Language Tip of the Week 7: Describing

Transcript:

Hi, this is Cherie, the Principal Speech Pathologist at Apex Speech and Language, here to bring you another Language Tip of the Week.

This week's Language Tip is something that's not only helpful for children who are learning language but for any individual who has language difficulties throughout their life.

This week's Language Tip is describing, or semantic feature analysis. Describing is the ability to talk about the different features of an object. For example, you might talk about the color, size, shape, parts, and function of an item, to name a few things.

With a child, I might do some describing with a ball. I might say, "Look, a big green ball! The ball bounces. The ball rolls."

For someone a little bit older, I might use a different object—maybe a cup. I might talk about how the cup is purple and aquamarine. I might describe how it's cylindrical or round in shape. I might say that it has a lid on it, sides, and a base. I might also mention that I drink out of it.

Through working on describing, you're improving vocabulary skills and comprehension. This also helps with the understanding of concepts and categorization skills.

And that's your Language Tip of the Week! We'll see you next week.