Why Teach Basic Concepts?
Teaching basic concepts is critical for language development. This is especially true in young language learners! Understanding basic concepts supports comprehension of pre-academic and academic content. They also improve the ability to follow directions. Basic concepts are also embedded in every activity whether a child is at home or school, a sporting event, a birthday party, or reading a book. Spatial concepts involve direction and where an item is located. Temporal concepts indicate when an event occurs or its sequence in time. Quantitative concepts are those that indicate number and “how much” or “how many” in relation to another. I get so excited teaching basic concepts! I can literally teach basic concepts during any activity. Learning language with basic concepts in even day-to-day common activities can be fun and engaging!
Ideas for Teaching Basic Concepts
Activities for learning spatial concepts may be- cleaning a room, setting the table, drawing a picture, building with legos, climbing on a play structure, or talking about picture in a book.
Daily activities for learning language with temporal concepts might include- making a sandwich, morning or bedtime routines, running errands, homework time, caring for a pet, etc.
Daily activities for developing quantitative concepts are easily incorporated into- grocery shopping, meal time, counting objects in a collection, jumping rope, or following a recipe.
Directions given in the classroom, home, or any setting, are loaded with basic concepts! For example, even the simple direction, “First, put the book on the top shelf” contains the temporal concept “first” and the spatial concept “top”. Visual supports for understanding directions may not be readily available either. For young language learners to have the ability to demonstrate competence with following directions they have to have a framework based in experiential learning to understand these vocabulary words. The ability of young language learners to understand and express basic concepts is critical for academic achievement.
Where Can I Find Basic Concept Resources?
- Harvest Time
- Deep Sea Fishing
- Space Adventure
- Busy Bugs
- A Day at the Zoo
- A Parade
- Springtime Forest
Start teaching Basic Concepts this year and have fun while doing it!
