What are categories?
A category is a group of items that share similar characteristics. Do you sort and organise the items in your pantry? That’s categorising and most of the time we categorise without knowing it. Categorising by shape, colour, texture, size, and function can be fun and engaging in everyday play.
Why is categorising and sorting important?
Categorising is important in language because it gives us a way to group our thoughts, process information, store and retrieve ideas, and describe items. We categorise based on similarities and differences.
How does it help language development?
- Help to increase vocabulary.
- Improves comprehension and retention as well as recall.
- Helps children create patterns and identify similarities and differences.
- Develops organizational skills.
- Helps interpret the environment and add meaning to objects and stimuli based on stored information.
How can you categorise at home:
- Sort toys or items at home by colour, size, shape.
- Preschool – animals, body parts, clothes, shoes, jewellery, names in alphabetical order, toys, food (vegetables, fruit) etc.
- School Age – snacks, drinks, sports, tools, instruments, holidays, school subjects etc.
- Read books and discuss the pictures (e.g. “does a chicken live on a farm, in the water or in the jungle?”)
- Pictures – Cut pictures from magazines (e.g. fruits – vegetables and fruits; animals – where they live)
- Start a collection – collect items of a certain colour, shape, function etc.
Written by Senali Alahakone, Speech Pathologist at De Silva Kids Clinic.
