question	WANT	WHAT WANT
	I WANT to play Snakes and Ladders	Preference	WANT	WANT PLAY
	I think the game is GOOD.	Instruction	PLAY	GAME GOOD
	Do you want to play MORE?	Question	MORE	WANT MORE
	Your brother does NOT want to play.	NOT	NOT WANT	NOT PLAY
	Do you want to play MORE or STOP?	Choice	MORE / STOP	MORE STOP
	The game is FINISHED.	Narration	FINISHED	GAME FINISHED
	You played well. GOOD job.	Comment	GOOD	PLAY GOOD

Next set of core words:

LIKE	FUN	WHAT	I	YOU

			WORDS TO MODEL ON AVAZ
ACTIVITY	WHAT TO SPEAK TO THE CHILD	TYPE OF COMM FUNCTION THIS TEACHES	1-WORD LEVEL	2-WORD LEVEL	3-WORD LEVEL
WATCHING TV	What do you WANT to watch?	Question	WHAT	YOU WANT	WHAT YOU WANT
	You WANT to watch Barney show.	Request	WANT	YOU WANT	YOU WANT BARNEY
	I LIKE Barney too.	Comment	LIKE	I LIKE	I LIKE BARNEY
	Do you think Barney is FUN?	Question	GOOD	YOU GOOD	YOU BARNEY FUN
	Do you want to watch MORE TV?	Question	MORE	WANT MORE	YOU WANT MORE
	I am FINISHED.	Cessation	FINISHED	I FINISHED	I FINISHED
	You STOP the TV	Instruction	STOP	STOP TV	YOU STOP TV
		COMM FUNCTION	1-WORD LEVEL	2-WORD LEVEL	3-WORD LEVEL
READING A BOOK	What do you WANT to read?	Question	WANT	YOU WANT	WHAT YOU WANT
	I LIKE to read Cinderella	Preference	LIKE	I LIKE	I LIKE PLAY
	That's a GOOD book!	Comment	GOOD	GOOD FUN	THAT GOOD BOOK
	WHAT is the Cinderella doing?	Question	WHAT	WHAT DO	WHAT IS DO
	She is having FUN dancing	Comment	FUN	SHE FUN	SHE HAVE FUN
	Do you want read MORE or STOP?	Choice, completion	MORE	MORE STOP	WANT MORE STOP
	We have FINISHED the book.	Narration	FINISHED

Introducing more core words

Browse through the BASIC folder in Avaz and gradually introduce more Core words through modelling. Click here to read about more core words to teach - Important core words to teach.

Note:

Not all spoken words are required to be modelled on Avaz. Depending on the child's level of communication, model 1 or 2 or 3 words on Avaz, as indicated in the last 3 columns above.
Always model 1 or 2 words more than the child's current level of communication.
Even if you make mistakes while modelling, it doesn't matter. The child will also learn the correction strategies.

More examples

Here are more examples of how you can model core words during daily activities.

Using Avaz while watching TV