• Once your child is beginning to use longer phrases and sentences and language that is a bit more complex, he should be ready to understand that pictures (and written words) represent things that exist in the real world.
  • Using pictures is a wonderful way to begin to show children that things and ideas can be represented on paper.  (A good start for learning that sounds can be represented with letters and words; and that quantities can be represented by numbers!).
  •  Try something like this: During one of your “category” treasure hunts, you have a terrific opportunity to introduce your child to the power of pictures.  You can either use a camera to take pictures of the tools (or other items) you find, or sit down at a table together and draw and label pictures, using crayons and paper.
  • Use these pictures you’ve created to discuss the category and the names of the items that belong to that category again.  Save them for a later day, or keep them in a book to come back to again and again!  This way, you can review lots of vocabulary and concept names without having to go back each time to locate all of the items.

Tip #17: The Bottom Line:
Use pictures and words as ways to learn more words and categories!