What really matters- Whole new areas of vocabulary- Whitney and I found that different parts of her world had different words. Each new type of material would elicit a whole new set of vocabulary opportunities. Playdoh, clay and other shaping materials have their own set of words that flow from exploring them. As Whitney transformed the playdoh by pounding, poking, squishing, rolling, flattening, and mashing, I noticed all the new words that would arise and tried to reinforce them to help build her vocabulary.

How to put it into practice-

Tuning In- It is pretty easy to see and describe what Whitney is doing with the material. So all we have to do is label it and describe what we see. The vocabulary will be there. So when whitney started to pound a ball of Playdoh I would say “oh you are ‘Flattening’ it.” When she noticed her fingers left marks, I would say “yes, “Fingerprints”. (see Pound & making finger prints video)

Extending/Bridging-

The trick for me would be to let Whitney to do what she wanted, have fun and build vocabulary around that activity. I would have to catch myself when I wanted to try all the ways to transform the stuff such as rolling it with a roller or making holes with a straw. It was fine to introduce those but if she wants to pound with her hand, let her pound.... (see the Roll and the Poke video)