Objective: To teach your child to
a) listen and understand a sentence with at least 5-6 words
b) listen and understand to at least three critical elements


Points to Remember:
1. Always use longer sentences that use vocabulary the child knows
2. Remember to model the sentences and allow the child to engage in the conversation
3. Make sure the child is "talking" about the pictures and not "showing" the pictures.


Lesson:
1. There should be two players; each player should have the circle with the two hands.
2. I started as the Speaker and keep my circle hidden as I move red hand to a character and the yellow hand to an object on the right. Then I say a sentence, "The boy with the water wings is swimming with the flippers."
3. Brooke (the Listener), in clear view, should move the arrows to match the sentence she just heard.
4. When I see that Brooke has listened successfully, we do a "Match Up!"
5. I say, "1,2,3, Match Up!" and we show our circle boards and make sure they match.
6. After modeling a few times, Brooke is the Speaker and I am the Listener.



A few more sentences:
1. The girl with the blue bathing suit and swim wings wants to build a sand castle.
2. The girl with the green hat with a flower on it goes for a ride in the row boat.
3. The boy with the green hat needs to put on his suntan lotion.



Modifications:
1. Play this game with a friend as the parent observes and helps with vocabulary and sentence structure.
2. Don't worry about the color of the arrows; as long as one arrow is on a character and one arrow is on an object, the color doesn't really matter.
3. Start your sentence with the object and then the character such as, "The beach ball belongs to the boy with the green bathing suit."
4. This can be an activity that you do between turns in a quick turn game like Kerplunk or a dice board game. Have the player listen and move his arrows correclty before he gets a turn.
5. In everyday life, remember to make your sentences longer so they include more details and lists. Having a child remember a list with 3-4 critical elements is an important auditory skill needed for success in school. For example, instead of saying, "Get your shoes on." say "Get on your pink sandals and then stand next to the door." This gives your child more practice with remembering critical elements.

A video of Brooke as the Speaker and me as the Listener