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Teaching Action Verbs – Get Moving!

A recent study caught my eye that television is not working when it comes to teaching action verbs to young children. Funny, but I could have told them that. Not sure why anyone would want to use a television set to teach a young child anything. To use it as a babysitter for a few minutes – guilty as charged but not as a teacher. The research did indicate that if an adult interacts with them they can learn the action verbs. Well great, but I can think of so many more ways to learn action verbs instead of watching a television set. How about do the actions. Now there is a novel idea. Children can perform action verbs and adults interact by using words to describe the actions. If a young child has a disability that precludes them from performing the action perhaps a peer or adult can demonstrate it. Provide physical assistance to the child to perform the action verb if necessary. Anyone else have any ideas?

Try creating our Mini Action Books to encourage literacy regarding action words.

Reference: Roseberry et al. Live Action: Can Young Children Learn Verbs From Video? Child Development, 2009; 80 (5): 1360 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01338.x