Categories — Patchwork Speech

What this skill is

Categories are how vocabulary gets organised in the head. A child who knows that a carrot is a vegetable, a food and a thing that grows can find the word three ways, and can learn a new vegetable in one go. Category work has three directions: given the members, name the group; given the group, name members; given a set with one stranger in it, find the stranger and say why. The last one is the hardest, because it needs the rule the others share.

What to expect

Young children sort by what things look like or where they are found ("the spoon goes with the bowl") before they sort by kind. That is not wrong, and "why do those go together?" is the question that moves it along. A child who can sort but cannot name the group ("these are all... um") has the concept and needs the word; a child who names one member when asked for the group ("what are these? - a cow") needs the idea that a word can stand for a set.

Try this at home

Sort the shopping, the laundry, the toy box - anything real - and say the group name each time: "fruit goes here, vegetables go there." At the table, play "name three": three animals, three things that are cold, three things with wheels.

When to refer

Cannot sort common objects into obvious groups by 4, or cannot name a category for a set of familiar pictures by 5;6.

Print it

Categories worksheet70 items across 4 sections, with answer key · PDF

Put it into practice

Tap any item below to open it full screen, one at a time, so a child can answer without reading the answer first.

These activities are a starting point, not the practice itself. A structured task is a good way to introduce a form and to find out whether a child has it yet. What actually moves it into everyday speech is using it in the real world and in ordinary play — which means the four things below matter more than finishing the list.

Recast
Say their sentence back correctly, without asking them to repeat it. Child: “he goed.” You: “he went! Where did he go?”
Expand
Add one or two words to what they said and hand it back. Child: “big truck.” You: “a big red truck!”
Simplify what you ask
Cut a long instruction into single steps and say them in the order they happen, rather than repeating the long one louder.
Follow their lead
Use whatever they are already playing with. A form practised on something they chose is the one that shows up again tomorrow.

Take it into a game →ASHA Practice Portal

Name the Group

18 items

Three pictures. What are they all? Accept the category name, then ask for one more thing that belongs. Tap any item to open it full screen.

Which One Does Not Belong?

18 items

Four pictures, one stranger. The child points to it and says why. "Why?" is the whole task - a point without a reason is half marks. Tap any item to open it full screen.