When things are organized, you can find what you need quickly and know where they belong. The same is true for 
linguistic organization. When the ability to group items and name common characteristics is impaired, it affects our basis for structuring & understanding the world.
Children are continually learning the meanings of new vocabulary words and organizing them in their brains into categories. Rather than seeing every individual dog as a different and separate object, children learn to generalize. It has four legs, and a wagging tail – it’s a dog.
For those of you celebrating any of the numerous holidays this season, use it as an opportunity to categorize with your child:
- “We’re getting Johnny a board game for Chanukah. It’s a toy. Tell me another toy.”
- “We are going on an airplane to visit Grandma for Christmas. An airplane is transportation. Tell me another form of transportation.”
- “We light candles for Kwanzaa. Candles make light. Tell me something else that makes light.”
Helping your children understand categories and use them over the holidays can be very fun and a great way to engage with your children. Here’s hoping your holidays fall into the fun and memorable category!