Basic concepts are the building blocks children need in order to understand what they see and hear in their everyday lives. Basic concepts like “big” or “small”, “up” or “down”, “in” or “out”, and “over” or “under” are some of the first words children learn. While these may sound simple to you, your child needs to understand these words before he can learn more complex language skills, such as following directions, understanding stories, and describing his world.
Basic concepts are the building blocks for more complex language skills and academic learning. This includes words like “in”, “on”, “under”, and “between”.
Children with speech sound disorders often have difficulty with basic concepts and may not be able to express their thoughts or needs clearly, which can make it frustrating for both the child and those around them.
Basic concepts can be taught through play and everyday activities with your child. During bath time, you can ask your child if a toy is in or on the tub. At mealtime, you can ask your child to place a napkin on their lap. When reading books together, you can point out objects that are under things or between things.
At each stage of development children master basic concepts in a specific order, but each child will reach milestones at his or her own pace. Here are some of the basic concepts that your child will be expected to master by age 5.
Basic concepts are ideas that help us understand the world around us. These include words like colors, shapes, sizes, numbers, and categories. They also include ideas like location (e.g., in/out), position (e.g., on/under), degree (e.g., hot/cold), quantity (e.g., most/least), time (e.g., before/after), and quality (e.g., pretty/ugly).
Basic concepts are foundational for language acquisition and play a role in understanding how things work across all areas of development including communication, social skills, cognition, and academics.
When children are learning basic concepts, they must be able to identify the “target” concept among other distractors or options that are presented for practice.
There are many activities you can do at home to help your child develop an understanding of basic concepts. The best way is to make learning fun by using everyday events as opportunities for teaching and practice. You may even want to write down some of the activities you do with your child so you have a list of things you have done together. This will be useful when talking with your child’s speech therapist. You also may want to include ideas from the list below:
Basic concepts are words that describe things (such as “tall,” “bumpy,” and “hot”) or actions (like “jump,” “walk,” and “turn”). Basic concepts help people understand the world around them. Therapy for basic concepts involves a therapist working with a client to improve their understanding of these words.
Children develop basic concepts by interacting with their surroundings, meaning that they learn new words constantly as they play at home, in school, and in the community. A child who has difficulty developing basic concepts may have trouble understanding simple things like whether something is big or small, bumpy or smooth, loud or soft, or light or heavy. They may also have trouble following directions involving time (yesterday, today, tomorrow) and location (in front of vs. behind).
When a child has difficulties acquiring basic concepts, it can impact every aspect of their life. They may have trouble communicating what they want and need to others, asking questions about the world around them, taking part in activities with other children their age, and learning new things in school. This can lead to frustration that turns into tantrums and other negative behaviors.